what I’m reading: there there by tommy orange.

There There was my book club’s latest pick. It’s a story that takes place in the present time about a group of Native Americans all coming together to go to the Big Oakland Powwow.

First, let me say that this book has gotten a lot of praise. The reason my book club read it was because someone had heard about it and had heard many compliments about this book. That being said, I thought it was fine.

There’s not a lot of action in this book. The story revolves around 12 or so characters as they make their way to Oakland or make the decision to go to the powwow. The narrative shifts from each person’s point of view and we learn about each character’s reasons for wanting to attend the powwow. The author does a great job of giving each character their own voice – it was easy to tell that we had switched narrators in each chapter.

There are, however, so many characters that it got to the point where I started writing them down so that I could keep track. It was a little confusing, especially when the narrator on page 200 talks about how he is related to the character you met in the first or second chapter and you have to think to yourself, “Who was that?” This was one time where it was beneficial to read the book in hardback form because it was easy to flip around to reacquaint yourself with characters from previous chapters.

Again, I thought this book was fine. Was I on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what would happen? Not really. I usually read this book in about 20-30 minutes chunks when I was on my lunch break. It turned out to be the perfect amount of time to read since I would just start to find myself getting bored when my lunchtime was over. Also, I was a little disappointed at the ending since I felt like there wasn’t a real conclusion to anything and I was left with many questions.

But don’t take my word for it. This book is a New York Time Bestseller. The novel speaks deeply about what it means to be a Native American in the current time and if that is something you are interested in reading about, you should read this book.