I feel like I’m on a reading kick lately. Last night I managed to read the first fifty pages of There There by Tommy Orange. I wasn’t anticipating picking this up just yet but I couldn’t resist. I’ve waited too long to read this book as it is.
The prologue had me hooked and after the first chapter I was head over heels in love. I didn’t expect to love it. As a matter of fact, I was worried I wouldn’t get on with this book well. In case you weren’t aware: There There is told through twelve individual characters’ perspectives. Twelve. That’s a lot. I was ready for each chapter to boil over into the next and then the next and then the next. I don’t feel this way about it yet. Each chapter feels like it’s own individual story with its own unique voice. It hasn’t been confusing, granted, I haven’t set it aside for days at a time and frankly, I don’t see myself putting it down.
My main concern with having multiple narrators like this, is whether they’re all necessary. Not so much in moving the plot forward as plot isn’t essential to the novel. So much as what they each have to contribute to the motives of the novel.
That’s for another day.
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