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Editorial Reviews
Review
A Most Anticipated Book: TIME, Real Simple, Oprah Daily, Vulture, NPR, The Millions
“Orange’s ability to highlight the contradictory forces that coexist within friendships, familial relationships and the characters themselves, who contend with holding private and public identities, makes Wandering Stars a towering achievement.” —The New York Times
“A centuries-spanning epic of a Native family that manages to feel profoundly intimate.” —Vulture
“An eloquent indictment of the devastating long-term effects of the massacre, dislocation and forced assimilation of Native Americans, [Wandering Stars] is also a heartfelt paean to the importance of family and of ancestors' stories in recovering a sense of belonging and identity . . . Wandering Stars more than fulfills the promise of There There.” —NPR
“Outstanding . . . A dazzling work of literary fiction that springs from the center of otherness, [Wandering Stars] delves deep into what it means to be Native American in this country. At once a novel about family, loss, history, and addiction as well as a narrative that explores racism and belonging, Wandering Stars is proof that the sophomore slump is a myth, at least when it comes to Orange.” —The Boston Globe
“A multilayered, blisteringly honest novel . . . [Wandering Stars] undeniably soars.” —The San Francisco Chronicle
“A rich expansion of Orange’s universe . . . As Wandering Stars sweeps through the decades, Orange gathers up moments of love and despair in stories that demonstrate what a piercing writer he is . . . It’s not too early to say that Orange is building a body of literature that reshapes the Native American story in the United States. Book by book, he’s correcting the dearth of Indian stories even while depicting the tragic cost of that silence.” —The Washington Post
"Wandering Stars probes the aftermath of atrocity, seeing history and its horrors as heritable . . . The reader can see what the characters cannot—what forced migration and residential schools have prevented them from seeing and sharing. The reader can see how the addictions and terrors, as well as the capacity for pleasure and endurance, echo across the Red Feather family." —The New Yorker
“In Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange finds different pockets, not just to flex, but to really get to beyond the marrow of this wonderfully blistered world. The work is so varied and textured but also ruthlessly clear in what it’s costing and what it’s destroying.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
“If there was any doubt after his incredible debut, there should be none now: Tommy Orange is one of our most important writers. The way he weaves time and life together, demands we remember how our history shapes us. In this novel the pain and resilience of generations are summoned beautifully. A wonderous journey and a necessary reminder.” —Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah, author of Chain Gang All Stars
“No one knows how to express tenderness and yearning like Tommy Orange. With an all-seeing heart, he traces historical and contemporary cruelties, vagaries, salvations and solutions visited upon young Cheyenne people, who cope with the impossible. In them, Tommy finds the unnerving strength that results when a broken spirit mends itself, when a wandering star finds its place, when, in spite of everything, Native people manage to survive.” —Louise Erdrich, author of The Sentence
“Here is something rare: a novel as generous as it is genius. The care coursing through these pages—care for people, care for art, care for truth—is nothing short of radical. Orange writes with a historian’s attention to detail and a poet’s attention to language, animating every passage with an energy that only he can conjure, transfixing and transforming. Wandering Stars is not just a book; it is a creature made of song and blood, multitudinous and infinite. This novel is alive.” —Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch
“In his follow up to There There, Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars is a powerful and indelible work of fiction. There is so much the reader is given: love, hate, happiness, despair, knowing, unknowing, failure, redemption, and more, all of which is to say that this is a book of life—a necessary story for everyone. For the sake of knowing, of understanding, Wandering Stars blew my heart into a thousand pieces and put it all back together again. This is a masterwork that will not be forgotten, a masterwork that will forever be part of you.” —Morgan Talty, best selling author of Night of the Living Rez
“In Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange opens us up to these big lives full of hope and triumph and love and freedom—but then the world comes in, history comes in, drugs and nation and bullets and the big and small lonelinesses come in. Richard Pryor said he wanted to get you laughing so your mouth would be open when he poured the poison down, and that's what Orange is doing here. Anyone can say a complicated thing in a complicated way, but Tommy says the hardest things plain—beyond artifice, beyond confection. That clarity, that radical lucidity, that’s the mark of true genius, a word I use here without hyperbole. Think Kafka, Lispector, Borges. Wandering Stars is the kind of book that saves lives, that makes remaining in the world feel a little more possible. It’s art of the highest order, written by one of our language’s most significant and urgent practitioners.” —Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!
"I don't know how many lives Tommy Orange has lived in this one to be able to do what he does so well, but Wandering Stars is a masterwork and an example of craft meeting storytelling excellence. If you loved Susan Power's The Grass Dancer and Michelle Good's Five Little Indians, if you love the writing of Lee Maracle, katherena vermette, Louise Erdrich, Cherie Demaline, Eden Robinson, Craig Lesley, Morgan Talty and James Welch, you are going to hold this novel to your heart because this is that magnificent. Bravo, Tommy Orange. Stand proud with what you've accomplished here. Wow!" —Richard Van Camp, author of The Moon of Letting Go
“A stirring portrait of the fractured but resilient Bear Shield-Red Feather family in the wake of the Oakland powwow shooting that closed out the previous book . . . With incandescent prose and precise insights, Orange mines the gaps in his characters’ memories and finds meaning in the stories of their lives. This devastating narrative confirms Orange’s essential place in the canon of Native American literature.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A searing study of the consequences of a genocide . . . Orange is gifted at elevating his characters without romanticizing them, and though the cast is smaller than in There There, the sense of history is deeper.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Tender yet eviscerating . . . There is so much life in this mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic novel . . . Orange's second novel is both prequel and sequel to the striking There, There and a centuries-spanning novel that stands firmly on its own.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Orange’s ability to highlight the contradictory forces that coexist within friendships, familial relationships and the characters themselves, who contend with holding private and public identities, makes Wandering Stars a towering achievement.” —The New York Times
“A centuries-spanning epic of a Native family that manages to feel profoundly intimate.” —Vulture
“An eloquent indictment of the devastating long-term effects of the massacre, dislocation and forced assimilation of Native Americans, [Wandering Stars] is also a heartfelt paean to the importance of family and of ancestors' stories in recovering a sense of belonging and identity . . . Wandering Stars more than fulfills the promise of There There.” —NPR
“Outstanding . . . A dazzling work of literary fiction that springs from the center of otherness, [Wandering Stars] delves deep into what it means to be Native American in this country. At once a novel about family, loss, history, and addiction as well as a narrative that explores racism and belonging, Wandering Stars is proof that the sophomore slump is a myth, at least when it comes to Orange.” —The Boston Globe
“A multilayered, blisteringly honest novel . . . [Wandering Stars] undeniably soars.” —The San Francisco Chronicle
“A rich expansion of Orange’s universe . . . As Wandering Stars sweeps through the decades, Orange gathers up moments of love and despair in stories that demonstrate what a piercing writer he is . . . It’s not too early to say that Orange is building a body of literature that reshapes the Native American story in the United States. Book by book, he’s correcting the dearth of Indian stories even while depicting the tragic cost of that silence.” —The Washington Post
"Wandering Stars probes the aftermath of atrocity, seeing history and its horrors as heritable . . . The reader can see what the characters cannot—what forced migration and residential schools have prevented them from seeing and sharing. The reader can see how the addictions and terrors, as well as the capacity for pleasure and endurance, echo across the Red Feather family." —The New Yorker
“In Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange finds different pockets, not just to flex, but to really get to beyond the marrow of this wonderfully blistered world. The work is so varied and textured but also ruthlessly clear in what it’s costing and what it’s destroying.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
“If there was any doubt after his incredible debut, there should be none now: Tommy Orange is one of our most important writers. The way he weaves time and life together, demands we remember how our history shapes us. In this novel the pain and resilience of generations are summoned beautifully. A wonderous journey and a necessary reminder.” —Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah, author of Chain Gang All Stars
“No one knows how to express tenderness and yearning like Tommy Orange. With an all-seeing heart, he traces historical and contemporary cruelties, vagaries, salvations and solutions visited upon young Cheyenne people, who cope with the impossible. In them, Tommy finds the unnerving strength that results when a broken spirit mends itself, when a wandering star finds its place, when, in spite of everything, Native people manage to survive.” —Louise Erdrich, author of The Sentence
“Here is something rare: a novel as generous as it is genius. The care coursing through these pages—care for people, care for art, care for truth—is nothing short of radical. Orange writes with a historian’s attention to detail and a poet’s attention to language, animating every passage with an energy that only he can conjure, transfixing and transforming. Wandering Stars is not just a book; it is a creature made of song and blood, multitudinous and infinite. This novel is alive.” —Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch
“In his follow up to There There, Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars is a powerful and indelible work of fiction. There is so much the reader is given: love, hate, happiness, despair, knowing, unknowing, failure, redemption, and more, all of which is to say that this is a book of life—a necessary story for everyone. For the sake of knowing, of understanding, Wandering Stars blew my heart into a thousand pieces and put it all back together again. This is a masterwork that will not be forgotten, a masterwork that will forever be part of you.” —Morgan Talty, best selling author of Night of the Living Rez
“In Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange opens us up to these big lives full of hope and triumph and love and freedom—but then the world comes in, history comes in, drugs and nation and bullets and the big and small lonelinesses come in. Richard Pryor said he wanted to get you laughing so your mouth would be open when he poured the poison down, and that's what Orange is doing here. Anyone can say a complicated thing in a complicated way, but Tommy says the hardest things plain—beyond artifice, beyond confection. That clarity, that radical lucidity, that’s the mark of true genius, a word I use here without hyperbole. Think Kafka, Lispector, Borges. Wandering Stars is the kind of book that saves lives, that makes remaining in the world feel a little more possible. It’s art of the highest order, written by one of our language’s most significant and urgent practitioners.” —Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!
"I don't know how many lives Tommy Orange has lived in this one to be able to do what he does so well, but Wandering Stars is a masterwork and an example of craft meeting storytelling excellence. If you loved Susan Power's The Grass Dancer and Michelle Good's Five Little Indians, if you love the writing of Lee Maracle, katherena vermette, Louise Erdrich, Cherie Demaline, Eden Robinson, Craig Lesley, Morgan Talty and James Welch, you are going to hold this novel to your heart because this is that magnificent. Bravo, Tommy Orange. Stand proud with what you've accomplished here. Wow!" —Richard Van Camp, author of The Moon of Letting Go
“A stirring portrait of the fractured but resilient Bear Shield-Red Feather family in the wake of the Oakland powwow shooting that closed out the previous book . . . With incandescent prose and precise insights, Orange mines the gaps in his characters’ memories and finds meaning in the stories of their lives. This devastating narrative confirms Orange’s essential place in the canon of Native American literature.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A searing study of the consequences of a genocide . . . Orange is gifted at elevating his characters without romanticizing them, and though the cast is smaller than in There There, the sense of history is deeper.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Tender yet eviscerating . . . There is so much life in this mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic novel . . . Orange's second novel is both prequel and sequel to the striking There, There and a centuries-spanning novel that stands firmly on its own.” —Booklist (starred review)
About the Author
TOMMY ORANGEis a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Oakland, California. His first book, There There, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and received the 2019 American Book Award. He lives in Oakland, California.
Review:
4.2 out of 5
84.62% of customers are satisfied
5.0 out of 5 stars Sandcreek without acrimony and revenge
What an insightful and captivating book. It's a pleasure to read such excellent prose.
4.0 out of 5 stars Tommy Orange never disappoints
This book is right up there with the rest of his work. It’s intimate, poetic, easy, but also grappling and raw. It’s what I expect to get out of a good book. There There is still better imo, but this one comes in close second.
3.0 out of 5 stars Sophomore Slump
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book
Tommy Orange has created a more than close to the heart story about generations of a Native American family. The details cover such a wide range of emotions as the years slide by. Quite simply it is a real eye opener. Highly recommended.
4.0 out of 5 stars Broke my heart
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.)
5.0 out of 5 stars Recommend
This was one of my favorite reads of the year.
5.0 out of 5 stars Enlarges on previous work "There There"
Extremely informative on native American history. Should be mandatory reading in all high schools.
4.0 out of 5 stars Stay for the second half
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.
Frustrating
There There was one of my favourite books and I really wanted to enjoy Wandering Stars, but somehow the magic was missing in this one. I’m still looking forward to his next offering, though.
Indianische Familiengeschichte über anderthalb Jahrhunderte
Tommy Orange, „Wandering Stars“ USA/UK 2024Nach seinem Erstling “There There“ (deutsch „Dort Dort“) ist „Wandering Stars“ der zweite Roman des Cheyenne-Indianers Tommy Orange, und – wer hätte das gedacht – er setzt sich erneut damit auseinander, was es bedeutet, Indianer zu sein in einer Welt, die einen eigentlich für ausgerottet hält. Die beiden Romane sind eng miteinander verknüpft, aber es handelt sich nicht um eine simple Fortsetzung, im Gegenteil.Erst in „Wandering Stars“ greift Orange zurück an den Ursprung seiner Geschichte, das Sand Creek Massaker von 1864, bei dem rund 150 Frauen, Kinder und Alte der Cheyennes und Arapahos von US-Soldaten getötet wurden. Überlebende wurden als Kriegsgefangene nach Fort Marion in Florida gebracht, der Urvater von Oranges Familiengeschichte, Jude Star, und dessen Freund Victor Bear Shield sind auch darunter. Unter der Regie des naiv wohlwollenden Indianer-Umerziehers Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924) sollen sie in dem sternförmigen Fort zu zivilisierten Amerikanern werden, ihnen werden die Haare abgeschnitten, die Kleider weggenommen, Sprache und Kultur verboten, soweit sie nicht zur Sensation für weiße Besucher dienen, sie bekommen Bibel- und Englisch-Unterricht und zivilisierte neue Namen. Jude Star entnimmt seinen dem Judas-Brief aus der Bibel, Victor Bear Shield wählt seinen Vornamen aus Mary Shelleys „Frankenstein“-Roman. Die Familien von Jude Star und Victor Bear Shield werden später miteinander verbunden, indem Victors Tochter Opal und Judes Sohn Charles miteinander leben wollen und ein Kind zeugen – das Leben wird ihnen verwehrt, aber das Kind Victoria Bear Shield (= Vicky), dessen Mutter Opal bei der Geburt stirbt, wächst in einer weißen Familie auf und erfährt spät, dass sie eine Cheyenne ist. Auch Vickys Leben verläuft alles andere als geradlinig, sie bekommt zwei Töchter von verschiedenen Männern, bevor sie an Krebs stirbt, und die Mädchen Jacquie Red Feather und Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield tun alles, um ihr Leben in „normale“ Bahnen zu lenken. Opal gelingt das einigermaßen, Jacquie bringt von einem Unbekannten eine Tochter zur Welt, die sich drogensüchtig erschießt, nachdem sie selbst Mutter dreier Söhne geworden ist, die anschließend bei ihrer Großtante Opal aufwachsen – Jacquie ist nach dem Selbstmord ihrer Tochter jahrelang alkoholkrank. Die drei Jungs kamen bereits heroinkrank zur Welt.Die Kurzzusammenfassung lässt schon erkennen, dass es sich bei allen Personen um immer wieder abbrechende, scheiternde und unrealisierbare Lebensentwürfe handelt. Sie alle leiden unbewusst am Verlust ihrer indianischen Identität, die ihnen Halt gegeben und sie mit ihren Vorfahren und der Erde verbunden hätte. Endet der Roman „There There“, in dem Indianer keinen Ort haben, mit einem Desaster bei dem Versuch, einen neuen Ort einzurichten - so haben in „Wandering Stars“ Jacquies Enkelsöhne zuletzt doch eine Ahnung, wohin sie gehören, dass es in ihnen selbst Möglichkeiten gibt, ihre Herkunft, ihre tiefen Bindungen wieder zu finden. „Wandering Stars“ endet mit einer leisen, intensiven Hoffnung – der deutsche Titel „Verlorene Sterne“ ist ganz unangemessen, auch einige subtile Verbindungen und vor allem der lockere Erzählton gehen in der Übersetzung verloren. Die Symbolik der „Sterne“ blitzt in verschiedensten Zusammenhängen auf – sie beginnt mit dem Namen von Urvater Jude Star und dem sternförmigen Fort Marion, und sie endet nicht mit dem sternförmigen Schrapnell, das nach der Powwow-Schießerei von „There There“ in Orvils Körper herumwandert. Wandernde Sterne sind auch die Figuren selbst, die sich nach abbrechenden Lebensbahnen neu finden müssen.Tommy Orange hat einen Roman in leicht lesbarer Alltagssprache geschrieben, der es aber in sich hat, was die Erzählstruktur betrifft. Die verläuft keineswegs geradlinig, sondern in kompliziert miteinander verbundenen Vorgriffen und Nachblicken und stets wechselnden Perspektiven. Oft weiß man zu Beginn eines Kapitels nicht, von wem die Rede ist, und der abenteuerlichste innere Monolog ist der von Opal Viola Bear Shield, die mit ihrem ungeborenen Kind spricht, während sie dessen Vater, den toten Charles, auf einem Pferd abtransportiert, um ihn draußen in der Natur nach Cheyenne-Sitte in Tücher gewickelt hoch oben auf einem Baum zu bestatten. Trotz der Bizarrerie dieser Situation ist Oranges Sprache hier von tiefer poetischer Kraft, ähnlich wie später der ungewöhnliche, halb innere, halb von außen kommende Monolog der an Krebs sterbenden Vicky. Das Bewusstsein von Sterbenden erfährt bei Orange eine sprachliche Durchdringung, als sei es erst das Sterben, das Indianer zu sich selbst brächte; das ließ sich schon in „There There“ wahrnehmen, wo am Ende so viel Blut fließt. Aber das Ende von „Wandering Stars“ zielt darauf ab, das Sterben, das Abbrechen der Lebensentwürfe als Durchgang zu einer neuen Identität der Lebenden zu erfahren. Ein schönes, komplexes, schwieriges Buch. Mal so Drüberlesen genügt nicht.
Touching, transformational, tragic and epic
Reading this book was like being repeatedly punched in the stomach, yet I could not put it down, and I felt all the stories reverberate in my soul. Thank you for your courage in living and telling us these stories.
A Triumphant Prequel/Sequel to the Pulitzer Finalist "There There"
A Triumphant Prequel/Sequel to the Pulitzer Finalist "There There"
Disappointing follow-up novel
The inventiveness and creativity that fuelled the first book are missing. It's just flat.
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Wandering Stars: A novel
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