LogFAQs > #942241257

Terminonatator posted...

I couldn't get into this book. Might be the worst book I've read in recent memory. There are just too many characters to be given anything but a superficial treatment in the 300 pages or so allotted to them. Personality development is very shallow, and they're all messed up of course. Is it too boring for a novel to feature a couple grounded, well-adjusted characters?

This shallowness is also found in the notion that this book is a great account of the "urban Indian." Nope, it isn't. Although it's true that most Native Americans live in cities and not Reservations, so many still have strong connections to the Rez: relatives are still there, growing up happened there, Reservation landscapes are essential to spirituality and identity. None of this is present in "There There." It's as though these people sprang into existence ex nihilo. They have little or no backstory. For an excellent "urban Indian" novel from a much, much better writer, read "The Hiawatha" by David Treuer.

Finally, the ending of "There There" is simply bizarre, even ridiculous (spoiler alert). Some of the characters try to rob a Powwow, and for no apparent reason one of them starts shooting another, who returns fire, and in the shootout nearly all of the characters are hit. Mr. Orange prefers coyness to closure and does not indicate who lives and who dies. What's the point?

I can agree with your first point to a degree. Character-wise they could all be developed a lot more. Personally I still greatly enjoyed the book both plot-wise and the characters, however shallowly developed most of them were.

I disagree somewhat with your second point though. As someone with Native ancestry who lives in the Bay Area, this novel hit particularly close to home. I haven't really felt a personal connection with a novel particularly like this before. I think I didn't need a lot of the characters developed further for the book to work for me because I know people like the characters, including me, and was probably projecting a bit of us onto them. I'll definitely check out The Hiawatha though! I haven't read a lot of Native fiction myself, so it's definitely something I want to explore more. I've got The Round House by Louise Erdrich coming up on my list soon.

Personally I liked the ending and the bit of bizarreness and ambiguity to it!