Tommy Orange’s first two books, There There and Wandering Stars
Francine Prose: “Deploying the capaciousness and elasticity of the novel form, Orange switches back and forth from the intimate to the panoramic, from the present to the past. He can probe deeply into each character’s psyche…. Then he can pull back to give us an overview of the social, political, and economic forces that have helped shape their circumstances and identities, their connections to the wider world.”
Prose: "Like many of Orange’s characters, the isolated, chronically constipated, computer-addicted Edwin Black is concerned with matters of authenticity: how to feel like part of a community, how to honor and restore traditions that have been distorted and erased by the dominant culture, how to avoid being mired in history. What I wish for Edwin is that he could not only be in a Tommy Orange novel but read one. There There and Wandering Stars strike me as complex, inspired answers to the questions that torment Edwin. Orange’s portrayal of the Native community in Oakland, California, is nuanced, sharp, and contemporary. He examines, with sympathy and a bracing lack of sentimentality, the ways that traditions can be respected and reinvigorated, and how the present—without being 'stuck in the past'—is informed by everything that preceded it."