There There: Tommy Orange

At the Big Oakland Powwow, there’s $50,000 of prize money and a plot to steal it. ‘There There’ tells the story of the robbery and why a handful of the Urban Native American attendees come to the event. Jacquie Red Feather travels from Phoenix with event emcee, Harvey, a man she hasn’t seen since he raped her forty-two years ago. A daughter was conceived during the rape and was given away for adoption when Jacquie was seventeen. The daughter, Blue, is head of the powwow committee. Jacquie had a second daughter, Jamie, a heroin addict who killed herself, leaving three sons. Jacquie’s younger half-sister, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, adopted Jacquie’s grandsons. Orvil (14) likes to dance in traditional Indian regalia. He takes his brothers, Loother (12) and Lony (10), to the powwow where he enters a dance competition. Opal goes to the powwow in secret to watch Orvil dance. Like Jacquie, Harvey is an alcoholic. He unwittingly fathered another child during a wild night with a white woman called Karen. The child, Edwin Black, was raised by Karen. Edwin is tech-savvy and holds a master’s degree in comparative literature. He successfully applies for a paid internship at the Oakland Indian Centre, which requires him to help organise the powwow. Karen’s boyfriend, Bill Davis, works in maintenance at the Oakland Coliseum – location of the Big Oakland Powwow. In her youth, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield was in a relationship with Lucas who moved in with his sister, Norma, when he was dying of alcohol induced liver failure. Norma has a mixed-race son, Dene Oxendene, who, at the age of thirteen, inherited a camera from Lucas. Dene gets a $5,000 grant to document urban Indian stories and sets up a tent at the Big Oakland Powwow. Blue used to work with Maggie, sister of Calvin and Charles Johnson. Calvin lives with Maggie and her daughter Sonny. Blue gets Calvin a job finding younger vendors and supporting young Native artists and entrepreneurs at the powwow. Charles, his best friend Carlos and Calvin all sell weed for Octavio Gomez. Calvin is robbed of a consignment of weed he was supposed to sell. Charles and Carlos smoke theirs. All three are now in debt to Octavio. Octavio’s father died in a shooting avenging the theft of weed by Octavio’s brother, Junior, and uncle, Sixto. Octavio’s mother and brother were killed in a car accident when they were passengers in a drunk Sixto’s car. Octavio moved in with his grandmother, Josefina. Manny and Daniel Gonzales were cousins of Octavio. Their father was thrown out of the house following an attack on their mother, Sylvia. Manny was killed in a revenge shooting, leaving a young Daniel to support his mother. Daniel makes guns on a 3D printer. Octavio buys six guns for $5,000. Daniel gives $3,000 to Sylvia and spends the balance on a drone and VR glasses. Tony Loneman has foetal alcohol syndrome. His dad doesn’t know he exists and his mother is in jail. He lives with and cares for his grandmother, Maxine. He supports her with the proceeds of selling weed and cocaine for Octavio. Octavio persuades Tony, Calvin, Charles and Carlos to rob the powwow with him, using the 3D guns printed by Daniel. Octavio forbids his cousin Daniel to attend the powwow, but says he can use the drone to watch the robbery. In full Native regalia, Tony smuggles bullets into the powwow. An amazing climax to a gripping tale follows. Tommy Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. Particularly in the epilogue and interlude, he outlines the shameful genocide and displacement of Native people. The story is told with sometimes shocking honesty and a clutch of fascinating, distinct voices. I feel the large cast of characters is handled well and the failure to resolve every issue by the end of the novel is necessary. Despite the clear search for identity and the challenges facing Native people, no solution is offered. Life rarely serves up a neat, happy ending. I enjoyed the dark humour: ‘He’s always feared he’ll find out that he’s smelled like piss and shit his whole life without knowing it, that everyone’s been afraid to tell him, like Kevin Farley from the fifth grade who ended up killing himself the summer of their junior year in high school when he found out.’ When you begin to wonder whether every Native person abuses alcohol, Harvey says: ‘There’s not some special relationship between Indians and alcohol. It’s just what’s cheap, available, legal. It’s what we have to go to when it seems like we have nothing else left.’ And probably my favourite quote from the book: ‘We don’t have time, Nephew, time has us. It holds us in its mouth like an owl holds a field mouse. We shiver. We struggle for release, and then it pecks out our eyes and intestines for sustenance and we die the death of field mice.’

A well written story about the complexities of relationships, in and alongside families. I learnt a lot about the history and current perspective of Native Americans and the struggle to be recognised and heard. I became involved

I heard a review of this book on the radio wit the author reading from it which got me buying it - however I did not find it a great read and not up to what I was expecting.

I will read everything Tommy Orange ever writes. I actually read Wandering Stars first as it’s the prequel and sequel to what happens in this book but it’s so beautifully written and captures an exact era and culture you’re completely immersed as a reader.

This is a very impressive first novel. Tommy Orange has about a dozen narrators for his story which culminates at a pow wow in Oakland. It is not an easy read but there are great passages like the two non fictional essays in the beginning and in the middle and some of the narratives of American first nations people. We see Indians often as people connected to nature, but the people in Orange's book are city people and they struggle with their ancestry and they struggle with their present and their often damaged family relationships with stories of alcohol, drugs and abuse. Soon, Mr Orange will come to my town and I am looking forward to see him in person.

This was a great novel; it was engaging, the story flowed and was well written. There is a lot going on with multiple characters and multiple themes. This book was a pleasure to read. The lives and stories of multiple characters are told through the various chapters. Despite the short “time” each character had to tell their story, I felt there was enough to get you interested in them and care about where life took them. The characters were largely interlinked, all culminating at a Powwow that two of the characters, Tony and Octavio, intend to rob to pay a drug debt. There are flashes of humour along with some very dark themes, domestic abuse, rape, drug and alcohol dependency. There are also interludes where the author lays out the brutal historical background and the impact these events still have today. I liked the characters Opal, Orvile (and his younger brothers), and Edwin in particular. Edwin was a bit of a whinger, but I could also sympathise with him and the rut he was stuck in. The ending came swiftly and senselessly, just as the characters really started to get going and their stories began to merge; I don’t know if this was metaphorical but I thought the way the novel came crashing to an abrupt end fitted well within the story.

This is a novel dealing with the problems facing a group of Native Americans in an urban setting. While the ending is somewhat predictable, that is offset by drawing attention to the addiction (both alcohol and drugs), lack of education and petty crime associated with the set of people in Oakland, California. I wonder if the group may be regarded as representative of what is certainly a very disadvantaged race of people.

Most unusual book, enjoyed the read very much.