Ceremony: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Reviews

• "It's not easy to fix things up again."

  
  By A1TIZI060W4BD9 on 2001-10-23
  I'd read some of Leslie Marmon Silko's short stories before starting on this novel. They were like gems, polished, smooth, and echoing with a gentle quiet not commonly found in English literature. CEREMONY is a far more ambitious undertaking; the building of a literary castle. Set in New Mexico, in and around Laguna Pueblo, immediately after WW II, the plot concerns a young Indian war veteran who has been traumatized by his experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese. When we meet him, he's barely conscious, being released from a mental hospital. He lost his half-brother on the Bataan death march, his favorite uncle had died at home, a herd of special cattle---adapted to life in the desert---has disappeared, and his old friends are drinking themselves away in bars. To top it all off, Tayo, the central character, is illegitimate and half-white, raised by relatives, not accepted fully by everyone in the family. He seems destined for the asylum, jail, an early death from alcohol, or suicide; not exactly unknown fates for young Indians then or now.

  Elders arrange a healing ceremony for him, but the healer is a maverick, not tied to traditional methods. Tayo's whole life and consciousness merge into the healing process and that process begins to look like a prescription for the Indian peoples in North America to heal nearly-fatal wounds dealt their cultures over the last five centuries. Silko sees the materialism and violence of Western civilization as a curse threatening the continued existence of everyone on the planet, a curse stemming from evil itself rather than from a particular group of people. In tones that ring most uncannily today, she wrote in 1977 [p.191] "If the white people never looked beyond the lie, to see that theirs was a nation built on stolen land, then they would never be able to understand how they had been used by the witchery; they would never know that they were still being manipulated by those who knew how to stir the ingredients together: white thievery and injustice boiling up the anger and hatred that would finally destroy the world: the starving against the fat, the colored against the white."

  The ceremony thus begins as a curative ritual for a single man, but expands beyond a simple hogaan to the whole world. Dream figures come to life, life becomes a dream, life is healing and healing is life. Silko attempted a very difficult task and I am not sure that it is entirely successful. Sometimes, the pieces don't seem to match. Her World War II sequences don't ring entirely true either. Americans never evicted Japanese soldiers from caves before the Bataan death march; they were not executing prisoners then. The shoe was on the other foot. But these are quibbles. CEREMONY's language, the poetry, the beauty of the land, the theme of healing--- all come through to make an unforgettable novel, an original voice that deserves an honored place in American literature. If you have a special interest in Native American literature and have enjoyed N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, or Sherman Alexie, Silko's work will be a welcome addition.
  
  

• Everyman's journey

  
  By A3IE3XMT2FO0GX on 2002-05-13
  Never have I read such a novel as cathartic and therapeutic as Silko's "Ceremony". I first encountered it in an English Lit. class in college. As 'sophomoric' as I thought I was at the time, it was not until a few years later that I reread the novel and fully grasped what was being said through the protagonist Tayo and his actions.

  "Ceremony" is a journey of the soul, a Bataan Death March that we are all forced to experience at some point or another in our lives. That is what makes this novel timeless and accessible to us all. Leslie Marmon Silko, who I believe won a literary award for this novel, opens the heart and mind of the reader to a theme which has been recorded since the ancient Greeks (see Aeschylus' "Oresteia"), that of mathos through pathos, enlightenment through suffering.

  Having already paid a heavy price as a veteran of WWII, Tayo returns to the suffering of his tribe. It is then that Tayo is able to recover what he never knew he had lost, his heritage and soul that was intricately linked to everyone and everything around him. The author attacks the demons plaguing Tayo with the rich symbolism in Native American culture (pay particular attention to the use of yellow and blue colors) and the aid of an enigmatic medicine man. Silko's weapons are in Native American song and myth, histories that empower Tayo to fight the state of mind that oppresses the Laguna Pueblo people on his reservation. With this, Tayo is able to finish his Bataan Death march once and for all, his past behind him, and his heart born again as true a Native American.
  
  

• Blechhh!

  
  By on 2003-03-01
  I am one of the unfortunate persons who had to read this abomination in my Senior Comp class in High School, which was taught by one of those hippie teachers who was white, overly liberal, and somehow thought she was a Native American. The book holds the title of "Worst Book I Ever Read." It is about these Native Americans who come back from WWII and decide that the best ways to cope with the trauma of war are drinking, beating each other up, and having sexual intercourse with cheap hookers. Except one guy, Tayo, decides that he should go smoke peyote with some medicine man, which is better than what his buddies do nonetheless. Well, the moral of the story is: white man bad, Indian good. At least that is what my teacher said. Not that I don't feel horrible about the way the U.S. government treated these people, but for God's sake, we aren't going to win the hearts of SUV driving suburbanites with nonsensical bass-ackward books such as this. The only thing that caught my attention was the portrayal of the atom bomb test on these poor people's land. Otherwise, the book - with its flashbacks, flashforwards, and flashsideways and upside downs - made no sense whatsoever.
  
  

• The Beauty and Power of the Ceremony is indescribable

  
  By AVPK121LZE703 on 1999-12-04
  If you are a reader that tries to read with an open mind, the power of "Ceremony"will simply overwhelm you. The novel opens up a world that is almost completely unknown to the mainstream Euro-American perspective. It is a world of American Indian wisdom that has been maligned, and misrepresented for way too long.

  On a personal note, this book took me out of the comfort zone that is so guarded cherished by American whites. A white male myself, I too bought the fantasy that nothing exists outside of our middle class life of cars, houses and jobs, and if something does exist, it is "tragic" and not noteworthy. Leslie Silko challenged this assumption in such an amazingly eloquent fashion that I can't help but to be in awe every time that I think about it.

  While the book makes us uncomfortable, (since it breaks our almost sacred concepts and beliefs) it does not concentrate on increasing the whites' guilt on "how horrible we treated the Indians. "Guilt, however great, leaves us the option of thinking 'Our creations are superior, but we shouldn't have treated these poor stupid people badly anyway.' But it is instead the western-minded readers that are poor/stupid in this book in comparison to Indian wisdom, and that's something that you should be prepared to deal with.

  After reading "The Ceremony" my life will literally never be the same, for I am now able to look at things around me in a new stunningly amazing light. If you are the type of person that likes to try and put pride and the presumptions of centuries aside, this is absolutely THE BOOK for you to read. But if you are not prepared to say (at least for the purpose of reading) that our western beliefs are not superior to beliefs of other cultures, this book will do little but infuriate you.
  
  

• A WORLD OF MAGIC

  
  By AZQ2V8AP4OPX6 on 1999-12-02
  Richard Alvarez Gonzalez 802-90-0261 Expository Writing

  Review of Ceremony

  War is one of the most terrible evils man has known, yet is has been going on for ages. Since the beginning of known history man has been at war with his fellow man, himself and the world. In Leslie Marmon's novel Ceremony the point of view towards war is different from that of most people. A sense of loss takes central stage in the novel; loss of loved ones, loss of land, of heritage, and loss of self. Tayo and his cousin, Rocky, joined the army looking for a way out and adventure, they would go and fight a Great War. While fighting in the jungles of Asia, Rocky gets killed. Now Tayo is back, the war is over, but not for him. Tayo feels responsible for his cousin's death. He was supposed to protect him and he failed, and now his memory haunts Tayo's every second of existence. In the beginning of the novel we take a look into Tayo's disturbed and tormented mind, as he takes us along the story of his life, of death, war, and rejection. Tayo is a man desperately trying to hold on to his sanity while he wastes it away on a bottle of alcohol which sends him into constant sickness spells and confines him to a bed from which he is terrified to move. As his sickness progresses, Tayo is taken to see a medicine man that sends him on a journey to retrieve his uncle's dreams, thus putting his own fears and doubts to rest. It is during this journey that Tayo completes his healing process with the aid of a woman with whom he will fall deeply in love, Ts'eh, a mystical character that appears and disappears various time in the novel, seeming as if a dream or a creation of Tayo's mind. Ts'eh is a very interesting character because there seems to be various references to her in the novel, but with different names, adding another spark of magic to the story, and making it a trip into fantasy and wonder. Of course, the story is full of legends and mystical occurrences, unlikely events that seem to complete the story and make it right; and poems that interrupt the story and explain the Laguna people beliefs, merging with the story and coming together in a story of hope. Complex and engaging, Ceremony reveals a whole new world of magic, mysticism and beauty. It is a book that must be read carefully in order to understand all the little details here and there, which will in order reveal a much larger picture. A piece of literature which may carry different meanings, and messages, to different readers.
  
  

• Ceremony By: Leslie Marmon Silko
  By A3GB21UU61EWV9 on 2005-12-09
  In the book Ceremony, Tayo is a young Native American who is returning home to the Laguna Pueblo reservation after being held captive by the Japanese during World War II. Tayo deals with needing to find a solution to cure himself from the horrors of being held captive. Tayo is traumatized by many things, including being ordered to shoot a crowd of Japanese soldiers and watching his cousin Rocky die, driving Tayo out of his mind. After staying in a Veterans' Hospital for a while he returns to his home, with his Grandmother, his Auntie, and her husband Robert. He returns to the family that raised him after his mother left him at the age of four, giving birth to him by an unknown white man. He suffered the kind of trauma that left it hard for him to have the motivation to survive.
  What made it even more difficult for him was the fact that other soldiers found comfort in drinking and mindless violence. Tayo needed to search for another kind of way to find comfort and resolution. He finds himself on a journey leading him back to the Indian history and its customs, from its beliefs about witchcraft and evil to the ancient stories of his people. In his search he finds a sense of healing, undergoing a kind of ceremony that overpowers the most dangerous of sufferings and misery. Ku'oosh performs for Tayo a ceremony for warriors who have killed others in battle. However, both Ku'oosh and Tayo fear that the ancient ceremonies are not going to be the solution to Tayo's mental anguish. Tayo is helped but not cured by Ku'oosh's ceremony. Tayo continues his journey of healing and peace through the help of Ku'oosh and the medicine man, Betonie, until he finds what he's looking for.
  I definitely recommend this book, the quality of Silko's writing is very brilliant in a way that she interweaves the individual stories of Tayo and his people. She includes poems that tell old yet fascinating stories, as Tayo's quest unfolds. You really get into the kind of mental anguish that a veteran goes through after their experience being in a war and what they often have to deal with once they come home. Silko draws out her personal experience as a Native American in this story. She also uses the art of storytelling, a tradition of giving the present awareness of the past.
  Native American storytelling assures that each version will slightly be changed and modernized for better understanding. Moreover, Silko goes to a certain depth in which she talks about the history of the Natives, giving forth the realizations of the sufferings that they had to go through when the foreigners came and invaded their lands. Through this reading, the readers are given a sense of the author's opinion about her concern in preserving the Natives American culture, its traditions, natural resources, and language, with a combination of awareness and reality of its history under the whites. Silko, herself is also of mixed ancestry, she doesn't blame the whites wholly, she also voices out the mistakes of the Native American people as well. She reprimands the people who continue to hold a tight grudge on the past, and talks about the need to accept the changes that have occurred in order to survive as a people and community.
  There weren't really too many women's issues in the book, but what stood out was the trivialization of power through the character of Auntie, Tayo's aunt. Thelma is one of the negative characters in the book, who follows the Native American tradition in a damaging manner. Auntie misinterprets both the Native American and the Christian tradition and as a result it clashes both cultures and ends up affecting all the characters. Auntie is next in line to be the matriarch of the family. She feels that she must take on this responsibility to the community and set a good example to everyone. Thelma feels that she must also be the one to protect her family name and avoid bad gossip that can ruin it, to give merit to the position she is soon to have. For her, she feels that in order to gain the respect or her peers she must suffer the sins of others, a complete misunderstanding of her responsibility to her clan. In the Native American culture women have a voice and they have power, yet they carry a great deal of responsibility to their clan.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Retains a certain mystery
  By A7PCBZV90G5U7 on 2002-05-29
  One of the things I enjoy about Silko and some of my other favorite Native American writers is that they retain a certain mystery in their writing. Making use of Indian spirituality, there always seems to be a question as to which events actually occurred and which were part of the vision that lead to the healing. There are also aspects that non-Indian readers can never quite understand, but that is part of the depth.

  Much of the American Indian literature I have read deals with veterans of Viet Nam so this story of World War II veterans was particularly interesting. In general, no matter what socio-economic group, there is not quite so much literature about the adjustments these veterans made on their return. Though I'm sure it was particularly difficult for American Indians, who, in some ways saw this as an opportunity to be like the warriors of old, but who were fighting a very different war in defense of those who had been their enemies.

  I found parts of this work a little heavy-handed, especially where Silko feels compelled to spell out the contentions between the white and Native American cultures. This came out in the story, and it didn't need to be hammered home. However, given the time this was written--the 1970's--a time when Native Americans were just beginning to rediscover their culture and find their strength--I think this minor flaw can be overlooked.

  Over all the poetic language and the strong story make this a fine piece of literature.
  
  

• Demanding and Frustrating, But Very Impressive
  By A3F3E4SZPCZP0P on 2003-08-22
  Ok, ok. So I'm a suburban WASP (well, half on the W) kid with far too much time on my hands. And except for what I've read in books, I don't know jack about Native American culture. But any way you slice it, this is an extremely well structured book.

  Silko's writing style is very mystic, with adequate doses of hope and cynicism throughout. The integration of Native American poems throughout the novel is very interesting, as the stories parallel what is happening in the book, and they offer interesting symbols and history. It takes a bit of analyzing, but the result is very rewarding.

  The main character Tayo is almost too easy to sympathize with, as many of the people around him are immature alcoholics or self righteous pricks, most notably the aunt. The narrative can be confusing, with its flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks. I had to read over many parts multiple times.

  The ending is especially beautiful, though a bit precarious. The way the book starts and ends with "sunrise" suggests a cyclical nature to life. And, this sounds really stupid, I felt more connected to the earth after reading it.

  If there's one drawback, other than the occasionally frustrating prose, it's that Silko's authenticity in depicting a battleground setting is questionable. For the most part, though, the scenes are not trying to show the horrors of war so much as stress certain key points of the story.

  It can also make you sick if you're easily grossed out by vomit. I feel it in my belly...
  
  

• It's a womderfull novel that make's you live the ceremony.
  By AOVFOPRQ7M6PY on 1999-10-08
  BOOK REVIEW Ceremony By: Leslie Marmon Silko (Penguin Books, 1977. 262 pp.)

  Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony is a wonderful novel about how some people fight to rescue and preserve their culture. Tayo, the protagonist, is a young Native American who has come back home to Laguna Pueblo after participating in World War II. In this war the Japanese imprisoned he and his cousin Rocky but only Tayo escaped alive. Rocky was beaten until he died. Seeing his cousin die in front of him plus the traumatic experience of fighting a war that he doesn't understand affected him mentally and physically. The nightmares, the weakness, and to vomit at any time made him refuse the white people's cultural influence and begin healing process searching his cultural roots. After the war veteran Native Americans earned some kind of "respect" and equality with white people but Tayo learned this vanished when he removed the uniform. He wants to recover his religion, the relationship his people have with nature and everything that reinforces his cultural identity. For this purpose he starts a ceremonial process in which he may discover those things that are really important in life. Also he will discover that to survive cultural extinction each person must make changes and adapt to the new social environment without losing their cultural essence. This novel is a real ceremony that makes you be part of it. In some moments you can feel the suffering, anguish, and despair of the characters. Each part makes the reader live the situation from the mind and soul of Tayo, the protagonist. The themes developed in this book make me think of the way many people around the world are losing their culture and the importance of it. The great talent of Silko makes this novel a masterpiece. She uses innovative writing techniques that place this novel in high level. She also includes in this novel some Native religious elements that give a magical and mysterious atmosphere. For example, it is really interesting the way the author intercepts some poems through the novel. These poem are prayers and stories equivalent to Biblical tales. Each poem presents many situations that help to create the scenario and the mood for this narration. I consider this work as a perfect example of excellent writing. I think this book a magnificent and rewarding work, and Silko, as a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo, has an excellent perception of the reality of her people. For this reason I proudly recommend this novel to every person who wanted to know other cultures and to those who wanted to find their cultural essence.

  By: José Miguel Garcés Rivera/ Expository Writing (ENGL 3231)/ University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus
  
  

• In writing of the American Indian "condition"
  By AFHPJY26IU1ZJ on 2005-09-23
  Ms Silko paints a picture, not of historical wrongs, apologetically swept under faded carpets of days gone by, but of contemporary sufferings and injustices, hidden from white consciousness by the remoteness of the reservation system, and quietly tucked away behind white washed institutional walls. It is not a little ironic, that a people so quick to denounce the injustices of an Iraq, or the horrors of the Holocaust, become so indignant when confronted with their own ongoing cultural/ethnic genocide. Yet Silko, herself of mixed ancestry, does not place the blame solely on the shoulders of the whites, she takes Native American peoples to task as well. She chastises those holding tightly to an improvident past, unable to accept changes that are necessary to Indian cultural survival. She is equally critical of those who abandon their identifies, embracing solutions offered by the white man, solutions leaving them in cultural limbo, no longer Indian, and
  perpetually at the mercy of white prejudice. The key to Native survival in Ms Silko's view, is adaptation, symbolized by the protagonist, Taio. Adaptation which involves accepting the white presence, acknowledging that it is neither good nor bad, simply an unwitting pawn of ancient forces way beyond its ken. Adaptation which at the same time celebrates one's Indianness, its unique way of relating to the land, to things both living, and non, and its special understanding of those forces which the collective white conscious has chosen to forget.
  
  
  
  
  
• Context over Character
  By ASG0ASL0VHCZ8 on 2005-08-25
  I'm not a big fan of this novel; I feel like instead of using specific character experiences to mold its unique story, it really capitalizes upon the context of the story. Its setting, native american reservation post WW2, is certainly a fertile ground for all sorts of social commentaries.
  
  However, the tone of the novel is set mostly by the main character's incessant depression and post traumatic stress; you can't blame a war veteran for being traumatized, but this tone makes everything slightly noticeable in the novel of great exaggerated importance because, hell, it could somehow refer to war or the suboridination of the native americans.
  
  All of the action in this book occurs before you open the first page. We get glimpses of Tayo's life in the war, which would have probably made for a much more interesting, revealing, enlightening, and emotional book. I feel like this novel is very dry and not of much consequence.\
  
  If you're not being forced to read this book through school, then don't waste your time. After pages and pages of non-events occuring in the desert wasteland, you'll wonder what made you pick it up in the first place.
  
  
• Great Novel About Native American History
  By on 1999-11-10
  Leslie Marmon Silko, a Native American writer, talks in Ceremony about the survival of the people from her Pueblo, Laguna. In this novel Tayo, the main character, enlisted in the ARMY with his brother Rocky. Rocky died in the World War II. Tayo was very affected and came back to his home. Here Leslie Marmon Silko writes about the different reactions that the characters have to their suffering. Many of them take refuge in alcohol like Harley, one of Tayo's friend and Emo, the evil symbol of the novel; but Tayo lives with a guilty feeling. Ceremony is how they try to overcome World War II, it is how they try to overcome their social problems and how they found the balance in life. The novel talks about the different Indian traditions. For example, the ritual they do when a deer is killed (p.51-52). We can see too how important it was to Indians to be at the same social level of white people. This is one of the greatest polemics that Leslie Marmon Silko talks about, one of the biggest social problems that Indians are confronting. Indians have been always persecuted by prejudice and becoming part of World War II here in the novel made them feel popular and important. They feel that everyone treats them as Americans, as white people, it makes them feel that they (Indians) are just like white people. They even compare themselves with Americans; but Tayo found out by heart that this was a big lie, white people and Indians were really different (p.191). In the novel we will see how alcohol and the consequences of prejudice combine together to bring out a great theme that will get us thinking. Thinking in our own problems and how we have survived with prejudice, we should take Ceremony as an example to overcome today's society finding the balance like Tayo did. The most interesting part of Ceremony is the grate technique that the author Leslie Marmon Silko uses to take the reader on a travel through time. The characters in the novel are living in the present, but at the same time remembering and thinking of the past. Sometimes the reader will wonder of what he/she is reading is in the present or if the character is just remembering. But Silko integrated poems in the novel, the real Indian ceremonies. Many people think that the poems are only one more puzzle to figure out, and maybe they are right. However, I believe that even when they are puzzles they can help the reader, in some way, to comprehend the switching in time, so that they do not get lost, they help to keep track of time. The poems talk about many Indians traditions, droughts, witchery and stories that people do not know. As the people change the ceremonies change too. Here is where the puzzle comes in because the reader has to be very concentrated and into the novel to understand them, but at the same time the reader starts to comprehend the poems and the ceremonies; the reader will start to comprehend the novel too. People who like to analyze things and love analogies and the switching between the present and the past, between reality and fantasy and people who want to learn about Indians, their traditions and beliefs should buy this novel because it is very interesting. It will definitely get the money's worth.
  
  
• Ceremony: a great Native American novel
  By A14LNSQ595KP09 on 1999-11-23
  Ceremony is a very descriptive and intriguing novel. Silko presents us various situations of the Laguna Indian's life and their struggle to determine their self-identity. The characters were chosen very wisely. Tayo, the main character, is an Indian who served in the war and witnessed the death of his cousin Rocky. The war and the death of his cousin have caused him an internal conflict that haunts him. While he tries to untie the knots in his mind, his family and friends think that he has gone crazy. He also has to deal with the shame of his mother's past and the hate of Emo, a war-vet who hnows him since childhood, who envies Tayo's white roots. The autor presents us various types of Indians. The Indian who denies his culture presented by Rocky. Harley characterizes the sterotype Indian who is always drunk and in troubles. Emo presents the Indian who wishes to be part of the white world. Silko also presents us Auntie, the racist Indian, who discriminates against her nephew Tayo because he is part white. Betonie characterizes the typical medicine man that is an important character in the Indian's culture. Silko presents us these situations throughout anecdotes and memories told by the characters. The author uses poerty to presents us various legends that are part of the Laguna Indian's culture. This provides us a mythical background or explanation of the situations that are occuring. The author changes frequently from present to past. This may confuse the reader but it does mantain you in suspense asking yourself what will happen next.
  
  
• This book will change your life
  By A36YH1UU9X8KEE on 2000-12-17
  This book is a ceremony - the Laguna Pueblo people believe that all stories are magic. Rather than mixing up a potion, they tell a story. This is a healing story, and therefore, a healing Ceremony. Every time you read it, you're performing magic. I give it to everyone I care about when they are in need of emotional or physical healing.
  
  
• worthwhile reading, but well short of a classic
  By AEMABFCZH2OW1 on 2001-03-03
  Somebody told me this was the best book he read in undergrad -- 'needed a shower afterwards,' he said. You know what they say about high expectations . . . . Silko's writing, especially her use of metaphpors and imagery, is spectacular. But the storytelling is a bit disjointed, constantly slipping back and forth from past and present and different settings. I tried but ultimately gave up trying to organize it all. No reader should be forced to try that hard. Nonetheless, at the end, the book takes a unique and unexpected turn that I suppose is worth wading through all the confusion. Silko covers the range of the Native American plight, from alcoholism to poverty to white men (and women), generally managing to keep the pretentiousness and false spirituality to a minimum. The story is far from the life-changing ritual that its proponents suggest, however. I would recommend any of Sherman Alexie's books instead. His work conveys so much more in a much more subtle and subversive way. Maybe my exposure to Alexie made me feel that Silko was trying just a little too hard here.
  
  
• Ceremony- forget about it
  By AYXG4XIGBBNIR on 2000-02-10
  If you're suffering from ensomnia, I highly reccomend Ceremony. If not, avoid it altogether. The book makes no sense at all. It jumps back and forth in time and expects you to follow. It has no chapters and no clear plot. I only read it because it was required for a class. Why this book is considered so good is beyond me. Tayo, the main character, spends the majority of the book puking, and the rest of the characters are just stupid. I give it two thumbs WAY down
  
  
• Where have all the decent works of literature gone?
  By A20PSPMPU7M3MH on 2000-03-12
  In an age of interactive television, virtual reality, and all other such technological advances, people have forgotten the transportive power of words. Reading Leslie Marmon Silko's CEREMONY is a stirring, mystical experience. Each time Tayo discovers something about the universe and about himself, the reader learns something, too. We are privelaged to be a part of the healing ceremony, to take part in the storytelling. Each time I walk through CEREMONY with my students I am reminded how massive and minute the world really is. To think such a spellbinding and visionary book was written over decade and a half ago!
  
  
• Sheer timeless perfection
  By on 2000-09-03
  A careful reading of Silko's masterpiece is a ceremony in itself. Its enduring power is testiment to Silko's ability as a poet and a storyteller in the oral tradition. It is best to know something about the Pueblo Indian cultures in general, or better yet, Laguna Pueblo culture specifically, before reading this, just to understand the nuances of the story.

  Mixedblood protagonist Tayo must come to terms with a world in which he is not accepted entirely as Indian, but where most whites would not even recognize his anglo half. Tayo's journey through many worlds speaks to human spiritual connectedness to the natural world, where interesting and unusual intersections occur, whether on an island in the South Pacific or within the protected space between the four sacred peaks of New Mexico. If any reader finds this book slow reading, the problem is in the reader's understanding, not in the storyteller's craft. For other versions of some of the poetry in _Ceremony_, read Silko's earlier book _Storyteller_, a collection of poems and stories, several of which appear in _Ceremony_.
  
  

• Challenging but worth it
  By A3JOGXYV197HIR on 2007-04-03
  This book is absolutely beautiful. I will warn you now, however, that it is not an easy read. It is complex and multifaceted, which makes it too complicated to be a fluff book even though it is fairly short. Reading it takes some serious thought.
  
  The plot of Ceremony is that of a half Native American man who comes back from World War II and has difficulties dealing with the world he returns to. At first he turns to alcohol but he is slowly drawn to healing not only himself but the world around him with the revised rituals of the Laguna people.
  
  The book is incredible for the issues it covers and on the way it discusses them. The questions of belonging, of being an outcast, of the mixing of cultures and of one's role in a greater society are just some of the topics that get discussed in the story. But they are not put easily on the surface for any person to pick up on. To understand at least some of what the book is really about one must get through the layers and really read between the lines. This is a good thing. It adds to the depth of the book and makes it much more potent.
  
  It does, however, make the book much harder to read. Not only are the main themes hidden within the main plot but the way the book jumps back and forth between present and past, events and memory, can be very confusing unless one keeps careful track of what is going on. But all this means for the intelligent reader is that she or he must pay careful attention when reading, which is a good idea anyway since the book is filled with connections and underlying themes.
  
  
• One of the greatest American novels
  By AZBJMD1EW6UTO on 2007-05-09
  I teach this novel every semester at a university. I have taught it in courses on American Indian literature and in courses on American novels (no ethnic categories). It can stand up against any American novel you can name, in terms of its emotional impact, its artistic achievement, its prose style, its narrative structure -- anything. I admit it is a challenging novel, but it is well worth the work. It is best if you can read it with others, or in the context of a class or online study guide. Some reviewers here are high school students who read it for class, and I admit that may be asking a lot of high school student to dig into the novel as much as it needs/deserves. But that can be done, especially with the right kind of guidance. However, it is hard for me to imagine teaching a university-level course on American Indian literature without teaching Ceremony.
  
  
• Review for Ceremony
  By A1946LG5A58LO4 on 2000-01-11
  This book is not worth the paper it is printed on. It has no plot, no structure, and no merit. The author makes sweeping generalities while trying to combat those same generalities which are against Indians. Avoid this book at all costs.
  
  
• High School Junior captivated by the power of Ceremony
  By A3TPO4J19HWT8O on 2000-01-16
  I recently had to read this story for my English class, and wasn't too excited about getting started. However, once I began, I couldn't put it down. The powerful narration, the changing settings, and Indian legends combine to create a riveting and enthralling story about self-discovery and the nature of the world. Truly, an incredible novel for anyone willing to contribute a significant amount of thought while reading it.
  
  
• Masterful Storytelling
  By A3FPS27DXXR2UA on 2000-05-11
  I remember reading a quote from M. Scott Momaday in which he states that we have too many words, and hence, and in this inflation, we are losing the power of the meaning (sorry for the corruption, Mr. Momaday).

  That power is here, though, in this novel. Ms. Silko has created a tale that is clearly a journey: of self-discovery for Tayo, of reclaiming the land, and of re-discovering the gift of ritual and storytelling.

  The flashbacks and quick changes kept for a lively reading. I thought it had a jazz-like tempo, with quick-slow, here-there pacing. I enjoyed the gradual unfolding of characterization. I could see the land and the blue sky, smell the sage, the dry dust, I could almost hear the drafting of the hawk in the sky, she is that good of a landscape writer.

  Watch out for the ending though, BAM! it happens fast. At first, I didn't like that, but upon reflection, I see that that is the only way she could have ended it.

  Oh, one more thing: read this novel for the the wonderful poem in the middle of the book about the beginnings of witchery. It is good enough to be used for a monologue in a speech competition. Good material.
  
  

• Sunrise, accept this offering, sunrise
  By on 2000-04-09
  This book, the story of a Laguna Indian who returns home from World War II and finds himself estranged, confused, and sick, is a spiritual experience unto itself. The main character, Tayo, is caught between two worlds: the world of violence and drunkenness into which many young Nativa Americans plunged after the war; and the world of his ancestors, of stories and ceremonies. The book is not easy reading; I would hesitate to recommend it for children or students under 15. Although the language is simple, the frequent time shifts and metaphors demand something from the reader. This is not a book to be read passively. When read with the intent to savor every passage, however, this book will take the reader far beyond the blame game of red man versus white man, and into a world where a return to the ancient ways of indigenous people just might save us from destroying ourselves.
  
  
• How can a person NOT love this book?
  By A31NUW2ZTHVU4 on 2000-03-09
  I guess I can understand why some of you wouldn't enjoy this book -- you simply couldn't grasp what it was saying, and for that, I pity you. The bouncing back and forth in time had a point! She was illustrating the idea that time is irrelevant. The stories are interwoven and meld as one great story. She's also not bashing white people for those of you who think she is. She happened to have a father who was white and loved and respected him very much. She is simply honest in the story. Tayo had many reasons to hate what some of the whites did and recognizes in the end we are all one together against the evil. There are so many other beautiful characteristics about the book -- language, imagery, characters -- but rather than bore you, just take my advice and read this book for yourself and keep in mind that the reader is trying to make a point. Try not to miss it.
  
  
• You either love the book or hate it.
  By on 1999-03-30
  It took forever for me to read this book. I thought the way Silko choose to write it, intertwined with myths and chants, was beautiful, but made it difficult to understand. I found that the story line was pretty slow and didn't seem to go much of anywhere. I would definetly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see an interesting writting style, but if you want to get into a plot with strong charactors, then you should definetly choose something else.
  
  
• awful
  By on 1999-12-06
  The worst book I've have ever read. The story wants to be a sad, feel so sorry for the main character, but actually makes you wanna gag. Throughout the entire book I found myself confused and lost. The author portrays Tayo as such a person you have to feel pity for, but really he needs a slap in the face and tell him to stop whining. In the end the book was horrible and I recommend not to read this.
  
  
• "A Ceremony for Indian Culture"
  By A38B1IXGCNU0HW on 1999-11-30
  For years punishment have existed among the different races. But those who are punished can demonstrate that they are able to gain positive things from life. The Indian culture has been punished by the white people, because, they believe that the Indian race is inferior. For this reason white people deprived Native Americans of lands, freedom, justice and many other things. Ceremony, the novel written by Leslie Marmon Silko, is mostly based on those kinds of problems. Silko is part of a bicultural race. She is from indian parents and also have a white origin. This means that she can visualize both points of view. The story Ceremony discusses other types of social problems. Some of the problems are war and abandoned kids. Tayo, the principal character of the story, had suffered both problems, because he was a veteran of war who was also a prisoner of the Japanese people and his mother abandoned him at an early moment in his life. Some Native American characters in the story seem to care too much about how white people treat them and make them feel, for example one of them pretended to be an Italian in order to have relationship with white women. They treated them without respect making them feel inferior. With this situation the Native American felt upset and in response to these feelings they create a spiritual rebelion against white people. Tayo and other people from his tribe have many problems, because white people do not trust them as they would like to be trusted. Also historically white people have repeatedly lost the trust of the Native Americans. But this is not a barrier for Tayo, because he always try to do the best he can, no matter in what situation he gets involved. Tayo got sick, because all of the problems he had, then he solved with an Indian ceremony that help him get well. Another message that the story has is conveyed in the poems that intercept the narrative of the reading. Those are trying to let us know that our Mother Earth is suffering a lot, because human beings are destroying her without thinking of the consequences. Those poems are written in a way that makes the reader think a little of what we are doing to nature. Readers can be very interested in what they read from Ceremony, but they must concentrate since some times it may be confusing. The novel have some narrative that intercept the story, so the reader have to compare them with the basic story of it. Ceremony is a good story that presents different points of view such as the white people's belief that Indian culture is worthless in contrast with the Native American belief that white people are responsible for their problems.
  
  
• A Filipina's Point of View
  By on 2001-03-21
  I should point out that I had to read this for a class about military literature...

  The book was well-written and explored the dilemmas faced by Native Americans, even to this day. However, there is one issue that must be addressed with this book, and it's the author's (mis-)use of the Bataan Death March. Has she forgotten that many Filipinos-- military and civilian-- also fell victim of the march? Would not the Native American men have empathized with these people instead? Wouldn't they have reacted differently if the author pointed out that Japanese soldiers would gang rape 12 and 13 year old girls and bayonet them to death on the sides of the roads during the march?

  I would have appreciated the story with less anger if the author had not inaccurately twisted the March for her own advantage. However, she did it to such an extreme that it lost a humongous amount of credibility and empathy from the students in my class after we discussed this at length... It stood out humongously to me because I have family members who were victims in this march... and they were victims because they were fighting to keep the Japanese out of their country. Given the situation, the main characters should not have felt a connection with the Japanese OR the Americans. They should have felt a connection with the Filipinos.
  
  

• Fight for ones culture
  By on 2002-04-15
  Ceremony is a novel that depicts the struggle of people to fight in order to save their culture. Set in New Mexico, in and around Laguna Pueblo, immediately after WW II, the plot concerns a young Indian war veteran who has been traumatized by his experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese.

  Tayo, the central character, is illegitimate and half-white, raised by relatives, not accepted fully by everyone in the family. He has lost his brother, uncle, his cattle, and his life at home (due to reservations). His old friends are drinking themselves away in bars, and even he himself seems destined for an asylum. An asylum where he can blame others for his loses, drink away his fears, and possibly commit suicide?

  With the help of his new friends Betonie, and Ts'eh, Tayo realizes the lie that he has understood to be true about the "white man," can't be taken too far. He refuses to believe what people continue to tell him, and restores some balance back into his life to get himself on track.

  Tayo's journey is somewhat confusing yet shows a search for oneself through truth, honesty, and understanding. Ceremony is something everyone can read and appreciate. It is not a bash on the "white man," but merely a depiction of this concept from the perspective most people will not necessarily get to hear from. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to others. It is not hard, and in the long run leaves a lasting impression on reader's minds'.
  
  

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