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Ricki Brodie's Reviews > Wandering Stars
Wandering Stars
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Tommy Orange has created a remarkable, haunting sequel to There, There. The looming question is how did the characters in his award-winning book get to where they were and how do they move forward. Orange has us look at the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, in addition to the horrific devastation, he shows us the trauma faced by the survivors. Just as ancestors pass down genes, it appears trauma is passed down in collective memories.
Jude Star, a child, escaped the massacre, but lost his voice. He found a friend in Victor Bird Shield. They traveled, were arrested, were subjected to deprogramming of their Native ways, eventually released and married. Their children were sent to a school to erase all remnants of a Native’s essence. Jude’s son who was was subject to torture by his father� prior warden, escaped to Oakland where Victor’s daughter Opal, with child, joined him.
Opal had a daughter who then had two daughters, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield and Jacquie Red Feather by two fathers. Men never seemed to stay around for long with the women in this ancestral line. It was this last Opal who was raising Jacquie’s grandsons at the time of the powwow mass shooting in There, There.
It is at this point that we find Orvil, the eldest grandson, in the hospital with a bullet lodged in him. He becomes obsessed with mass shootings and seeks comfort in drugs. Unfortunately, drug addiction took his mother and dug its tentacles into his grandmother. His youngest brother, unable to express his trauma after witnessing the events, resorts to cutting himself and performing ceremonies in the hopes of finding peace in his Native roots. Loother, the middle child uses writing as a release.
There is not a person who escapes from the past and present traumas of being an indigenous person in America. The brilliant writing takes you into their world, their pain, their hopes. It is an important read not because it is a great book but because we should not forget our brutal past and hopefully learn from it. Thank you Tommy Orange. And thank you NetGalley.
Jude Star, a child, escaped the massacre, but lost his voice. He found a friend in Victor Bird Shield. They traveled, were arrested, were subjected to deprogramming of their Native ways, eventually released and married. Their children were sent to a school to erase all remnants of a Native’s essence. Jude’s son who was was subject to torture by his father� prior warden, escaped to Oakland where Victor’s daughter Opal, with child, joined him.
Opal had a daughter who then had two daughters, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield and Jacquie Red Feather by two fathers. Men never seemed to stay around for long with the women in this ancestral line. It was this last Opal who was raising Jacquie’s grandsons at the time of the powwow mass shooting in There, There.
It is at this point that we find Orvil, the eldest grandson, in the hospital with a bullet lodged in him. He becomes obsessed with mass shootings and seeks comfort in drugs. Unfortunately, drug addiction took his mother and dug its tentacles into his grandmother. His youngest brother, unable to express his trauma after witnessing the events, resorts to cutting himself and performing ceremonies in the hopes of finding peace in his Native roots. Loother, the middle child uses writing as a release.
There is not a person who escapes from the past and present traumas of being an indigenous person in America. The brilliant writing takes you into their world, their pain, their hopes. It is an important read not because it is a great book but because we should not forget our brutal past and hopefully learn from it. Thank you Tommy Orange. And thank you NetGalley.
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Reading Progress
December 10, 2023
–
Started Reading
December 10, 2023
– Shelved
December 15, 2023
–
Finished Reading
