Instead, as with anything as fraught as identity, “Indianness” is mediated and deeply confusing. One gets the sense that Orange, having boldly declared his intention to tell the story of urban Indians in his prologue, is wisely trying to make room for everyone.īecause none of his characters, it’s clear, has a monopoly on Indianness. The novel is told in short episodic bursts, inhabiting by turns the lives and minds of 13 people with ties to Oakland’s native community as they gather and prepare for the Big Oakland Powwow. Perhaps because of this lack, “There There” overflows with narrative threads. In short, as Tommy Orange notes with exasperation and fury and grim humor in his exceptional debut novel “There There,” there’s a pronounced dearth of imagination when it comes to telling stories about native people who are very much alive. Or they’re all about the destruction of that ideal, the tragic sidelining of a defeated race. Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle Show More Show Lessīeyond outmoded tales about cowboys and manifest destiny, most of the stories we tell about American Indians are misty romances of a bygone people living in harmony with the land. "There There" is a multi-generational portrait of urban Native American life which takes place in Oakland where Orange grew up.
1 of2 "There There" knopf Show More Show Less 2 of2 Tommy Orange talks about his debut novel "There There" at Lake Merritt on Tuesday, in San Francisco, Calif.
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