I learned of this new (summer 2018) book in a recent podcast episode of Literary Disco, but it has made an impression having received props (technical term) from a bajillion publications, such as The Washington Post, NPR, Time, O, The Oprah Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe, GQ, The Dallas Morning News, Buzzfeed, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews. Suffice it to say, Mr Orange was on a lot of lists for his debut novel. I found it to be a little chaotic at points, but with a definite strong message to deliver, and a unique literary voice.
This book jumps back and forth with I believe 12 different characters, largely timebound though it skips a little in that respect as well. The story is set Oakland, California and is an examination of what it is to be Native (Native American/First Nations) in today’s America. Through each character you get a different and stark dive into their lives, and how identity has shaped their past, and how their past has dictated their future. All of the action is building toward a powwow and that event is what pulls all of the disparate characters together in a violent way.
I liked the book a lot, but this is not a good book for an audio experience. A friend of mind read it and said she had to jump back and forth a bit to remember who was who. I just soldiered forward at times, a little confused. The Literary Disco take was that this could have been excellent as a collection of maybe short stories, versus a long form book, and I tend to agree. It was a good book, dense and meaty and heartbreaking. It ended pretty abruptly though, one of those where you get to the back and then flip back and forth going “wait, that’s it?” I went back and listened to the Literary Disco podcast again to have some closure. As Disco concluded as well, this shouldn’t be the last we hear from Orange, and this book deserves all the praise it has received.