Ceremony

Feb 13, 2008 Nomy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

when i think about this book i picture heart cells putting their feelers out for each other, mending back together into one whole muscle capable of expansion and love... this book moved me. a friend of mine recommended this when i was trying to read another book written by a "white shaman" and having a really hard time with it. there is no comparison. this is a book about a man whose body, spirit, gut and mind are heaving with loss, and the slow careful path to being alive again. nothing about t...more

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Apr 07, 2008 Christy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: native-american-lit-and-history, readinglist1, 20th-century-american-lit

"I will tell you something about stories
[he said]
They aren't just entertainment.
Don't be fooled.
They are all we have, you see,
all we have to fight off
illness and death.

You don't have anything
if you don't have the stories."

Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony opens with a defense of storytelling. Storytelling is a way of making the world, a way of protecting self and culture. Ceremony itself takes part in this process, telling the story of Tayo, a young Native American come home from WWII and severely...more "I will tell you something about stories
[he said]
They aren't just entertainment.
Don't be fooled.
They are all we have, you see,
all we have to fight off
illness and death.

You don't have anything
if you don't have the stories."

Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony opens with a defense of storytelling. Storytelling is a way of making the world, a way of protecting self and culture. Ceremony itself takes part in this process, telling the story of Tayo, a young Native American come home from WWII and severely traumatized by the experience. He is sick, depressed, suffering from PTSD, it seems, and unable to re-integrate into his society. Until he visits Betonie, that is, a medicine man who tells him about the witchery that is at play in the world, witchery that Tayo can help put an end to as he completes a ceremony that will also help him heal.

Silko's novel is a beautiful reflection on the ways in which we are all interconnected--all humans and all of nature--but do not see this connection. Because we do not see this connection, we continue to destroy ourselves, our fellow humans, and the world in which we must live. Tayo finally makes this connection through seeing the connections between Los Alamos and the creation of the atomic bomb and his own experiences: "From the jungles of his dreaming he recognized why the Japanese voices had merged with Laguna voices, with Josiah's voice and Rocky's voice; the lines of cultures and worlds were drawn in flat dark lines on fine light sand, converging in the middle of witchery's final ceremonial sand painting. From that time on, human beings were one clan again, united by the fate the destroyers planned for all of them, for all living things; united by a circle of death that devoured people in cities twelve thousand miles away, victims who had never known these mesas, who had never seen the delicate colors of the rocks which boiled up their slaughter" (246). Upon this realization, he is relieved to find that "he had never been crazy. He had only seen and heard the world as it always was: no boundaries, only transitions through all distances and time" (246).

The book is a hopeful one, ending with healing and sunrise, with the witchery "dead for now" (261), but in it Silko acknowledges that "it has never been easy" (254), that "It isn't very easy / to fix up things again" (256). And it is easy to damage things: "It took only one person to tear away the delicate strands of the web, spilling the rays of sun into the sand, and the fragile world would be injured" (38). What happens to one happens to all. This works both ways. One person's misdeeds or losses affect everyone else (whether on a familial and community level or on a worldwide level) and so it isn't easy to maintain balance and harmony and we all live constantly in danger of being harmed by someone else; however, we each also have the power and the responsibility to begin the process of healing, to engage in ceremonies and storytelling and action to change the end of the narrative, as Tayo does.(less)

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Jan 05, 2010 Jess Michaelangelo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, native-american, own

What a beautiful book. Ceremony tells the story of a young man, Tayo, who has returned home after WWII. He goes through intensely physical and emotional feelings of alienation and estrangement because not only is he returning from a gruesome war, but he is also half-white, half-Native American and he longs to find a sense of identity for himself. Silko details the emotional journey he takes not only to heal, but to find himself and to identify where he stands amongst his world. His grieving is v...more What a beautiful book. Ceremony tells the story of a young man, Tayo, who has returned home after WWII. He goes through intensely physical and emotional feelings of alienation and estrangement because not only is he returning from a gruesome war, but he is also half-white, half-Native American and he longs to find a sense of identity for himself. Silko details the emotional journey he takes not only to heal, but to find himself and to identify where he stands amongst his world. His grieving is very physical, and readers will find themselves feeling his loss and confusion as he works to piece himself back into a whole human being capable of feeling love and of feeling alive again.

Silko's language was absolutely beautiful--"full," "rich," and "lush" are all words that come to mind. She does not write in a linear, chapter-by-chapter way, and the reader floats through the book in an almost feather-like fashion. Okay, so you know the feeling you get when you're dreaming, and you're floating along from image to image, scene to scene, and then you wake up abruptly and you find yourself back in the real world? That's the feeling I got every time I was reading and put the book down. The only problem with this is that occasionally, I found myself so absorbed in the beauty of the story that I would lose track of what was going on, and I would have to go back and skim through previous pages to reacquaint myself with the plot line. Silko definitely has a way with words, though. I found myself trying to read as slowly as possible, just so I could savor every last bit of it. There were so many gorgeous passages in the book, my favorite being:

He lay there and hated them. Not for what they wanted to do with him, but for what they did to the earth with their machines, and to the animals with their packs of dogs and their guns. It happened again and again, and the people had to watch, unable to save or to protect any of the things that were so important to them. He ground his teeth together; there must be something he could do to still the vague, constant fear unraveling inside him: the earth and the animals might not know; they might not understand that he was not one of them; he was not one of the destroyers. He wanted to kick the soft white bodies into the Atlantic Ocean; he wanted to scream to all of them that they were trespassers and thieves. He wanted to follow them as they hunted the mountain lion, to shoot them and their howling dogs with their own guns. The destroyers had sent them to ruin this world, and day by day they were doing it. He wanted to scream at Indians like Harley and Helen Jean and Emo that the white things they admired and desired so much--the bright city lights and loud music, the soft sweet food and the cars--all these things had been stolen, torn out of Indian land: raw living materials for their ck'o'yo manipulation. The people had been taught to despise themselves because they were left with barren land and dry rivers. But they were wrong. It was the white people who had nothing; it was the white people who were suffering as thieves do, never able to forget that their pride was wrapped in something stolen, something that had never been, and could never be, theirs. The destroyers had tricked the white people as completely as they had fooled the Indians, and now only a few people understood how the filthy deception worked; only a few people knew that the lie was destroying the white people faster than it was destroying Indian people. But the effects were hidden, evident only in the sterility of their art, which continued to feed off the vitality of other cultures, and in the dissolution of their consciousness into dead objects: the plastic and neon, the concrete and steel. Hollow and lifeless as a witchery clay figure. And what little still remained to white people was shriveled like a seed hoarded too long, shrunken past its time, and split open now, to expose a fragile, pale leaf stem, perfectly formed and dead.

I circled the page that this was on...and for those of you who don't know, that is a very big deal because I never ever make marks in my books.

I will say that I'm glad I never had to read this for a class because I have a tendency to hate books I read for school, so I'm thankful that I could enjoy this story for what it was. This book has definitely made its way onto my bookshelf to stay, and I would highly recommend it to those of you who look for good Native American fiction or for those of you who like to soak yourself in some rich and vivid language every now and then. (less)

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Mar 05, 2008 Kevin Quinley rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-for-school, avoid-like-aids

I read this highly esteemed text as part of an 'American Ethnic Lit' course where I'm quickly learning my professor and I possess divergent literary tastes. To be sure, I'm definitely of a minority opinion, Silko's interweaving of Indian folklore into a Westernized novel receives a near-reverential treatment in the literary criticism I've skimmed. In the interest of full disclosure I will admit to a degree of standoffishness (not sure whether thats a word but accurate in any sense) from the text...more I read this highly esteemed text as part of an 'American Ethnic Lit' course where I'm quickly learning my professor and I possess divergent literary tastes. To be sure, I'm definitely of a minority opinion, Silko's interweaving of Indian folklore into a Westernized novel receives a near-reverential treatment in the literary criticism I've skimmed. In the interest of full disclosure I will admit to a degree of standoffishness (not sure whether thats a word but accurate in any sense) from the text stemming from the moment my professor championed it as a 'great' book that we were all certain to enjoy -- after we've read 50 or so pages! I find the conflation of personal enthusiasm with universal appreciation inappropriate but unfortunately symptomatic of academia. I try to not be a prick about it, as the English faculty at my university boast PhDs while genuinely evidencing an acute appreciation for literature concordant with this lofty distinction. With respect to the accumulated wisdom of academics, my resentment stems from the method, or should I say the conventionality, to which they inevitably resign. In my humble opinion, the very nature of academia dictates its unimpressive rigidity--while we may take issue with book X or author Y, but aware of our own subjectivity a community of learners assumes the existence of a 'prevailing opinion', a notion which imperceptibly evolves into a given truth. How do you think schools comprise summer reading list, trust me I went to public high school and I doubted whether members of the administration could read much less apprise literary relevance. But hey, thats high school, we all idealize the pot-smoking, outside-the-box thinking professor from animal house (Jack Bauer's Dad!) boldly guiding us through challenging literature provoking introspection. Alas, the school system is just that, and a fundamental characteristic of any system is the capacity to predict outcomes resulting particular inputs. Fellow students are remarkably (shamefully if you want my 2 pennies) aware of this process so its unfair to solely burden career-oriented academics with the punitive damages. Either way, whether its an undergrad soliciting an asinine comment hand to boost participation points or a professor championing a work because he thinks it will score 'brownie points' amongst peers (read: get published), these facile pronouncements often reign supreme in college classroom where impressions count. Tragically, by forfeiting toothed criticism we undercut the legitimacy of the so-called 'great books' whose true worth can only be apprised by their creator. To bring this full-circle, I have yet to discover any single course embodying these ills in entirety (but shudder for those who have), but lurking beneath my natural desire for success lies a rebellious spirit willing to trade a grade point or two if my 'suggestions' are ill-received. By introducing and continuing to act as a cheerleader for Silko's text a professor effectively challenges me to see where he's wrong, as I would expect anyone to do the same. New knowledge comes from challenging old theories rather than conveniently squeezing our opinions into the provided academic framework.

I cannot apologize for my lengthy rant, since as you may surmise it colored my perception of 'Ceremony'. Reviews rehashing plot are so passé in this age of Wikipedia and amazon anyway, its pure folly to disassociate reading from your personal context anyway so why pretend otherwise? Likewise, it would be presumptuous for me to condemn Silko's text on the merits of her writing ability, her masterful presentation of the Tayo's surroundings chill the reader glimpsing Gallup and beautifully establish his spiritual re-birth towards the end as Tayo gazes towards the crest of a Mesa. I also must profess my own ignorance of Native American legends which Silko undoubtedly incorporates in Tayo's mythic struggle. All things considered I'm probably not the best candidate to construct an unvarnished opinion here. In my defense, I would argue Silko shares in the blame by alienating caucasian readers beginning with Bitoni's pivotal ceremony. Of course, white guilt is muted as the foklore presents evil as a manifestation of witchery, as my professor put it (I can show love too) whites are an affect but not a cause. Still, the sociopathic tendencies of many Native American characters beg the question whether these self-inflicted wounds can heal when they place the band-aid of victimization rather than resolve problems within their insular community. Tayo's band are war vets, however, so their displays of erratic behavior are unrepresentative and knowing the pyschological impact of PTSD their erratic behavior is excusable (save for Emo). Anyways, while I'm sure caucasians are far more flippant about their presence on the flagrantly stolen land of America, the hands of time move forward for all of us and dawdling in the past simply reinforces the negative rut where Tayo remains entrenched. Although ultimately saved through power of storytelling, the clearly anachronistic legends and Indian precepts guiding behavior seemed counter-inuitive to real progress (represented by Rocky). Probably as a result of my Western education, the medicine men and chants all seemed quite hokey but I presume we should draw a connection between the way we idealize 'true' history and the fantastical beliefs held by the Indians, perhaps a necessary invention given their ignominious treatment in America.

I'm cautious not to appear pouty in this review, I'm just a dude who loves to read so far be it from me to take a 'holier-than-thou' approach towards a critically cherished text. I will say that my unfavorable opinion stands firm, I would gladly discuss it with interested parties willing to address my reservations. Yet if a classroom is unsuitable (and it is) for this type of discussion, where can we really get down to the text's nitty gritty ? A bar? This is socially frowned upon, believe me. Book club? Waaay too domesticated for this point in my life thank you very much. Well, there's always posting rambling reviews on Goodreads...

In finale I want to reprint some of my comments I wrote in the margins of my notebook during class discussion, bullet points hinting at the overarching concerns which led me to award 'Ceremony' with only a measly star.

"Night Swan episode--'hooker with a heart of gold' formulaic"
"jumbled narrative simply confusing"
"contrived profundity"
"not so much Indian as haphazardly following a Western structure"
"mysticism effective shawl"
"de-romanticization of hero evokes sadness cloaking vapidity"(less)

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Dec 25, 2007 YangYi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved the smooth montage of time in this book. It is so natural and instinctive, just like real life. At least in my life, I perceive time in content-based manner. I cannot remember happenings based on their dates because they don’t feel important. This perception of time is characteristic of seeing time as memory. It is different from seeing time as a linear progression of repetitive containers (month contains 30-odd days, one day contains 24 hours, one hour contains 60 minutes…). I feel th...more
I loved the smooth montage of time in this book. It is so natural and instinctive, just like real life. At least in my life, I perceive time in content-based manner. I cannot remember happenings based on their dates because they don’t feel important. This perception of time is characteristic of seeing time as memory. It is different from seeing time as a linear progression of repetitive containers (month contains 30-odd days, one day contains 24 hours, one hour contains 60 minutes…). I feel this way of looking at the world is a key to being human being. It promotes a kind of instinctive phenomenology that gives us self-reflection, self-awareness. Quantity and quality are not on the same axis despite the notion that they are opposite poles of one attribute – product of a fixed amount of resources. What I am trying to say is that I am troubled by the abstract constructions in this world that substitutes for something in my instinctive nature. It is the same thing as when in the book Josiah said thus; “Cattle are like any living thing. If you separate them from the land for too long, keep them in barns and corrals, they loose something. Their stomachs get to where they can only eat rolled oats and dried alfalfa. When you run them loose again, they go running all over. They are scared because the land is unfamiliar, and they are lost. They don’t stop being scared either, even when they look quiet and they quit running” (page 74). Biologically the fixed diet of cattle decreases the variety of bacteria aiding in their digestion. In the cattle guts, there is no more diversity, flux of bacterial “seasons.” This sterile state of stasis is wholly dependent on the way the cattle are taken care of. When farmers raise cattle without understanding them as animals, but just for the meat, to them the cows are no more than empty, repetitive containers of meat, milk. In long term, adaptability fades away from their genes because they are outmoded in such environment. But it’s important to hold from claiming this practice unnatural, unwholesome and against nature. It is perfectly natural because they exist in nature. It’s just a process of change in their existence from roaming animals to captive animals, a shift from a being of the land to a being of captors.
Can’t you find familiarity in the above quote? Don’t you think we are a bit like the cattle? Here is a proof: More and more of us are scared even when we are quiet. More and more feel a general sense of doom, a lost feeling that something somewhere is horribly wrong. And for this fear we call anxiety disorder, many of us turn to alleviating the symptom with chemical diets. To Tayo and his peer, “liquor was medicine for the anger that made them hurt, for the pain of the loss, medicine for tight bellies and chocked-up throats” (page 40) from a war over abstract constructions with invisible (too fast to see) bullets that maul down soldiers as randomly as statistics. I have instinctively felt there is some truth to anxiety, that there is something real in the fear that people dismiss as imbalance of brain chemistry, blaming failure of flesh. I have felt that we are fearful because we are lost, that the anxiety is the anxiety of our plant, that it’s the way it communicate with us of its impending doom that we are causing. Of course this thinking is from reading too much science-fiction books. But it is a kind of gut feeling, and like all inspired literatures the human mind created, this feeling seem to be have metaphorical validity. The last part of the book was a good example of this trust in personal gut feelings. Tayo “arrived at a convergence of patterns; he could see them clearly now. The stars had always been with them, existing beyond memory, and they were all held together there.”…”They had seen mountains shift and rivers change course and even disappear back into the earth; but always there were the stars” (page 254).(less)

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Oct 12, 2007 Keely rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, novel, reviewed, american, native-american

Like the other Native pop novelists of the 60's and 70's, Silko's voice is competent when not distracted by over-reaching, and like the others, she spins a story which is vague enough to please. She also never really escapes the fact that her depiction of Native culture is thoroughly westernized.

Her monomyth is tied up with enough Native American spirituality to make it feel new and mystical (at least to outsiders); it was even criticized for giving away 'cultural secrets'. It is somewhat tellin...more

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May 21, 2007 Andrew Bishop rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Laguna people, redemption, shamanic healing

I just read this last year and already I'm going to have to revisit in soon. This book is a manual for post-apocalyptic healing. It couldn't be more necessary in a time when over 20% of the world's species are living ghosts, over 50% are facing extinction, global warming will threaten the (human) population in the hundreds of millions along coastlines and in areas that are increasingly desertifying.

Much less, I would recommend this book to every gringo I know. In my reading, I was presented with...more

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Aug 15, 2007 Sylvia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who feel dominated and intimidated.

Shelves: fictiousaddict

The superiority of white people -- the notion that this particular race towers over other races -- is merely a construction, so it is possible to deconstruct it. This I learn smoothly from the suffering of Tayo, the main character, a native american, who despite having fought in a war for Uncle Sam side by side with other American citizens, didn't come home a hero but found himself shamefully marginalized just like the rest of his tribe. Through a spiritual journey in a form of ceremonies he pre...more

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Nov 30, 2009 Paolo added it · review of another edition

Paolo Aligada
Book Review: Ceremony
Author: Leslie Marmon Silko

Ceremony is about a Native American man from an indian reservation who joined the U.S. Army, but the book takes place after he gets back from war. This story takes place after the second World War. The main character is named Tayo, growing up Tayo was treated differently from his cousin Rocky because he was raised by his aunt, because his mother had him with some white man and she abandoned him when he was four years old. He seemed to...more Paolo Aligada
Book Review: Ceremony
Author: Leslie Marmon Silko

Ceremony is about a Native American man from an indian reservation who joined the U.S. Army, but the book takes place after he gets back from war. This story takes place after the second World War. The main character is named Tayo, growing up Tayo was treated differently from his cousin Rocky because he was raised by his aunt, because his mother had him with some white man and she abandoned him when he was four years old. He seemed to be looked down upon, like others were prejudice toward him for being half white it was as if he was a completely different race. I saw that the aunt really made him feel excluded and an outcast from the family. When his cousin would play with his toys the aunt would make Tayo sit in the corner and make him watch his cousin play. This might have been a reason why he joined the army later on. Although his Aunt and grandma seemed mean, Tayo loved his Uncle Josiah and cousin Rocky. The story starts when Tayo returns from the war and he is recovering from the experiences that he had from the battles in places during the war like the jungles of the Philippines. Tayo consumed himself with the thought that he killed his Uncle Josiah in a group of Japanese solidiers and witnessing the death of his cousin Rocky. These memories traumatized him and drove him mad. Throught the book it felt like Tayo would just go out with his friends to a bar and get drunk as he grieves the death of his favorite uncle and they would stagger around and throw up somewhere. It was kind of sad though reading about Tayo go through this depression. He tries to find help from a medicine man and help him through his mental agony by turning to witchcraft and dark magic. The author was trying to tell her audience about the Native American culture and how it is revolved around story telling. Thoughout the book there were several little poems throughout the book that had different stories and they would link back to each other in separate parts, but I didn't think that they related to the book at all. She was trying to demonstrate the emotions of Tayo and what he was feeling in his grief and how he dealt with it, but the way she wrote the story felt unthorough. The book Ceremony was unlike any other book I've read. One of the first things I felt about this book was the format in which it was written. The story was always jumping around from past memories to the present to poems in between paragraphs. I just found it really hard to follow the story moving back and forth. I couldn't really "Get my footing" in the book. I felt lost as I was reading Ceremony and I couldn't really find a plot to the story. But maybe that is her own stye of writing, it's just difficult for me to follow it.

(less)

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May 10, 2013 Knautiyal rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've recently been on a kick of re-reading books that I'd previously been assigned in middle and high school and hated at the time - I mean, a classic's a classic, and I doubt I had the capacity to understand most of the really good ones when I was that age anyway. First on the list was David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, which I found to be an absolute, cotton-pickin' masterpiece. So naturally, I was excited for the next one down - Ceremony.

Unfortunately though I'm a sucker for tales about d...more

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May 07, 2013 Bill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary

Glimpse Of Another World

Silko, Leslie Marmon (1977). Ceremony. New York: Viking.

Hailed as a masterpiece of Native American literature, this novel has endured over decades, in part because the situation of Native Americans has hardly changed in thirty years.

The main character is Tayo, an Indian from the region between Albuquerque and Gallup. He returns to the reservation after service in WWII, but he suffers from “shell shock,” a psychiatric disorder somewhere between severe PTSD and schizophreni...more Glimpse Of Another World

Silko, Leslie Marmon (1977). Ceremony. New York: Viking.

Hailed as a masterpiece of Native American literature, this novel has endured over decades, in part because the situation of Native Americans has hardly changed in thirty years.

The main character is Tayo, an Indian from the region between Albuquerque and Gallup. He returns to the reservation after service in WWII, but he suffers from “shell shock,” a psychiatric disorder somewhere between severe PTSD and schizophrenia. He is mostly bedridden in the first parts of the book, tended by his grandmother and aunt. He eventually recovers but only in the sense that his hallucinations and debilitating weakness leave him; he never does overcome his chronic melancholy and sense of dreamy irrealism.

Conveying that dreamlike view of the world is Silko’s strength as a writer. Tayo's dreamy psychosis is well-rendered through Native American eyes, with traditional values, ideas, and concerns. The description is interwoven with transcriptions of Native mythical tales, such as creation stories, which seem all the more realistic compared to Tayo’s swirling psychosis. However the conflation of mental disorder and Native myth is confusing. Do modern Native Americans have no concept of mental illness and can’t tell the difference between psychosis and mythology? Maybe there isn’t a difference.

Throughout the book, Natives are uniformly portrayed as childlike, unreasoning, superstitious, petulant, profoundly uneducated, uninformed about the world outside the reservation, and claustrophobically obsessed with their own families, traditions, sad fate, and possessed by rage against the whites. Tayo is a despised outsider because he is only half-Indian. This small-mindedness and lack of diversity among characters flattens what little dramatic tension the story has. The characters are stereotypes who do not develop in any dramatic or insightful way. Tayo recovers from his illness and meets a girl. That’s about it.

Nevertheless, the language Silko uses is lofty and lyrical, so much so that the reader can easily enter a woozy dream state to glimpse another world that modern white people can hardly grasp. It is real, nothing like our white world, and it is magical and worth knowing. That world was also portrayed in the Carlos Castaneda stories of the Yaqui Don Juan (e.g., Journey to Ixtlan), which bears some comparison to this novel. I thought young Tayo was going to end up as a medicine man because of his sensitivity and access to the other world, but he doesn’t. He’s just a mixed up kid.

Artistically, Silko uses numerous time cuts to convey the Native American idea of eternal time. Jump-cuts put Tayo back at the army recruiter’s even after he is home from the war, has his uncle buying the cattle after he already owns them, and so on. Another technique is to flit among places and times in the present. These techniques of fragmentation convey the disjointedness of experience in a culture that has a long history but no future. It’s effective but makes the novel hard to read. The book meanders and flits, with only the slightest thread of overall storyline.

The insertion of traditional (I assume) Native myths, ceremonies, and songs in seemingly random parts of the story also helps to convey the sense that the other world is ever-present in this one, and in some sense is more important. The book’s main point, apparently, is that ceremony (and more generally, story) is all that makes us human. The Native stories and chants are often lyrical, but far too “insider” and alien to a non-Native reader to understand as anything other than poetry. In one instance, when a storyteller describes the total destruction that will befall the world (presumably from the whites), the poem describes the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, and centered lines of variable length cleverly form a mushroom cloud on the page. Is that sincere artistic expression or heavy-handed gimmick? I don’t know. That’s a question I asked about all the Native stories.

Some of the ideas in the novel are disturbing. A main idea is that Indians should not hate the whites because actually, the whites were conjured by evil Indian shamans in the first place for the purpose of making the Indians hate themselves. It’s all an evil trick. Tayo can see this, so he wants no part of his fellows’ themes of hating the whites and stealing from them and killing them. Instead, he believes they should snap out of their self-pity and self-loathing to take pride in their culture. The whites are our own projections, he argues, and moreover, since they are thieves, they are doomed to live with a thief’s troubled conscience. But this attitude is exactly what Nietzsche called the slave mentality: make a virtue of your submission. The idea that your nemesis is your own projection and that victims are more noble than the oppressor (“the meek shall inherit the earth”) is an old and wrong idea. It is troubling to see it here as the guiding idea of the main character.

There are many other problematic ideas presented in the book, such as those around law, land ownership, patriotism, and so on, but perhaps these contradictions and confusions are genuine reflections of Native intellectual life at that time. Overall, the invocation of this particular culture’s world, and worldview, is rich, compelling and rewarding.(less)

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Mar 16, 2013 Rosemarie Herbert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon . Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.

Tayo has survived his beginnings as an outcast of both white and Native American society, only to be sent off to fight a war that he can't hope to survive intact. As his childhood, war memories and ceremonial present come to the fore, Tayo must make a journey to bring the rain back to the land.

This is one of the novels I was assigned for America...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Kerfe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

When I began "Ceremony" it immediately reminded me of another book I had recently read. But the reverse is true: "Ceremony" was written in 1977; Toni Morrison's "Home" was published last year. Although they share themes, Silko's book is far far better, and must have been at least unconsiously in the back of Morrison's mind.

Non-whites were allowed a peek at equality when they fought for the United States in its wars--in "Home", the Korean War; in "Ceremony", World War II. As long as they were in...more

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Nov 07, 2012 David Rush rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What do I think of this book?

That is hard to say. It is simultaneously real, symbolic, metaphorical, painful, inspiring and confusing. But I kind of thing that was the point.

To go all 9th grade level lit analysis...I thought the troubled outsider Native American returning WWII vet was not an example of a unique sociological type, but rather is a version of that part of us that quietly and perhaps painfully, lives with the repressed alienation that comes with being human in the “modern” world.
So...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Saskia Marijke Niehorster-Cook rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: native-american

My son Sasha had this as a read for school book. Half way through it he recommended I read it as well. I think I had already read it for my sociology class in College, but began reading it as well.

It is an assortment of loosely connected and colorful threads of thought that gather vivacity, perspective, and meaning as each strand is woven closer and closer to the others and becomes a flowing tapestry of meaning in this multilayered story of broken hearts, broken lives and broken spirits

On one l...more

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May 18, 2012 Kristin Gleeson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like many things Native American you can't approach this with a linear mind. There are cycles and spatial aspects to the narrative that lead the reader on a special journey that travels the sunny and arid geographic landscape of Northern New Mexico and the interior landscape of myth and ceremony. The novel's focus is Tayo, a returning WWII soldier of half Laguna half white heritage. Stigmitized by his illegitimate birth and an alcoholic mother, Tayo was raised by his auntie, uncle and grandmothe...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Ryan Bross rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Overall the book Ceremony by Leslie Marmom Silko was a decent read. I would give Ceremony a 3 out of 5. I enjoy books that deal with war, which is the reason I chose this book in the first place. The two men Tayo and Rocky return from the war with the Japanese after WWII and have a hard time returning to normal life on the reservation in Mexico.The Indians in Mexico are having a hard enough time holding true to their values and the men make that a harder task. The reason they make it harder is t...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Nick Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Overall, I thought Ceremony was a pretty great read. Though it wasn't neccessarily one of my all time favorite books, it was still very unique and refreshing. It's use of poetry and flash backs truly set it apart from anything i've read in the past. To sum it up, Ceremony tells the story of Tayo, a WWII veteran thats trying to deal with the pain he suffered from all of his losses. Throughout the novel, Tayo losses his mother, uncle, and a cousin (who was more like a brother). When I chose this...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Brady rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Leslie Marmon Silko was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She like the main character is of a mixed race and she knowledgable presents views about this in the novel. She grew up on a reservation that happens to also be the setting of what is heralded as one of her best novels. Although I feel it leaves something to be desired.

Tayo, the main character of the book, is a veteran of World War II. The plot of the story is about Tayo's journey when he returns from the war and how he copes with his expe...more Leslie Marmon Silko was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She like the main character is of a mixed race and she knowledgable presents views about this in the novel. She grew up on a reservation that happens to also be the setting of what is heralded as one of her best novels. Although I feel it leaves something to be desired.

Tayo, the main character of the book, is a veteran of World War II. The plot of the story is about Tayo's journey when he returns from the war and how he copes with his experiences in the war and after. Ceremony utilizes frequent flashbacks to help develop Tayo's character. His story is also told using both poems and prose, a technique that I have never personally seen in a book. I was never able to connect with Tayo. I found the idea his story interesting but my lack of connection made the book overall uninteresting and slow. The flashbacks in the book are also presented in a way that can very well confuse the reader because the story is constantly bounced from past to future without any clear indication,

While reading the book I was reminded of a character in the Clint Eastwood movie Flags of Our Fathers. Ira "Chief" Hayes is also a Native American, World War II Veteran. He has to struggle returning back home after the war with loss the loss of and the guilt of being portrayed as a hero, even though he believes he isn't. As a Native American, Ira Hayes was very similar to Tayo when he was trying to fit back into their culture. Ceremony can also be related to many soldiers coming home from the war today, Tayo has a form of post traumatic stress disorder and many veterans today are also faced with this. Post traumatic stress disorder can consume many soldiers after they return from war. It can leave them depressed, angry, emotionally empty and even suicidal. Throughout the book I was able to see the emotional issues that Tayo faced and how they could possibly be similar to what soldiers returning from war are also facing.

I wouldn't recommend this book to someone although it did feel it had interesting literary elements. Overall, Ceremony wasn't a horrible book, but I personally didn't like it, which is why I gave it one star.
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Jan 09, 2012 Brittany Hussong rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ceremony opens up the struggles of Tayo, a young World War II veteran. Tayo's diverse ethnicity provokes an inner conflict, battling between Native American tradition and white culture. On top of that, Tayo suffers from post-traumatic stress. Feeling responsible for the death of his own cousin and the drought, he works to make amends and accomplish his own ceremony.

Although Ceremony wasn't my first choice, the story line ended up being more interesting than I thought. I've never been educated on...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Jenna Kremer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tayo’s life was anything but easy. After losing his cousin/closest friend, Rocky, in the Philippines in World War II, his world was shattered. Tayo is a mix between two worlds: two worlds that do not get along. A white and a Native American, he does not really fit in anywhere. He struggles with a sense of belonging throughout the book, one of the major themes.

The importance of storytelling is another key theme in the novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. Stories have a healing power in the bo...more Tayo’s life was anything but easy. After losing his cousin/closest friend, Rocky, in the Philippines in World War II, his world was shattered. Tayo is a mix between two worlds: two worlds that do not get along. A white and a Native American, he does not really fit in anywhere. He struggles with a sense of belonging throughout the book, one of the major themes.

The importance of storytelling is another key theme in the novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. Stories have a healing power in the book, and are used for ceremonies that heal individuals as well as whole communities. Storytelling has always been an important part of the Native American culture and it makes up a large portion of Tayo’s cure. The importance of tradition is also prevalent throughout the novel. Tradition helps Tayo keep grounded to the Native American side of himself and his roots. Even though blindly following tradition can lead one astray, it is a necessity to “survive” in the Native American Culture.

Ceremony relates to this quarter’s theme, Culture Shock, because Tayo is faced with the harsh reality of a destructive relationship between two cultures that is a very prevalent concern at the time. He faces a “culture shock” when he returns home from the war. He not only has to learn to live without Rocky, but he is faced with difficulties from post-traumatic stress from memories from the war, and also living as a mixed breed of two cultures that do not get along.
Though well-written and captivating, the writing style used in Ceremony could be a little confusing to some readers. The text switches back and forth throughout the book to flashbacks and back to the “present”, which sometimes left me puzzled. However, I enjoyed the story line of the book and found myself interested in the old stories that were told about Native American culture. There is enough content in this book that all readers can find something to love; whether it be action, lust, suspense, emotion, lust, or storytelling, the list goes on and on.(less)

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Jan 09, 2012 Lindsey Eckstein rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Ceremony", by Leslie Mormon Silko, provides a look into the complicated life of a young man Tayo. After World War Two, Tayo returns home, a veteran of war. At home, on a reservation, Tayo must deal with the loss of his “brother” Rocky, his mixed heritage, the drought, and stress. While other men deal with the post-traumatic stress through drinking, Tayo seeks to find himself in a world where he does not seem to belong through his own unique “ceremony.”

The novel had the heart to be a great novel...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Courtney R. Rehkamp rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is a novel that strives to make understood the complexities of life in a culture that has little exposure in the common literature circuit. In this book Tayo, a young man of mixed heritage, returns from world war two with a broken mind and spirit. Returning home from a war veteran hospital he struggles to make sense of the world around him in which he cannot find his own part. In the war the Laguna soldiers were treated as equals but upon return are once again de...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Jenny Maloney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: native-american, lit-ladies, literary

Silko is just a smashing writer. This was a gorgeous book that speaks to several important issues that are still resonating today: how to reconcile coming home from war? Can you ever come home again?

Tayo is a beautifully rendered character--his struggle is sometimes too painfully personal. His 'friends' provide another look at returning home from war and add, again sometimes too painful, a juxtaposition for Tayo's struggle (his ceremony) to heal.

There are wonderful poems and stories intersperse...more

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Oct 15, 2010 Jo Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I originally wanted to read this novel because of the setting...the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, and Acoma, Albuquerque, etc. Because I've seen and appreciated much of the terrain, it made the story more interesting; however, the story is hearbreakingly wonderful. Tanyo, a young half-bred Indian returns from World War II, traumatized, barely intact, physically, emotionally, spiritually, from what he has endured in the war and in a Japanese prison camp. His buddies who made it home are much the s...more

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Nov 30, 2009 Quinn added it · review of another edition

Ceremony
By Leslie Marmon Silko
Review by: Quinn Butterfield

Leslie Marmon Silko's book Ceremony is a heavy and depressing book filled with hidden gems. The novel follows Tayo a young Native American World War II veteran who is dealing with the many struggles that weigh him down through out the book. After returning to his home on the Laguna Pueblo reservation from being a prisoner of the Japanese, Tayo struggles with post traumatic stress and the constant feeling of alienation. Unlike the other r...more Ceremony
By Leslie Marmon Silko
Review by: Quinn Butterfield

Leslie Marmon Silko's book Ceremony is a heavy and depressing book filled with hidden gems. The novel follows Tayo a young Native American World War II veteran who is dealing with the many struggles that weigh him down through out the book. After returning to his home on the Laguna Pueblo reservation from being a prisoner of the Japanese, Tayo struggles with post traumatic stress and the constant feeling of alienation. Unlike the other residents on the reservation, Tayo is half white, and therefore looked down on by the other Native Americans. Unlike his friends who find comfort to alcohol and violence, Tayo turns to his ancestry and Native American culture.
Silko makes it clear the Tayo's past is holding him back. His mother Laura, who abandoned him at a young age, is seen as a disgrace to the reservation, therefore so is he. He never knew his father, but resents him because he’s white. Tayo's Aunt raised him, and although he became like a brother to his cousin Rocky, his Auntie always resented him. Tayo's troubled childhood along with his time in the war, made him despise white people and what he believed they did to the world. Because of this he turns to ancient Native American rituals, stories, songs and ceremonies that Old Betonie, a medicine man from his childhood, shared with him. He believes that completing these crucial ceremonies will heal him and the ongoing drought that is hurting the reservation. He believed that this would not only heal his misery, but also help his reputation.
The author used Betonie's stories as a way to express Tayo's beliefs as well as give insight to Native American culture. Although these stories were intriguing and well written, they often leave the reader confused. For example, the book begins with a poem that confused me from the first word. Silko also portrays the background and the themes of the book through flashbacks and point of view changes. Even though this style effectively gives the reader information, it takes a while to get used to and can be confusing.
Even though the book was hard to follow, I really liked how descriptive Silko was. She described the setting in such detail, I felt as though I was with the character. For example towards the beginning of the book Silko described rain as "Jungle rain had no beginning or end; it grew like foliage from the sky, branching and arching on the earth, sometimes in solid thickets entangling the islands, and, other times, in tendrils of blue mist curling out of coastal clouds."
Ceremony had an overall sad tone to it, which helped effectively portray Tayo's misery. Silko described the setting in a way that helped the reader see it through Tayo's eyes, and have a deeper connection to Tayo's feelings.
The book follows Tayo's troubled life and the hardships that come with it. If you want to find out if Tayo over comes these struggles and makes peace with himself and the reservation, you have to read
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Oct 22, 2009 Terry Albea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ceremony
Leslie Marmon Silko
Reviewed by: Terry Justice Albea

Understanding the true concept of war is difficult for anyone who has not experienced it themselves, and trying to return to a normal life after war can be even more difficult. A young Native American man named Tayo joins the army with his cousin Rocky and uncle Josiah along with a couple of his friends. When Tayo witnesses the death of Rocky by Japanese soldiers, and is haunted by seeing his uncle Josiah’s face, he is returns home with...more Ceremony
Leslie Marmon Silko
Reviewed by: Terry Justice Albea

Understanding the true concept of war is difficult for anyone who has not experienced it themselves, and trying to return to a normal life after war can be even more difficult. A young Native American man named Tayo joins the army with his cousin Rocky and uncle Josiah along with a couple of his friends. When Tayo witnesses the death of Rocky by Japanese soldiers, and is haunted by seeing his uncle Josiah’s face, he is returns home with post-traumatic stress disorder. Leslie Marmon Silko conveys the journey that Tayo completes in order to return to his Native American heritage and let go of his past. It will really get you thinking about more than the simple statistics and price that is paid by every single person fighting for their country in war.
Tayo returns home from the war to a very unfamiliar setting, where he seeks for a purpose in life. He takes comfort in alcoholism along with his war veteran friends, as they too search for a purpose, but also miss the benefits of being in the army and reminisce about the old “war days.” His detachment from his family leads him to feel unwanted and that, coupled with the racial discrimination of his Caucasian/Native American ethnicity, troubles Tayo throughout the novel. Tayo eventually seeks help from a medicine man, who is another half-breed Native American like Tayo, and attempts to cure Tayo through a mysterious “Ceremony.”
Ceremony is an experimental novel, because the story is not linear as it is also lined with Native American poems and stories that somehow indirectly involve the plot. Another unique aspect of the book is how the book itself in not divided into chapters, but more so time periods of events, and sometimes this can lead to some confusion when reading. The descriptive writing that Silko uses is positively stunning, and some of the elements incorporated are extremely well written and always portray some sort of image. In contrast however, the characters are carefully shrouded in mystery; while Silko does give background information of who a character is and what general role they play, it is ultimately up the reader to put the pieces together and find out the true depth of the character.
Silko’s novel is considered one of the best-written novels by a Native American writer, and acclaimed critic “Alan Velie named Silko one of his ‘Four Native American Literary Masters,’ along with Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor, and James Welch.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_M...).
While reading the book, I kind of felt that the book went along in a moderately slow pace, there isn’t truly a part where the book picks up in pace. It seems at if you have to read every single word of the book and examine it extensively before you can move on to another. Another problem I found in the book was the dispersion of the poems; they often plague the story and interrupt the train of flow rather than helping move it along. You will actually have to re-read the poem multiple times to actually get the concept that is portrayed through it. The book was also very confusing at times, as Silko moves the setting around while reading, sometimes the time period changes without any notice, and others character perspectives can change without the reader knowing. Despite all these challenges, the book can be very descriptive, to the point where you can practically “feel” the setting. The emotions of the characters are also described just as well, and the whole emotion of the book is the depression and anger that Tayo holds inside of him throughout the plot. The lessons also portrayed in the plot are also very good, but is bogged down by the problems. However, many critics may not agree with this review as Ceremony is widely praised. I think the reason I had such difficulty with the book is because of the time constraints, with only a week to get to finish certain parts of the book, it can be difficult to understand everything because the book is divided by so many different elements.
Overall, I believe that Silko had made a very beautiful story, but unrefined for younger or rushed readers. I truly believe that if I had more time with Ceremony, it would have been a better experience. However, with this review that I must make, I will give Ceremony 4 out of 5.

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Jul 09, 2009 Topher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although I wouldn't put this book at the top of the anti-war reads, there is much to like in this complexly styled book that takes the form of a native American prayer and vision. Ceremony may be now part of the high school canon...it makes many AP and college bound reading lists. It tells the story of Tayo, a native American who has become despondant after returning from Japan WWII. He failed to save his much more accomplished cousin during the war and now must return to deal with those who alr...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Impossible not to compare this novel to 'House Made of Dawn' by N. Scott Momaday. In fact, when I started reading 'Ceremony', I couldn't help feeling that Tayo's story was an immitation of Abel's story. But a cover blurb by Momaday endorses Silko's "extraordinary novel" and praises her talent as "real and remarkable" so I took Momaday's advice and read on.

No, it's not an ersatz 'HMOD', but more like an echo of the same theme. Apart from the obvious similarites in the main plot (Battle-fatigued...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Maria Birri rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I would not recommend this novel. The writing of the novel was wordy, lengthy and had trouble keeping my attention most the time. The plot of the novel at times seemed scattered and did not bring as much meaning to the novel as it should have. For instance, the author mentioned in the novel how Tayo had been seduced and made love to a couple of women. This brought little significance to the novel and did not show much integrity for the different ethnicity's. In other words, it seem to have given...more I would not recommend this novel. The writing of the novel was wordy, lengthy and had trouble keeping my attention most the time. The plot of the novel at times seemed scattered and did not bring as much meaning to the novel as it should have. For instance, the author mentioned in the novel how Tayo had been seduced and made love to a couple of women. This brought little significance to the novel and did not show much integrity for the different ethnicity's. In other words, it seem to have given the reader the wrong impression about the cultures.

The author, Leslie Marmon Silko, was born just after World War II. She was a mix of Laguna Pueblo Native American as well as Anglo American and Mexican American. Since Silko had exposure to these cultures it ultimately allowed her to make the differences in culture within the novel more realistic because of the spiritual influences that she incorporated. The novel had a basis of history in World War II. The main character, Tayo, had fought alongside his brother; however, the time after the war Tayo spent in mental anguish over images the war had placed in his head. After the war Tayo spent his time having the "medicine men" perform ceremonies on him to rid him of various problems he faced. Tayo was not the only one to face problems but his friends who fought in the war dealt with the post-traumatic stress through the self medication of alcohol.

The novel is very relate-able to anyone who has served in any type of war or conflict. During this time nobody can imagine the images that the soldiers must see on a day to day manner. The post-traumatic stress that Tayo and his friends experienced after the war is similar in many ways to what the soldiers in Iraq have had to experience once they return home to the United States.

The theme of the necessity of tradition in the novel can relate to any reader, rather it be a culture, family, or church tradition they may have. In the novel preserving the Native American culture was key in preventing natural disasters. Therefore, ceremonies were performed to prevent these disasters. Ceremonies were used for just about anything and everything that was needed to be changed or fixed.

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