Author: Tommy Orange
There There is the first novel by Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Orange gave an opportunity to have a gritty and unrelenting glimpse into the urban Native American experience. The story focus on different members of a large cast of Indians around Oakland, Calif. It tells the tale of twelve characters, who have private reasons for traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow.
As these individual stories intersect, the plot accelerates until the novel explodes in a terrifying mess of violence. Technically, it’s a dazzling, cinematic climax played out in quick-cut, rotating points of view. But its greater impact is emotional: a final, sorrowful demonstration of the pathological effects of centuries of abuse and degradation.
Orange’s inscribed fiction can be heartbreaking and yet the velocity and beauty of his writing ensure that the readers are able to absorb and appreciate these stories that have never been expressed earlier.
> Shiuly Rina
There There
