The violence of imperialism finds itself mirrored in tiny interactions, in microaggressions that portend something deeper and more malevolent.
And echoes of this violence reverberate throughout every vignette. He speaks of massacres, of displacement, of dehumanizing caricatures, and of so much more. Tommy Orange is Cheyenne and Arapaho, and there are times in the book when an omniscient narrator (who could, perhaps, be Orange) interrupts his cast of characters to tell an even wider story: the story of colonization, and the violence it has wrought on Indigenous communities. Most of them live in and around Oakland, CA. There are 12 narrators- Tony Loneman, Dene Oxendene, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, Edwin Black, Bill Davis, Calvin Johnson, Jacquie Red Feather, Orvil Red Feather, Octavio Gomez, Daniel Gonzales, Blue, and Thomas Frank. Like many other books I love, There There is a multigenerational saga: a book whose plot spans many decades and many families, although, in one way or another, all of its characters are related. In a way, reading a book alleviates the pain of that inevitability which always accompanies the passage of time: the knowledge that every moment will produce another moment, no matter what you do.īut There There by Tommy Orange is not so simple. You can flip back and revisit your favorite moments you can skip scenes that are displeasing or overwhelming and at any time, you are at liberty to shut your book and never touch it again. Here, the past and the future can fade away: all that exists is the page you are currently reading, and the scene it’s recounting. Whether I’m willfully ignoring a deadline, staving off boredom, or attempting to recuperate my senses after receiving bad news, I find that to read is to be ensconced. I often read to escape the passage of time.
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