The Turquoise Ledge
Leslie Marmon Silko established herself as “the finest prose writer of her generation” (Larry McMurtry) with her debut novel Ceremony, one of the most acclaimed works of the 20th century. Of mixed Laguna Pueblo, Cherokee, Mexican, and white heritage, Silko brings a unique perspective to her powerful works. In this deeply personal and spiritual book, she combines memoirs, t
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Published
May 20th 2011
by Recorded Books, LLC
(first published October 7th 2010)
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Turquoise Ledge
Reviewed by Fran Lewis
Close your eyes and picture the most beautiful scenery in the world. Take this unique and special walk along with the author, hear the sounds of the animals, see their footprints in the sand, smell the greenery and feel the earth in your hands, see the images in your own mind that she creates and go along on her speed walks. Pick up your own turquoise stones, create your own personal stories and ledge and enter an entire new world along with author Leslie Mar...more
The Turquoise Ledge by Leslie Marmon Silko is a wonderfully written memoir about Silko's life growing up as a Native American and what it means to not only be apart of a family, but something far more illustrious. Silko describes in vivid detail her midwest surroundings and invites you to the intoxicating culture of her heritage-- it is sacred and refreshing as you read about the earth and it's natural wonders. Her symbolism personifies things with such handle that it makes you appreciate the wr...more
2011 Book 18/100
A huge fan of Leslie Marmon Silko's fiction, I was thrilled to see her memoir on the library shelf. After a rough start with a section focused on familial history, a section that felt slow and ponderous to me even when the stories intrigued, the remaining four sections grabbed me and made me read this book late into the night. The book is divided into 5 parts: Ancestors, Rattlesnakes, Star Beings, Turquois, and Lord Chapulin, and each part contains chapters that often feel like j...more
A huge fan of Leslie Marmon Silko's fiction, I was thrilled to see her memoir on the library shelf. After a rough start with a section focused on familial history, a section that felt slow and ponderous to me even when the stories intrigued, the remaining four sections grabbed me and made me read this book late into the night. The book is divided into 5 parts: Ancestors, Rattlesnakes, Star Beings, Turquois, and Lord Chapulin, and each part contains chapters that often feel like j...more
Apr 12, 2011
Diane
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
a masochist!
Recommended to Diane by:
my book club
Oh this is a rough one! She rambles on and on about her favorite rattlesnakes and the rats that are living under her kitchen floor and talks about her 8 dogs and 14 parrots (no lie). She goes on for chapters about the rattlesnakes--these are her memoirs???-and I can only imagine it's for shock value. Once she got into the star beings, that was it for me.
I think, and I say this somewhat tongue in cheek but not entirely, she was stoned when she wrote this book. That's the only way it makes sense....more
I think, and I say this somewhat tongue in cheek but not entirely, she was stoned when she wrote this book. That's the only way it makes sense....more
Why is it that every time I read a book about the southwest, the spiritual journeys of post-menopausal women come to mind? Is it because the last time I went to Sedona the gift shops were riddled with older women oohing and aahing over dream catchers and sacred crystals like they were Jesus fish only to be briefly interrupted by the promise of healing vortex's in the surrounding mountains? In any case, this book was nothing like what I've just described. For one thing, Leslie Silko is native to...more
The Turquoise Ledge is self-titled as a memoir. Leslie Marmon Silko, the author, writes her book in 5 parts. The first part titled "Ancestors" is, I think, the only real memoir part of the book. In this section, she describes her background and heritage which includes Irish, Mexican and Native American. This part was interesting and included information about Indian Slavery and the Trail of Tears,which made me want to read more about this part of history. Because she was raised in a Pueblo, the...more
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In Turquoise Ledge Leslie Marmon Silko assigns gender to the two major categories of storms out here is the desert. There is the summer monsoon storm with its loud blustery brashness and showy lightening display that sometimes turns violent; it makes lots of noise but delivers little in the way of life-giving rain. Then there is the winter rainstorm that builds up slowly over the ocean; it rolls in quietly, rains down gently for a good long time. It refills the aquifers and brings life to the de...more
a diary or day-book of Silko's days and walks in the hills and arroyos surrounding her home near Tucson. One of things I loved about this book is that nothing happens--it's like sitting next to a wise, nice friend with not much to do, listening to them tell of what they've observed, how they've lived out their recent days. Or a long walk with a guide who knows the land as well as it could be known in a human life of deep veneration and close observation. You trust Silko, it's a very intimate con...more
What amazed me about this memoir of a Native American woman was how much I identified with her perceptions and the similarity in our daily rituals. Silko’s life is in teardrop perspective—thirty years of roaming the hills and arroyos outside of Tucson; witnessing the passing seasons, shifts in topography, behavior of creatures large and small, flora in its myriad formations, celestial movements, and development for good or ill by mankind. It’s a walk with an Indian naturalist. The poetic, loving...more
This is a pretty interesting book, not what I expected from LM Silko. I'd say it is a bit memoir and a bit more journal entries of life at and around her home in the desert around Tucson. We gain entrance to this desert place, where all wildlife is respected. Silko tells a lot about what it takes to live in such an incredibly hot environment. Her interests in place, and history of place brings much speculation about its geological makeup and especially how turquoise is a part of that landscape,...more
When is a memoir not a memoir? When it's written by Leslie Marmon Silko, apparently. I had heard of Silko but never read her, and I bought this book after browsing around on Amazon for something "different", outside my usual lines of interest. I finished it, but I wondered what was the point. Only the first two or three sections of the book really address Silko's past, and they have more to say about her family history before her birth than about her memories. We learn something of her parents,...more
Leslie describes her growing up in a mix of cultures, with the strong influence of her Pueblo family. But as an older woman (my age) who loves to pick up interesting and colorful rocks just as I do, I enjoyed the three-fourths of this book that is not so much about her, but about her relationship with the natural world and her menagerie of creatures both wild and tame around her old farmhouse outside Tucson. If you find the many pebbles of turquoise monotonous, this book is not for you, but I lo...more
It was Terry Tempest Williams' review of this book that made me want to pick it up. That being said, TTW could urge me to read a technical manual on how to change a light bulb and I'd find value in it. The Turquoise Ledge, a memoir by Leslie Marmon Silko, is an exploration of place that is absolutely unfamiliar to me. She looks at her own native history and considers memory as it relates to family lore only as accurate as one wants to truly remember. Truth and memory become skewed over time, alt...more
Nov 13, 2010
Miz Lizzie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
aliens,
animals,
anger,
arizona,
artists,
astronomy,
dogs,
ghosts,
memoir,
native-american,
nature,
non-fiction,
spirituality,
writing
Leslie Marmon Silko's memoir of her thirty years of living and walking the land surrounding her home in the mountains outside of Tucson reads more like a personal journal than a conventional memoir. Brief episodes and reflections circle and spiral around in a vaguely forward, non-linear, trajectory, in the same manner as her walks along the turquoise ledge that undergirds her home. With each new piece of turquoise she finds on her walks, Silk's reflections focus on the ancestors, the natural wor...more
This beautiful memoir tells the life of Leslie Marmon Silko. What can I say that hasn't been said? It brings me to her place, her topography: the deserts of Arizona, the place littered with Sun Beings and turquoise bits and sandstone. Really, it's pages of beautiful memory. Told gently, unpretentiously, with love and honesty. It's the telling of mythology and folklore, and very universally accessible for those who have a love for the S.W. USA and the history of the Pueblo people, Mexicans and Sp...more
So here in northern Arizona where I live, we are being overwhelmed with honeybees taking over our hummingbird feeders. It's been a real dilemma as no one really wants them around. But this author begins one of her chapters with "This is a great day...the bees are back!" This is what I enjoyed most about her book. How she relates to the natural world and that every critter, insect, and rattlesnake has a place in life and live freely around and sometimes inside her house. I found her writing a bit...more
This memoir portrays a gentleness of spirit amid lush description from a Native American world view. Through it, Leslie Marmon Silko shows us how to be a considerate friend of the earth. She demonstrates that by knowing the habits of the earth and her creatures, human beings can coexist with wildlife–even rattlesnakes. The author’s use of imagery has whetted my appetite to read more of her work.
Her past work includes, but not limited to, Ceremony and Almanac of the Dead. If you’ve read the book...more
Her past work includes, but not limited to, Ceremony and Almanac of the Dead. If you’ve read the book...more
This memoir was all over the place, with little or no apparent organization. I thought the writing was quite poor.
Here's a paragraph from the book: Eventually the trail descends and crosses the big arroyo and continues; but here I turn and follow the big arroyo back home. The sandy bottom of the arroyo is criss-crossed with bird and animal tracks that make the trail that humans have used for thousands of years. In rough steep terrain arroyos may provide the only access to an area so the arroyos...more
Here's a paragraph from the book: Eventually the trail descends and crosses the big arroyo and continues; but here I turn and follow the big arroyo back home. The sandy bottom of the arroyo is criss-crossed with bird and animal tracks that make the trail that humans have used for thousands of years. In rough steep terrain arroyos may provide the only access to an area so the arroyos...more
Recently I read a fascinating book by Leslie Marmon Silko which was set in the Sonora desert adjacent to Saguaro National Park. The Turquoise Ledge is a memoir, with bits and pieces of family history and a mountain of nature observation from a desert dweller. Reminiscent of Mary Austin's Land of No Rain, Silko's description of animals, plants, rocks and weather - especially clouds - is engaging. I wanted to be there in the Tucson mountains seeing the desert and feeling the 100 degree plus heat....more
I picked it up since it was on the Pima County Library's Best Southwest Books of the Year List and I had enjoyed some of the author's novels. Really enjoyed the part about her younger years in Laguna Pueblo but the second half of the book seemed very repeatitive and I finally gave up. There are pages and pages about all the rattlesnakes that live in her yard and the turquoise rocks she picks up. When we got to the messages from the star people things just got a bit too strange for me.
I've been a Leslie Marmon Silko fan for years, having first read Storyteller in college. This is a memoir, but totally unlike traditional memoirs: a good thing (I don't typically read memoirs, although I am a biography fan). Silko has lived outside of Tucson for over thirty years, and the biography recounts her experiences. She begins walking regularly, as both physical and mental exercise, collecting turquoise pieces she finds along the arroyo she walks along, believing them to be part of an an...more
I have read some of this author's fiction, and honestly, I thought some of her fiction books were better. I liked the chapters of the book where she discussed her journey toward being a writer and an artist. While I thought her descriptions of the desert were beautiful, I also thought she overdid them. I would have liked more personal journey reflection and less setting description. Overall, though, I thought this was a solid and worthwhile read for those who enjoy memoir.
Feb 08, 2011
Courtney Stockstill
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
no one
Shelves:
started-but-didn-t-finish
I can't force myself to read any more of this. I've read the first 31 chapters... 174 pages out of 311. I keep thinking it will get better, but it won't. It's not like I have to read it. This book just rambles on about one woman's personal journal of how she walks around the arroyo's in Tucson and picks up turquoise, and how she has all her favorite rattle snakes in her yard, etc. etc. I can't believe it got so many good reviews. Oh well, I must learn to cut my losses sooner with this type of bo...more
Aug 10, 2011
Craig Werner
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
native-american,
nature
Clouds, Rattlesnakes (she loves and respects them), Star Beings, her beloved Macaws, the turquoise she picks up on her walks through the arroyos near her home outside Tucson: these are the main characters of Silko's fascinating, strange memoir. Sometimes rambling and a bit repetitious, it's not as perfectly realized as Ceremony or as prophetically powerful as Almanac of the Dead, but definitely worth reading.
Silko could have accomplished as much in the space of an essay. Her descriptions of the landscape and the rocks and animals that inhabit it quickly become repetitious and tiring, and the book lacks any tension or narrative to keep it interesting. If you're looking for something like her previous books like CEREMONY and STORYTELLER, you won't find it here. If you're new to Silko, try STORYTELLER, a memoir that, like this, isn't quite a traditional memoir, but unlike this, braids together Silko's...more
Some interesting facts about the power of water and how it heals....the majority of the book though is written memorably of the place in where Leslie lives now, she is from an Indigenous community of Laguana Pueble, but she has also Indigenized herself to where she now lives, hence why she can see so many turquoise.
I haven't read many memoirs, so I'm not sure if this is indicative of the genre, but nothing happens. It's descriptive, pretty writing. I could easily imagine being in the desert southwest with the author and see the clouds and feel the heat, but it's over 300 pages in which the author is mostly alone writing and painting and watering her animals. There is an entire section that should be titled "snakes I have seen." It's not a bad book if you want something to read just before bed, but it's slo...more
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Leslie Marmon Silko (born Leslie Marmon on March 5, 1948 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is a Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance. She received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 1981.
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“Night. Heavenly delicious sweet night of the desert that calls all of us to love her. The night is our comfort with her coolness and darkness. On wings, on feet, on our bellies, out we all come to glory in the night.”
—
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