{"id":10182,"date":"2024-10-20T15:24:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T13:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=10182"},"modified":"2024-11-16T11:15:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T10:15:41","slug":"dort-dort-tommy-orange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2024\/10\/there-there-tommy-orange\/","title":{"rendered":"There There \u2022 Tommy Orange"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

With my reading choices, I often sail in safe waters. Life is limited\u2014and too short for a bad book. But every now and then I also try literature outside what I usually love, even if the hit rate can be very poor. There There<\/em> was recommended to me, along with the suggestion that I should be \u201copen-minded.\u201d Of course, contemporary books generally have a tougher time with me. Contemporary literature in Germany, for example, is a complete fail these days\u2014I give it a very wide berth. Whether There There<\/em> is a good book or just another entry in the list of contemporary disappointments\u2014you\u2019ll find out in this post.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There There<\/em> follows ten Native Americans who live in or around Oakland and are descendants of various North American Indigenous nations. The book portrays different characters with their very own life stories and problems: a woman who took part in the occupation of Alcatraz in the \u201970s; a young filmmaker; a drug dealer; or Tony, who struggles with the consequences of his mother\u2019s alcohol use during pregnancy. The individual chapters bear the characters\u2019 names and present an episode from their lives or portray them in different ways. The fates of all these characters are interwoven, and their paths finally converge at a powwow\u2014a traditional Indigenous celebration.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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I was curious what to expect. Based on the blurb, I feared I was holding an ideological novel. I was surprised at how unagitated it is. It does without sentimentality, excessive accusation, or ideology. The chapters are fragmentary, and Orange manages\u2014with plain yet very cinematic, image-rich prose\u2014to bring scenes to life before the reader\u2019s inner eye. His style is varied, and he shifts his narrative mode: some chapters use an omniscient narrator, others switch to first person, and even second person. That variety is refreshing, though the effect\u2014the sense of closeness and insight I had into the figures\u2014felt quite similar across modes. Still, Orange often finds striking formulations that make it easy to feel with the characters:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cShe [\u2026] tried for two hours to tell herself she was sleeping\u2014or maybe she did doze off now and then, but dreamed that she couldn\u2019t sleep.\u201d<\/p>\r\np. 105<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Even so, the language only moderately thrilled me. It\u2019s very precise, clearly aimed at conjuring a specific image or feeling for the reader. At the same time, the sentences were often too plain for my taste. They certainly fit the characters. But in terms of reading flow and the resonance the book stirred in me, it landed more in the average range.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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What fascinated me was how the book considers the cultural legacy of Native Americans. It\u2019s not a culture that no longer exists and has vanished (as, for example, in Horcynus Orca<\/a>). It\u2019s a culture that is still present yet was torn and scattered by the destruction and takeover of its homelands by Europeans. It hasn\u2019t completely disappeared; rather, it has been massively damaged and transformed\u2014further shaped by urbanization, industrialization, and technology. That\u2019s also where the meaning of the title \u201cThere There<\/em>\u201d lies: there is no longer a singular \u201cthere\u201d\u2014no home. It was torn away and rebuilt\u2014directly in the novel with reference to Oakland, and more broadly the mother earth, the land that once belonged to Native Americans, the fertile ground of their culture that no longer exists as it did.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The few remaining representatives of this culture are scattered, and the novel clearly shows how the characters search for cultural identity\u2014how they struggle with themselves and how they are the descendants of a socially marginalized minority facing corresponding disadvantages. All of the figures have serious problems: many are dependent on alcohol or drugs, involved in the drug scene, struggling with identity, facing family issues, and living in precarious circumstances\u2014with very high suicide rates due to sheer lack of prospects.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cIn a community in South Dakota where I worked recently, people told me they were all grieved out. That was after seventeen suicides in eight months.\u201d<\/p>\r\np. 107<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The episodes and figures convey this missing or deficient cultural identity, the hardship, the broken sociocultural environment that nevertheless carries traces of Indigenous culture. That\u2019s what is so compelling: through these many heavy personal fates, the reader can still perceive those traces. How difficult this identity formation is becomes clear again and again. For example, when \u201cPretendian\u201d comes up\u2014people claimed not to have the right to be considered Native American because they are only a small part Indigenous and otherwise of white descent. Or in the belief in \u201cIndian curses,\u201d while at the same time very little knowledge is passed on to children and grandchildren. Some characters suffer because of this, for instance Orvil, who would like to dance at a powwow but practices in secret. Especially in adolescence, when one\u2019s own identity, origins, and personality matter, the figures often have to struggle. One\u2019s cultural background plays an important role, and the fact that it is so deeply damaged for Native Americans is palpable throughout the book. Orange often finds very good words for this:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cHere\u2019s the thing: If you can afford not to think about history, not even to notice it\u2014whether you learned it right or not, or whether it\u2019s even worth your notice\u2014then you can be sure you\u2019re on board the ship, being served hors d\u2019oeuvres and fluffed pillows, while others are out at sea, drowning or clinging to little life rafts they have to keep reinflating, short of breath and never having heard of hors d\u2019oeuvres.\u201d<\/p>\r\np. 139<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The novel culminates in a powwow where all the characters ultimately meet. I hadn\u2019t heard of powwows before. A powwow is a traditional gathering of Native American communities that includes dance, song, drumming, and other cultural activities. It serves to celebrate cultural heritage, strengthen community, and pass on traditions. Orange introduces it as follows:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cWe made powwows because we need a place to be together. Something intertribal, something old, something to make money, something to work toward\u2014for our jewelry, our songs, our dances, our drum. We keep powwows going because there aren\u2019t many places we can all gather, where we can see and hear one another.\u201d<\/p>\r\np. 137<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Orange gathers many more reflections on this heavy Indigenous inheritance: from the TV test pattern with an \u201cIndian head,\u201d to the question of who counts as Native American if someone is only one-eighth, one-sixteenth, or even less, to the many metaphors for what was done to Indigenous peoples.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Tommy Orange, born in Oakland in 1982, has Indigenous roots himself. With There There<\/em> he was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and won the 2019 American Book Award. This year a follow-up to There There<\/em> appeared under the title Wandering Stars<\/em>. Beyond that, he has published just one short story.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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At the front of the book there\u2019s a brief glossary listing the individual characters. I found this very helpful whenever a few days passed between reading sessions. I also quite liked the book\u2019s design: the feather on the dust jacket and the endpapers, the choice of colors, and the typography. There\u2019s no ribbon marker or other extras, though\u2014bibliophilically speaking, just the basics.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> With There There<\/em>, Tommy Orange has written a novel that felt genuinely new and unfamiliar to me\u2014both in theme and in narrative approach. The way Orange weaves together his characters\u2019 paths and individual fates while offering an intense look at the cultural dislocation and shaken foundations of Native Americans is fascinating, superbly executed, and truly broadens the horizon. The focus on the remnants of a culture lends the book a deep layer of meaning. Orange\u2019s tightly calibrated prose\u2014varied and tailored to his figures\u2014hits home, creates vivid, expressive scenes, but was often a bit too plain for my taste. All in all, it\u2019s a very well-composed novel that offers an authentic view of a cultural sphere that would otherwise have remained completely closed to me.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information: <\/strong>There There<\/em> \u2022 Tommy Orange \u2022 Hanser Verlag \u2022 284 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783446264137<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With my reading choices, I often sail in safe waters. Life is limited\u2014and too short for a bad book. But every now and then I also try literature outside what I usually love, even if the hit rate can be very poor. There There was recommended to me, along with the suggestion that I should … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “There There \u2022 Tommy Orange”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Dort dort \u2022 Tommy Orange - lesestunden","description":"Mit der Wahl meiner Lekt\u00fcre bin ich oft in sicheren Gew\u00e4ssern unterwegs. Die Lebenszeit ist begrenzt und zu kurz f\u00fcr ein schlechtes Buch. Aber ab und zu teste i"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20],"tags":[277,276,275],"class_list":["post-10182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-gegenwartsliteratur","tag-native-american","tag-tommy-orange"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/dort_dort_1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}