Henk's Reviews > Wandering Stars

Longlisted for the Bookerprize 2024.
Orange details the challenges of surviving in the world, and the coping mechanisms that wreck the Native American community in an impressive manner. I am not fully sure if the modern and historic timelines are synergistic in the novel
A bad thing doesn’t stop happening to you just because it stops happening to you

I would say that There There, the debut of Tommy Orange is a more impressive novel, but still reading Wandering Stars is an experience. Taking its name not just of the historical name for planets but also of bullets that are left to wander the body and show up on scans as "stars", we are presented with massacres, boarding schools that have as motto: You killed the Indian to save the man. And alcoholism.
Orange makes one of his characters say: But I didn’t believe stories were made to comfort and that is definitely true for this sophomore novel as well.

The events mentioned above are just from the first part of the novel, which takes us into the world of some of the ancestors to the characters we got to know in There There.
The second part of the book is set in the aftermath of events from There There and the situation is grim after the mass shooting that occurred at the end of that book.

Cutting and addictions (uppers and downers, MDMA, ketamine, fentanyl) as coping mechanisms, the alcoholism of the previous generations seems nearly benign. And then we also have cancer and statistics in respect to native youth suicide rates and characters dropping out of school.
The current day is also captured by references to Marvel, Donny Darko, therapy and therapy dogs. At times I thought that if I would see “hella” one more time I would take a star of my rating, but the way the author captures the narrative voices is impressive nonetheless.

I would say that the structure of There There, leading to the Big Oakland Powwow, made more sense to me, and that is even taken into account I connected more with the characters in the modern day timeline. Still Orange his writing, despite the heavy themes, is very easy to read and this book strangely is more hopeful in a sense than his debut.

Quotes:
You killed the Indian to save the men

To be human was to struggle

A bad thing doesn’t stop happening to you just because it stops happening to you

Bullets wandering the body called wandering stars

Not sure how the current day timeline and the historical timeline work together
Sure, both are about addiction and surviving the world

Didn’t all the best musicians do drugs and drop out of school?

There is always further down to fall

I still don’t know how to trust what I love