There There

 

From the Publisher:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD WINNER • One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year • A wondrous and shattering novel that follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize.

Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American—grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.

My Thoughts:

This book has been on my To Be Read list for at least a year when I heard Tommy Orange speak, but I also knew that because of the format of the multiple characters, I needed to carve out enough time to pay attention and keep track of the twelve characters. The issue is that there is never enough time to carve out for reading, so after the fifth time that my public library sent me this book, I just decided to read it. It would have been nice for me to say that I am reading it because this is Native American Heritage month, but really, I was picturing some electronic librarian giving me the librarian stare down and got pressured into starting it.

Whenever there is a novel with a lot of characters and that one chapter does not bleed into another chapter like this one, as a reader, it does take me a while and I think I need to re-read some of these chapters because I was so set on getting to the powwow and seeing the connections that I rushed through some character/chapters that did not grab me as interesting. However, the last few chapters are like getting caught in an undertow, so once I was out and able to breathe, I think I need to go back to shore. These characters continue to stay in my mind, and I would love to red his follow up novel, but I just need some time to breathe. I am a bit shattered and adrift.