There There by Tommy Orange

Review published in the San Francisco Examiner on October 28, 2018

http://www.sfexaminer.com/oaklands-urban-indians-come-life-exquisite/

Tommy Orange’s There There has been a Bay Area bestseller for a reason. His novel is exquisitely wrought and tells the story of twelve characters who plan to attend a “Big Oakland Powwow”. They are not traveling from rural reservations. As Orange says, they are “Urban Indians” who call Oakland home. They live in a cityscape where BART stations, the Oakland Coliseum, and the Grand Lake Theater mark the terrain.

The book’s title is borrowed from Gertrude Stein. When her Oakland home was torn down and her old neighborhood redeveloped, she observed that the “there” of her childhood had ceased to exist. As one of the novel’s characters, Dean Oxendene states, “But for Native people in this country, all over the Americas, it’s been developed over, buried ancestral land, glass and concrete and wire and steel, unreturnable covered memory. There is no there there.”

Orange begins this uniquely structured book with a prologue recounting the cruel history of efforts to eradicate the Native American peoples. He describes the betrayal and brutality that the Native Americans endured as they negotiated with successive waves of Europeans including the Pilgrims. He reminds us how violent a history it has been.

Each subsequent chapter is the story of a single character. We learn their histories and hopes, their strengths and sorrows as they prepare for the powwow. They each have their own reasons for attending - some practical, some profound. Orange writes, “We made powwows because we needed a place to be together.” Many of the characters work at the Indian Center. They struggle with alcohol, drugs, poverty, mental illness, violence and shame. We meet Tony Loneman who was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. We meet Orvil, Loother, and Lony Red Feather whose mother committed suicide. We meet Calvin Johnson who is bipolar and whose brother is a drug dealer. Each of the character’s stories is emotional, raw and intimate. As we learn about them we understand why their lives are so difficult. Orange points us to a James Baldwin belief, “People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”

Yet, these characters are not as bitter as one might expect, though most live on the edge. Rather, they navigate their present lives while carrying the psychic pain of their ancestors’ suffering. These Urban Indians persevere and find their own unique ways of expressing their Native heritage in Oakland.

The characters vary by tribe, age, gender and attitude. About their collective past, they have different interpretations. They voice fervent beliefs and existential observations. Tony Loneman says of his ancestors, “They must not’ve had street smarts back then. Let them white man come over here and take it from them like that.” Another character Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield says, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you what being Indian means. Too many of us died to get just a little bit of us here, right now, right in this kitchen.”

Orange weaves together these individual stories as the plot plays out in surprising ways at the powwow at the Coliseum. The Natives have come to dance, celebrate, sell crafts and just be together as Natives. But a few of the characters have nefarious plans. Violence lurks, the dancing ends, and the powwow crescendos to a chilling climax.

Tommy Orange’s book is a literary burst of pain and rage leavened by understanding and empathy. Orange has reimagined and updated the story of the Native people of our country. He has a sympathetic ear for the psychological burden that the past brings to the present. There There is the work of a talented and urgent new voice on the literary scene.