I just like … really liked this book. Maybe because it was short and good and I’d been slogging through so many that were long and bad. Probably because it was good. Like really good. It’ll take me a bit, but let me try to put into words why. I didn’t know what to title this review, so I just threw up my favorite quote. Even though the quote has so little to do with the book. Tommy Orange has done a novel of the […]
“Stray bullets and consequences are landing on our unsuspecting bodies even now.“
There There is an innovative and engrossing first novel from Native American writer Tommy Orange. Through his multiple character narration, he explores the question of what it means to be an “urban Indian” in the US. The title There There comes from a Gertrude Stein quote that is often taken out of context and misunderstood, much like Native Americans. In referring to Oakland, California, where Stein grew up and where the action of There There takes place, Stein wrote that there was no there there […]
Opal likes numbers. Numbers are consistent. You can count on them. But for Opal, certain numbers are good and others are bad.
There’s some pretty strong connections between this novel and some of the novels of Louise Erdrich, especially Plague of Doves, LaRose, and The Round House. For one, this novel references Louise Erdrich, and for two, the factured structure and the myriad narrative voices relating the subject matter. If I had to make a guess, this will be the best book from 2018 I read in 2018…if not the very best, one of the very best. You can tell from the get-go that this is a […]