Tommy Orange. THERE THERE. Penguin, 2018.
Set in Oakland, 21st century. A series of characters, each allocated chapters, are readying themselves to attend a big powwow.
A lot of personal, familial, and social trauma. Incredibly beautifully written. It seems to me that the overall theme, what most of the characters are thinking about, is what does it mean to be an Indian today? Is the writer asking, when you get right down to it, back to it, will there be any there there?
The title, from a song, originally a quote from Gertrude Stein's memoir of her home city. That when she returned to Oakland to visit, there was no there there. Who knew?
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