“I didn’t set out to write a history lesson about this country or about Native people,” says Tommy Orange about his novel There There – which is Dua’s Monthly Read for March. In his conversation with Dua Lipa for this month’s Service95 Book Club video interview, he explains: “Everyone knows, for the most part, that we don’t get the whole history [about America’s Native communities]. It’s institutionalised in school about the pilgrims and Thanksgiving... and I think everyone also knows that we don’t get the rest, but nobody quite knows what that is – or they aren’t asking.”
His book explores this reality. There There follows a cast of 12 very different “Urban Indians” in modern America, from adults – single parents, filmmakers, recovering addicts – to kids searching for meaning. As their lives begin to intertwine, events build toward a violent, tragic climax at the Big Oakland Powwow, which holds deep significance for everyone involved.
During their conversation, Dua and Tommy take a deep dive into the book, from its themes to the real history behind the story – in particular the brutal treatment of Native people living in the US. Tommy talks about the parallels between the American Indian Movement’s occupation of Alcatraz in 1969 and the more recent Standing Rock demonstrations against an oil pipeline through the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s sacred land in North Dakota. “For almost two years, a group called the Indians Of All Tribes took over the island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay. It was a really extreme thing to do – and it got the nation’s attention.”
From the interview – which you can watch in full via the link below – it’s clear just how much Tommy poured himself into his characters: “Thomas Frank’s character [is] very much from me,” he says. “My legal first name is Thomas and my middle name is Frank, so I was sort of confessing to that by naming him that. And [his is] an experience that I had growing up – having a white mother and a Native father.”
As for the open-ended conclusion of his book? “It was a choice to end it with the reader not knowing the fates of some of the characters,” admits Tommy. “It requires a level of engagement, and requires the reader to engage their own hope.”
Watch Dua’s full interview with Tommy here
