Book Reviews / Literary Fiction / Mental Health

Mini Book Review: There There by Tommy Orange

Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

There There
Publisher: Vintage
Pub Date: 9 May 2019
Genre: Literary Fiction

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and hoping to reconnect with her estranged family. That’s why she is there. Dene is there because he has been collecting stories to honour his uncle’s death, while Edwin is looking for his true father and Opal came to watch her boy Orvil dance.

All of them are connected by bonds they may not yet understand. All of them are here for the celebration that is the Big Oakland Powwow. But Tony Loneman is also there. And Tony has come to the Powow with darker intentions.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Racism, rape, domestic violence, addiction (alcohol & drugs), alcoholism, drug use, gun violence, mass shooting, death, blood

This isn’t an easy book to review and there’s nothing I can say that others haven’t already said and done so much better than I ever could, too. This is a highly-lauded piece of literary fiction and part of me understands why but maybe this book was just too smart for me because I often struggled to really “get” it. I empathised with many of the characters and I wound up spilling tears over them by the end but, at times, it was hard to feel fully immersed in the story and to grasp what the author was trying to share.

Perhaps it was the writing style that also didn’t entirely work for me as we switched from third-person and first-person perspectives almost every other chapter. Add to that the wide array of characters and shifting timelines as we get their life stories from childhood to adulthood, and it wasn’t always easy to keep track of who’s who and what’s what. That said, I loved seeing how each character’s life intersects with another and I think Orange masterfully weaves together the fabric of their stories to create one big, captivating, yet heartbreaking tapestry.

Although the novel discusses the beauty, pride and fortitude of the native community, it is not a happy story. It explores weighty subjects including race, colonialism, intergenerational trauma, identity and belonging, mental health, abuse, and addiction. There is a lot of power behind the author’s writing and although each character’s narrative was difficult to read it also emphasised the need and importance of their stories being heard. Some of the quotes in this hit so hard and I think one of them sums this story up rather perfectly:

“The tragedy of it all will be unspeakable, the fact we’ve been fighting for decades to be recognized as a present-tense people, modern and relevant, alive, only to die in the grass wearing feathers.”

It’s just utterly devastating. 🥺 And ultimately, while it wasn’t always smooth sailing, I’m glad that I didn’t give up on this because it was rewarding to work through. I can see why it’s so well-loved and I’m glad to have finally read it. I don’t doubt that although it may not feel like it right now, this will be a story I’ll continue to think about long after I put it back on the shelf.

Have you read There There or is it on your TBR?

12 thoughts on “Mini Book Review: There There by Tommy Orange”

    • It’s definitely not an easy read and I’m not even sure who I’d recommend it to. I think the audiobook helped a bit but it was still a lot to digest, especially with all the POVs and writing style. If you do decide to pick it up, I hope you enjoy it 🙂 Thanks, Leslie! 💜

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      • Yeah, I needed it for a specific POPSUGAR prompt a couple years ago but then I found something else the last minute. I’m not sure that I’m keen to pick it up. lol

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    • It’s definitely hit/miss for me with literary fiction. I started my reading journey in my ‘adult years’ with literary fiction and I loved it but it definitely made my brain work harder while reading and that’s NOT a bad thing but I’m also so glad I found romance 😍😂

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