#33. An Abrupt Ending – There There by Tommy Orange (Audible)

I was starting to get worried that I would never find a novel with an abrupt ending. How do you go about choosing a book with an abrupt ending, without having to read a book in the first place to find out if it has one or not?! Some of the books I’ve read in this challenge did have an abrupt ending, but I wanted them for other categories, in fact this book was supposed to be for #46 Featuring Indigenous Culture, but, when this book reached its ending, I was shocked. The book just stopped. Dead. 

I had to dig out my phone and check it was the end of the book. What happened to these characters I had started to learn about? I don’t know…it was a real cliff hanger, but then I guess, so is life…you meet people, you start to find out about them, and then they just disappear from your life.

 

“Jacquie Red Feather and her sister Opal grew up together, relying on each other during their unsettled childhood. As adults they were driven apart, but Jacquie is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. That’s why she is there.

Dene is there because he has been collecting stories to honour his uncle's death. Edwin is looking for his true father. Opal came to watch her boy Orvil dance. All of them are connected by bonds they may not yet understand.

All of them are there for the cultural celebration that is the Big Oakland Powwow.

But Tony Loneman is also there. And Tony has come to the Powwow with darker intentions.”

 

This book starts out referencing urban Indians, explaining to the reader about the loss of homelands and past genocides which has trickled through their descendants so that their culture has, in many instances, become lost. The people, just another part of history.  

Following his uncle’s death, Dene Oxedene has decided to get his life back together. He is going to collect stories about urban Indians, stories that tell of the modern-day issues Native Americans face, and how they still feel that they don’t belong in “our” society. Perhaps if their voices are heard, they may begin to heal. He isn’t interested too much in the old ways of reservation life, he wants to understand how, or indeed if, the modern Indians identify with their heritage. 

Dene’s uncle always spoke fondly about making a film one day, however, he never did, and so Dene decides he will apply for a grant to make a film, in which he sets up a camera and gets people to speak about their lives and to share their stories. From these stories, he hopes a film will take shape, showing how the displacement of the Indians, as Tommy Orange refers to them, has affected an entire community, in favour of the white man who threw them from their lands. 

An opportunity arises at the Oakland Powwow for him to video the stories of twelve different people, each will receive some money for sharing their story. This book tells, in alternating voices, the stories of these twelve characters. Each one has a different tale to tell, but all the people have struggled in one way or another. Some have struggled with drug addiction, some with poverty, others with loss of family or the sense of community. Some would argue that these are just the struggles of modern society, but what if you have that added layer of constantly feeling like you don’t belong? You don’t know why, or what can be done to help you feel as though you should be where you are, you just know that you don’t belong.

Whilst all of the characters are from Indian heritage, some have been raised to embrace their heritage, whilst others have been told to disregard it…it’s not deemed important in the modern world. Others are brought up in white households and have no idea about the ways of the past. It is these struggles with identity and how they have lost their culture that connect these disparate people; most have been born into a modern life, they have never lived on a reservation, but the blood bond is deep, and they all feel a sense that something is missing from their lives. It is the loss of their culture that makes them feel as if they don’t belong anywhere, and the Powwow is something to look forward to, to give them the opportunity to try and heal their fractured souls.

Just as all the characters have their own reasons for feeling as though they are outsiders, each of the characters have their own reasons for wanting to attend the Powwow. A boy wishes to perform his native dance despite having little knowledge about his culture; he believes that if he performs the dance with heart and soul, he will begin to understand who he is and achieve a sense of belonging. It is this pure naivety that makes you want to embrace him and let him know that things will turn out well for him.

As each person shares their story, we find some stories interlock with others. As readers we begin to understand the hurt and anger these people feel and how others view wanting to retain a part of your heritage as a waste of time.

As the day of the Powwow draws nearer and nearer, there is this impending sense of doom. Whilst most people have the best of intentions for heading to the Powwow, not all people are pure souls, and their darkness begins to overshadow the tale. As a reader, or listener, you can tell something major is going to happen, because the tempo of the book changes via shorter chapters. We leap from one character to another and back again in quick succession. Yet as the tension ramps into a crescendo, the book ends.

It actually makes sense to end the book where Orange has, the event has happened, we thought we knew what was going to happen and it has, so there is nothing more to share. But on the other hand, you feel a little short-changed, we have built a relationship with these people, we want to know what happens to them next, and so you’re questioning…well what happened to x and what happened to y? But the fact that you are questioning shows what an impact these people’s stories have had on you. You invested your time and understanding in these fictitious people, but deep down you know these stories probably ring true with so many people who are displaced from their homes and forced to survive in places that feel alien to them.

Tommy Orange has written a powerful debut novel, which highlights the impact that destroying a community can have many generations down the line. It is a tale told which shows no hope or humanity, it is very bleak, but perhaps that’s the point and why he ended it as he did.

Regarding the Audible version of the book especially, the stories, and the Powwow, were dramatically enhanced using music and drums, which gave a sense of being there in the middle of a turbulent situation.  You could feel the emotions as events unfurled. It was almost like hearing something in slow motion, you knew what would inevitably happen, but you couldn’t do anything about it.

 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Indigenous,

Release Date: 5^th July 2018

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Listening Time: 8h

 

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