My Thoughts on "There There"

I first came across this book on a list on Goodreads about books women born in the 90's were reading in 2019, and it didn't really appeal to me, so I quickly forgot about it.  A few weeks later, I came across it again, and it was only $7 on Amazon, so I decided to go for it.  By then, the plot sounded slightly more intriguing to me, and I wanted to give it a shot.  It was definitely a different type of book, not a topic people were writing about as much, and it was a Pulitzer finalist, so it had to be good.

In all honesty, the book had a lot of potential, but it was a little too ambitious for a novel of this length.  The plot follows twelve Native Americans, all of whom either live in Oakland, California or have close ties to Oakland as they prepare for a powwow at the local sports arena.  Each individual either has a reason for wanting to go to the powwow that is closely tied to their identity as an urban Native American.  Some are part of the younger generation who are trying to figure out where the fit in the grande scheme of things, while others are part of the older generation dealing with the demons of their past caused by being a Native American.  Either way, Orange does a wonderful job at bringing to light to problems that grip urban Native Americans.  Often, narratives that focus on Native Americans focus on those living on reservations scattered across the western portion of the United States.  This was the first time I saw a story that focuses on Native Americans in an urban environment, which is what ultimately drew me to it.

If I'm going to be honest, I felt that this book was lacking.  Yes, Orange did a wonderful job at weaving all twelve stories together, but a book that's only 294 pages and has twelve different points of view to tell is a huge undertaking.  Orange was only able to scratch the surface for each character, and the end left me wanting so much more from some of the characters.  I wanted to know more about their backstories and what happened to them at the end of the book (more about that in a little while).  He easily could have filled multiple books just on the backstories; he alluded to such rich backstories and did a great job of building a foundation, but then it just seemed to stop. 

At the same time, I found the ending completely disappointing.  Everything in this book has been building up to this powwow and a crucial decision made by several of the characters during the powwow.  When that moment came, however, it was fleeting.  It was as if Orange just wanted to focus on the buildup and had no idea what to do with the actual climax.  It disappointed me greatly, especially since I'm the type of person who likes everything wrapped up nice and neat at the end of a book with no questions left.  In this book, however, Orange just stopped partway through the climax.  Imagine it like if Lion King ended right in the middle of the battle between Scar and Simba, leaving you as the audience wondering who won, if Simba was able to take his place as king of Pride Rock or if Scar remained king and drove the pridelands into ruin.  That's pretty much how this book ended.

I had such high expectations for this book, especially as I started reading it.  There characters and plot had a lot of potential, only to be let down at the last minute.  I hope that Tommy Orange writes more books in the future, because I would like to give him another shot, just not with this book.