There There Audiobook By Tommy Orange cover art

There There

A Novel

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There There

By: Tommy Orange
Narrated by: Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Alma Cuervo, Kyla Garcia
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PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A wondrous and shattering award-winning 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.

A contemporary classic, this “astonishing literary debut” (Margaret Atwood, bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale) “places Native American voices front and center” (NPR/Fresh Air).

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

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. They converge and collide on one fateful day at the Big Oakland Powwow and 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

A book with“so much jangling energy and brings so much news from a distinct corner of American life that it’s a revelation” (The New York Times).It is fierce, funny, suspenseful, and impossible to put down--full of poetry and rage, exploding onto the page with urgency and force. There There is at once poignant and unflinching, utterly contemporary and truly unforgettable.

Don't miss Tommy Orange's new book, Wandering Stars!

Accolades & Awards

National Book Critics Circle Award
2018
Literary Fiction National Book Critics Circle Award Native American Thought-Provoking Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Heartfelt Tearjerking Political World Literature Inspiring Indigenous Authors
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Featured Article: Our Favorite Native American Authors to Listen to Right Now


You know that Native American voices are important, and you want to hear their stories. But where to begin? Here are eight of the best contemporary Native American authors you can listen to right now. Some of these authors have several books to choose from and some are new to the scene. But whether they’re famous for memoir, literary fiction, horror, fantasy, or something else, all of these authors are worth a listen.

Featured Article Our Favorite Native American Authors to Listen to Right Now
Interconnected Storylines • Complex Characters • Cultural Authenticity • Poetic Writing • Excellent Performances

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once gave a TED talk called “The Danger of the Single Story,” outlining the negative effects of reducing complex people and histories to the same narrow, well-worn narrative. I’m convinced that her heart will swell, like mine, at the arrival of Tommy Orange’s incendiary first novel. Written—and narrated—from the perspectives of many characters, whose lives intersect in unexpected and technically impressive ways, the connected stories pay profound attention to the individual experiences of urban Native Americans. And yet for all its depth of purpose and history, it’s absolutely un-put-downable. Visionary, mind-bendingly virtuosic, and racing to a searing finish, There Thereis a work of sacred intensity. I’m still reeling.

A gorgeous, white-hot debut

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Tommy Orange's debut novel is strongest when the interior voices of its main characters lead us through the challenges of addiction, poverty and identity filtered through generations of Native American oppression and rich - but fragmented and incomplete - cultural and spiritual heritage. The urban Oakland boy whose Great Aunt does not share Indian culture with him, but who dances the sacred dances as a toddler and prepares for his first pow-wow in secret, watching You Tube. The only-a-few-days sober woman who came of age on Alcatraz during the native occupation and is looking for the daughter she gave up for adoption. The internet-addicted young man whose way out of his dark bedroom is in planning the Big Oakland Pow-Wow.

Orange's language is quite beautiful in many places, full of lyric and often mystical. He shows the reader the world of big-city urban Indians, an undertold American perspective. Some of the characters - in particular those connected to two main women in the book - are beautifully drawn.

Orange is less successful with the plotting of a crime to be committed at the Big Oakland Pow-Wow. In my view, the characters connected to the crime were less successfully articulated and often confused me as a reader. The real climax of this book happens at the pow-wow when many family members are reunited, not when the crime is committed. In focusing too much on the crime, I felt Orange left key details of the pow-wow under developed.

The ending is abrupt and unsatisfying, with many plot lines unresolved. The book felt unfinished.

Based on the lyricism and much of the character development, I would read another book by Tommy Orange.

Some powerful characters; abrupt, unfinished end

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This is an incredible story. it is sensorial and heavy and heart breaking and triumphant and very, very human. It is a story of the past brilliantly woven into today and gives hope for a future. The narration is a gift and makes the story shine with even greater authenticity than reading the book. I highly recommend it and believe it may be one of the best audible stories I have ever experienced.

Amazing!

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A soul-wrecking symphony of 12 Native Americans pulled together by an upcoming powwow in Oakland, CA, and played with eloquence and bravado in first, second and third person narratives; sounding the repercussions, and showing the deracination, of America's indigenous people caused by this country's history of maltreatment and debasement of them.

The novel progressively accelerates the speed of its beats and gradually increases the volume toward a spectacular, eruptive finale that pummeled me with stark, incendiary truths about the history of our Native Americans, of the harm done to them by a history of oppression by this nation and the damage inflicted from within their tribes, both of which are perfectly personified in the violent, amoral character Tony Loneman, whose facial features and disabilities result from the fetal alcohol syndrome he suffers due to his mom's drinking during pregnancy.

I'm predicting that if Tommy Orange has in him 2 more social novels with the quality and impact of There There, he'll garner the Nobel Prize in Literature by 2050. He's that good and he's breaking ground on the social front.

Soul-wrecking Symphony of Twelve Native Americans

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There There, the debut novel by Tommy Orange, follows a large cast of Native Americans who live in Oakland, California. Orange does a masterful job of setting up his narrative with a prologue about the history of Native Americans and the power of who tells those stories, whether by white people or others. Then he unfurls the narrative with each of his characters stories like a patchwork quilt weaved with sadness and regret and remorse. All his characters are troubled and, unfortunately for them and the reader as well, there will be no light at the end of their tunnel. The narrative is a dirge, figuratively and literally. It's a heavy story but one that needed to be told and listened to. I think it's important to hear the stories of all Americans, most importantly the marginalized.

Having a happy ending is not a requirement for me but to invest in these characters then have their lives end in the way it does in this novel is like a sucker punch. It's a cheap shot. But these characters' lives are worth reading about. Hope is a powerful subtext; I just wished for a little more of it.

Orange does a curious thing by mixing first, second, and third person narration. His first-person narration is particularly effective, as his characters' personalities jump off the page. The second-person choice even makes sense in the chapter where it's used. But the third-person choice is a head-scratcher. Why offer some of these marginalized characters the power of narrating their own stories then deny some others by using a mysterious narrator? Why not let them tell their own stories? The only thing the third-person narration did was confuse me. Why aren't they telling their own story? Why does Tony speak for himself but Bill doesn't? It's an odd choice and one I'm surprised his editor didn't question. Maybe Orange was showing off like a juggler adding burning bowling pins to his set of rubber balls.

Overall, a good read with some exceptional writing, although the end left a little to be desired. I would give this novel a 3.75 stars.

Narrators: All the narrators did a great job. They were well-paced and effective readers. My only gripe is that a couple of the narrators spoke for multiple characters or the mysterious third-person narrator of some of the stories, which was a little confusing.

A Story Worth Telling but a Little Heavy-hearted

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