Paul Adams - Summary of There There: A Novel

Summary

of

There There

Tommy Orange

Conversation Starters

By Paul Adams

Book Habits

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Copyright 2018 by BookHabits. All Rights Reserved. First Published in the United States of America 2018

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EVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER THAN the surface of its pages. Questions herein are designed to bring us beneath the surface of the page and invite us into the world that lives on. These questions can be used to:

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Introducing There There

T

HERE THERE IS TOMMY ORANGES BRILLIANT novel about what it really means to be an Indian, or a Native American or an American Indian. Oranges compelling novel is about American Indians who live in the city of Oakland in California. Orange called them urban Indians. Those whose blood is Indian but who know the skyline of downtown Oakland more than they know sacred mountain ranges, the Oakland redwood trees in the city hills rather than the deep wild forest ranges. Each chapter takes on a different characters voice. These characters appear in and out of each others lives with complex relationships that the reader might need to chart to keep track. The lives of different characters from different chapters intertwine and they converge at one single point and that is the Oakland powwow.

For all who are involved in the powwow, it has an ambivalent shifty avatar of Indianness. This is the identity that many of Oranges characters feel that theyre playing at. In the 21st century California, the concept of being an Indian is most often treated as a reminder of their ancestors who were slaughtered and whose populations are on reservations. This word is like an anachronism rather than an identity that runs through the blood of living humans. This concept is difficult for the characters to grasp, to perceive themselves as authentic Indians.

As the reader progresses in the book, he or she will learn the reasons that each of the character have for attending the Big Oakland Powwow, the momentum builds up towards a shocking but inevitable conclusion that changes everything for everyone in the novel. Some of them generous, some joyful, some violent, some fearful. One character by the name of Jacquie Red Feather is new to being sober. She strives to make it back to her family whom she left behind in shame. She meets her three grandsons from her estranged daughter Blue. Blue has never met her mother and is suffering from an abusive marriage. She decided to give up her three boys.

Dene Oxendene, another character, feels the pain of the loss of his uncle. He strives to pull his life back together and has come to work at the Oakland powwow to honor the memory of his late uncle. Edwin suffers from overeating and he also struggles with his identity as a native. His mother is white and his father is American Indian but he grew up without meeting him.

Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has watched her beloved nephew Orvil teach himself the traditional Indian dance through videos in Youtube. Orvil is born to American Indian parents on both sides. However, he grew up without knowing his culture and heritage. This didnt stop him from learning in alternative sources like Youtube. When he puts on tribal regalia and looks at himself in the mirror, he looks at himself and say that he is dressed up like an Indian. Orvil was given a chance to perform the dance of their ancestors in public for the very first time. His aunt Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield watches in pride. In this spectacle of tradition and pageantry, there will be glorious communion. And inevitably, there will be heroism, sacrifice and loss.

As the characters in the novel continually struggle with the shifting perception of their identities as Indians, tragedy was waiting to happen. At the beginning of the novel, Orange introduces the readers to a young man with fetal alcohol syndrome. His name is Tony and he calls his syndrome the Drome. He gets mixed up with petty criminals who are armed with illegal guns and robbery plans for the Oakland powwow. In the place where everyone gathers to be and to feel authentically Indian, a tragedy is waiting to happen. Twelve unforgettable characters. One fateful day.

There There is an extraordinary yet devastating portrait of an America that only a few have ever seen . Tommy Oranges novel is often described as fierce, suspenseful, thoroughly modern, funny, and impossible to put down. Oranges voice is one voice that America has never heard. It is a voice filled with beauty, poetry and rage that explodes onto the pages he has written with great urgency and force. Tommy Orange has successfully written a remarkable novel that grips the readers with the complex and painful history and an inheritance of profound spirituality and beauty. His novel talks about the plague of addiction, suicide and abuse.

The New York Times describes There There as groundbreaking, extraordinary. People Magazine praises Tommy Oranges novel and calls it brilliant, propulsive. The Washington Post says that There There is masterful... white-hot... devastating.