Wandering Stars: A novel

This story is a novel of truth and finding and then accepting truth. This story is a story of a people who are lost on their own land. Land stolen from them. What is so hurtful is that we as a nation don't recognize or won't recognize the injustice done to the Native American. I particularly liked the "factoids" presented not only about NA's in general, but the depiction os the addictive life and constant struggle. The struggle that so many lose.

I read this on my kindle first. It is so good I ordered the hardback edition (from Louise Erdrich's bookstore Birch Bark) because I have to hold it and keep it and read it again. This book, like There, There is a example of what Franz Kafka was talking about when he said "The book must be the axe that breaks the frozen soul within us." I read There, There twice and now, after finishing Wandering Stars, I'm headed back to read it again, so I can read Wandering Stars again. Too beautifully painfully hopeful for words. What a talent. I hope he becomes a prolific writer. I see major prizes in his future (Pulitzer, Nobel, etc.).

Thank you, Tommy Orange, for conceptualizing this story and sharing it. The complexities of addiction, generational trauma, genocide, and how these all are intertwined in our lives and families gave me food for thought time and time again. I had to read this in bits and pieces, but getting to know the characters and bearing witness to their pain feels like a kind of connection that is uncommon. I also got to see another side of Oakland. Lony’s lost letter was such a perfect way to end it, I hope he found his way home. I hope we all do.

This is some sad history for our country. At times I found it hard to read for a couple of reasons, the subject matter, and I had some trouble following it. However, I am glad I read it. I have lived in the East Bay Area for over 50 years, so the setting in Oakland was very familiar. I realize it is fiction, but I know it's based on fact, and I am sorry people have gone (and are going) through this. Read it.

I love Tommy Orange's prose and his insights into the characters, yet I could not read this novel steadily, as I did with There There. The story is extremely painful, and some of the interludes did not hold my attention. The tale of intergenerational trauma was well told, and the interior monologues of Orvil, Lony, and Loother were sad, funny, and captivating at the same time. Yet, I felt that the author blew by some of the earlier characters without fully developing them. Perhaps a more aggressive editor could have shaped the book better. Still, I look forward to his next work, even though I did not feel that this one compared favorably to There There. (I did appreciate the genealogy chart, because I had to refer to it several times.)

The second half of the book is completely different than the first so if you don't find it compelling at first, keep reading, it's worth it. The first part is going back in time to tell the story of a few native americans (ancestors of the main characters) who survived a massacre and their struggles during the turn of the century to have a meaningful life in the white man's world. Lots of interesting history but told in a dry sort of convoluted way where I was often unsure what exactly was happening. The second half follows the current day characters from There There, the Redfeather brothers. It's beautifully written, almost poetic. Told from 3 brother's viewpoints, their native american perspective living in current day Oakland. Stuggles with addiction, identity, and family. Loved it.

What happened after the shooting at the powwow in There There? Well, you have to slog through 1/3 of Wandering Stars to find out. The first 80 pages recount the mainstreaming of natives after the Sand Creek Massacre, told through the lives of survivors and their descendants, beginning in 1864. It's a bummer of a read because we don't stay with each character long enough to connect with them. Instead we get pages and pages of white men violently deracinating each successive generation of the Star and Bear Shield families. They are left disenfranchised and identity-less, unequipped to deal with racist western civilization. All this occurs with an anvil-to-the-skull level of subtlety, and with none of the humor that made There There such a good book. Orange is terrific with contemporary scenes and dialog. Period fiction, not so much.

After that miserable history we finally get back to modern Oakland and pick up with Orvil and Jacquie Red Feather. Orvil becomes a teenage addict after he was shot; Jacquie's a recovering addict. In fact, the remaining 2/3 of the book focuses on folks getting high and then dealing with or succumbing to addiction. It doesn't make for enjoyable reading.

There's a lot of circular, repetitive prose in this book. Example: "But the idea of it is impossible to shake, because if you’ve felt it before, to have touched the bliss of oblivion is to have already gone too far past yourself, past self-interest, into that othered beyond where all that matters is dutifully obeying the need for the need like an itch that’s impossible to not scratch but also impossible to scratch enough to fulfill what the itch is asking for." The writing is different and challenging, but the cleverness gets tiresome.

It's easy to like and connect with Orvil and his little brothers, Lony and Loother. Orange depicts family dynamics expertly. The relationships between the boys and their grandma and grandaunt are the bright spots of the book, and make it worth reading. There are parts that are genuinely funny. It's interesting how deftly Orange can jump back and forth between first and third person in the telling. But readers who tune in for a sequel to There There will be disappointed by a book that's pretty low on action and populated by depressed drug addicts. It's a tragic community that's constantly despairing over the loss of its native identity at the merciless hands of white America. The book isn't exactly outright contemptuous of white people, but it's noticeable that there are no sympathetic or appealing white characters.

Orange's was a new, distinct voice in his debut novel. He's still got it in Wandering Stars, but the second time out the story is a lot less compelling.