The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

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Darling readers, we are back with another Green Light from our beloved Jamie B. Golden, There, There by Tommy Orange.  Generally, it’s pretty easy to tell from Jamie’s comments if one of her titles is right for us, and as you saw earlier this month, sometimes when they’re right, they’re SO right!  While Jamie doesn’t lead us astray (except maybe when she recommends thrillers, but we know better), sometimes she recommends literary works, such as There, There and darlings, we are mood readers, and sometimes planning books in advance for mood readers is a struggle.  Reading this title was an exercise in knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em for me.  I did put it down about half way through and pick up a romance novel because that is what my life and my soul needed, but pick this title back up I did, and I’m glad to have done so.  

There, There includes a big cast of Native individuals and a lot of voices speaking to the reader about their pasts and presents as they are all making their way to the Big Oakland Powwow.  Each character explains to readers how they got here, some of it tragic and some celebratory.  These stories are of urban Native Americans in a modern setting and the characters do a glorious job of highlighting how traditional can blend with modern, just as the writing ties together the past and the present.  

As one may predict, and I certainly did, There There does not include a nice bow at the end, which is not to be expected from a literary novel (and may be part of the reason I needed a bit of a pause).  Coming in at just under 300 pages, and having a dozen narrators, the writing is concise and definitely packs a punch.  The characters are dimensional and real, and Orange does a beautiful job of painting a window into the world of urban Native Americans (wording from the marketing copy).  It definitely made me want to look into more windows painted by other Native American authors to increase my own learning and understanding.  

Overall, I’m giving There There four solid stars.  It was interesting, concise, yet included lush descriptions, and opened my eyes to new facets of the world in which we live.  Other than those bows at the end, and maybe some warm fuzzy feelings, what more could a reader want?  All that said, the ending did feel like it fit the book, so please take my complaints as advice as to when to read this book, because I definitely recommend it and am interested in Orange’s other works.

What’s a book you read at the wrong time, but was definitely the right book?

~Nikki 

Tommy Orange is an American writer from California. Orange has a master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts. There There was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and received the 2019 American Book Award. Besides his success as a writer, he played roller hockey on a national level. A citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, he grew up in Oakland, California and currently resides in the same state with his family.

There There is to me a seminal work of Native American urban life. Our culture is permeated with visuals of what we non-Natives think the Native American experience is, and while some of the stereotypes are undoubtedly true, they are by no means the only experience. I might have more intimate knowledge than the typical white American woman when it comes to tribal rules and the lives of some Native American peoples as one of my former college roommates adopted a tribe member as a baby when she was living and teaching on a reservation in Arizona. That baby is now in high school. Reading about the lives of other Native Americans in an urban rather than reservation setting was a window I so desperately needed to read about.

I am also giving There There four solid stars. Like Nikki, I struggled to get through some of the thematic elements of the story because of how heavy they were and maybe my mood needed something lighter, but I powered through and was glad I did. Orange’s writing was clear and concise and his characters were loveable, relatable, and undeniably human. My favorite part of the entire book was learning to understand some of the internal experiences that Native people have with their own culture, the joys and the sorrows of hundreds of years of active oppression. I think that this novel should be required reading for every American citizen.

What novel have you read lately that has brought you more cultural education than a nonfiction title?

~Ashley

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