Review of There, There by Tommy Orange
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018
It is interesting, refreshing, and heart-gripping to hear the voices of contemporary urban Native Americans groping for threads of identity in the challenging environment of Oakland, California.
Tommy Orange handles multiple first-person narrative voices beautifully. The characters have enough similarity to feel related, even those that don’t know each other. The number and juxtaposition of voices in short chapters lends enough confusion to challenge readers. Just as each character must weave together elusive threads to fashion a Native identity, the reader must weave these voices together in the white spaces between each chapter to fashion an account of what happens.
The characters converge in an urban powwow, giving the story a compelling and realistic plotline. Ultimately, lives are lost but spirit is found in the spaces and holes, as Orange shows in a heartbreaking ending.
