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Summary: This is an extraordinary new literature for the entire world
Review: One should take the time to read this beautiful new literature. The world, the language of this novel is unbelieveable. This novel should not to be read in one sitting. One has to take the time and think about what one has read. There's poetry, myth and many different images are woven together through out the novel. The relationship between the characters and the landscape...the power it brings out...This novel is rate up there with "War and Peace" and "Doctor Zhivago." It's not a Euroamerican novel but a novel comes out of the dry landscape of the southwest. It's music and songs of the open landscape and the clear blue sky.
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Summary: This book seems to be misunderstood
Review: Whether you like this novel or not (personally, I think it's a masterpiece), you ought to be set straight on one thing. Silko does NOT blame white people for Tayo's problems. Some of the reviewers at this site have simply got that point wrong. She goes out of the way to explain that many of the characters' hatred of the white people is misdirected. Tayo only begins to recover when he sees the whole picture--when he realizes that until they understand their relationship to the land and to their communities, both whites and Indians will be lost. A wonderful message in a truly remarkable book.
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Summary: Marlene and Tayo...beloved by Honors 2002
Review: Tina and Sarah would just like to say that this novel is a frustration to all those in search of a correspondingly good book review, because we feel that Marlene is the sole reputable source from which we access information. The novel was a "rare find," as so many other fine scholars on this website have noted. We hope that someone desperately searching for a decent review will read this, and realize it is yet another bad one. Take care, good luck, and good night.
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Summary: Ceremony is a book worth reading
Review: Reading this book was required for a class. The dis-jointed narrative can be somewhat confusing at first. Once you realize that you are 'in' the mind of a traumatized young man, you will appreciate the honesty of the narrative. The inter-twining of the Laguna stories provides insight into the Laguna way of life. This book is worth reading.
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Summary: BORING, UNINSPIRING, AND TEDIOUS
Review: I dont know if it was because I was stuck reading this book over my summer break for school, or if it was the medley of references to vomit and drunkards, but this book plainly does nothing for the concept of entertainment. Because of the never-ending discriptions of insignifigant things such as snakes, I found myself dreading the next page. I would not recommend this book to ANYONE! Unfortunatly I had to read this book for school, so i could not just throw it into the fire like i wanted to!!!
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Summary: The only good use of this book is recycling it.
Review: Leslie Silko, through her intricate nonsense, tries to explain that all of the "white" people are evil. Such a silly argument, for such a silly novel. WHAT AN IGNORANT WAY TO ADDRESS THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY ("white people"), WHEN IT IS ETHNICALLY DIVERSE AMONG IT'S CITIZENS AND EARLY SETTLERS. And to choose a foolish character such as Tayo as a protagonist, when considering all the follies he experiences, is absolutely ridiculous. The book is so choppy that you'll get lost while reading. It supposedly contains a "plot", however I don't find it as a linear plot like other novels. The reader will be more tangled with the flashbacks and mythical nonsense. My final synopsis: THIS BOOK SUX. IT'S THEME IS BASICALLY: WHITE PEOPLE SUCK. Therefore, do the planet a favor and recycle the paper the book uses, for it such a shameful waste. White people are bad?....baahh
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Summary: Boring book about Tayo and friends
Review: I thought this was the most boring book I have ever read. But, there was one TRUE point the author made in the book, it was the part when she talked about the witches making the white man, that she is correct on. Well I DO NOT RECOMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE, I HAD TO READ IT FOR SCHOOL AND I WISH I DIDN'T. I would say this book was a waste of my time.
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Summary: has deep meaning...but can leave you racking your brain
Review: Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko, is about a Native American who is caught between two worlds, unable to identify. the novel tends to be hard to read at first because Silko uses hard words to convey hatred for white peole and also gets us lost in the mind of a conffused Native American named Tayo, after being a prisoner of World War II. We meet him right after he gets discharged from a veteran's hospital and everything and anything reminds him of the war and his past.We then follow him through flashbacks, which makes us just as confused as he. Tayo cannot seem to get well like his buddies from the war through the escape of alcohol and violence; instead he takes us on a journey for Indian traditional ceremonies. We find ourselves fascinated by his strength to go back to his culture through spiritual rituals. he teaches us that we can heal ourselves through our own "ceremony."
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Summary: This one is on my top ten list.
Review: Using poetry, myth, and engaging prose, Leslie Marmon Silko weaves an intricate web that takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery with her protagonist, Tayo. Through his relationships to a beloved Uncle, a spirit woman, an older woman of great experience, and a somewhat unconventional Shaman, Tayo comes to a deep spiritual awareness of the connections of all things. He is part of the web, the pattern. The stories of his ancestors belong to the stories of today. The faces of the Asian soldiers in war and the faces of his friends and family are the same. Milan Kundera talks about the modern novel as an art form which pulls together various strands of ideas, various types of storytelling, and weaves them all together into a cohesive whole. Leslie Marmon Silko is an expert at the art.
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Summary: What a terrible waste of time.
Review: This book describes in tedious detail the many problems of a young Native American named Tayo. Even though Tayo faces such obstacles as shell shock and alcoholism, I felt no sympathy for him as I desperately waited for the book to be over. I think that Silko is meaning to addess the problems that Native Americans face, but she does so by accusing whites of being "devils" and "evil spirits" whose only goal in life is to ruin the Native Americans. My final opinion of this book is that Tayo is too pathetic to be the protagonist of an entire novel.
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