Book Group Discussion Meeting, Saturday, February 1, 2020, 2:00 PM, San Leandro Main Library

There There by Tommy Orange

Synopsis

What at first appears to be collection of short stories about urban Indians living in Oakland, California, coalesces into a novel built around a powwow taking place at the Coliseum and about the histories, dreams, and aspirations of the people planning to attend.



Tommy Orange Biography

Tommy Orange was born January 19, 1982, in Oakland, California. He grew up in Oakland's Diamond District. His father was an engineer at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and grew up as an enrolled member of the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe of Oklahoma. His mother was white. Orange majored in analog sound engineering at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico right before sound engineering went digital. He found himself working as a social worker at the Indian Center in Oakland when he came up with the idea for the book. He lives in the Gold Country now with his wife and young son and is working on several new projects.

Cast of Characters from There There

Since there are about a dozen major characters and any number of minor characters in There There, I found myself forgetting who was who almost as soon as I had finished the book. To help refresh my memory for the discussion, I found the following guide from the publisher useful, and you might too.

Tommy Orange Talks about Himself and There There

Jean found a pretty good interview with Tommy Orange on Austin PBS. At 27 minutes it is shorter than most of the interviews I found on YouTube, but I couldn't figure out how to embed it in the blog post, so you will have to click on this link to see that video. If you don't mind sitting through a video that is twice as long, here is one from YouTube that I found pretty interesting.



The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly

In There There, Tommy Orange (Thomas Frank Orange) created a character named Thomas Frank, who he states is the closest thing to a stand-in for himself in the book. Thomas Frank has a hero, an outsider artist named James Hampton, who spent 14 years creating an altar from found materials. Below is a picture of that altar, which is now in the Smithsonian. Here's a link where you can read about it.