Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful, gentle novel of healing.
Review: The structure of this novel may put off some readers--there are many flashbacks, and pieces of short, traditional stories are woven into the main narrative. And there is much in the first half of the book that is painful. But as the novel progresses, as the reader becomes part of the ceremony, something remarkable happens--pieces fit into place as healing becomes sickness. A wonderful, gentle novel--very different from Silko's ALMANAC OF THE DEAD.
Rating: 
Summary: This book stinks.
Review: Usually when I find myself reading a bad book, I throw it out and move on. This book, however, got such good reviews that I forced myself to keep reading. Bad idea. Now I am writing this review so that other people won't fall into the same trap I did. This book has a stupid plot that the author contrived as a frame for her main opinion: people suck! She may have put these two words on the first page and saved me a lot of time. This book made no sense, was negative, and it totally depressed me to think that people actually liked this book. That makes me wonder about humanity too . . .
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: CEREMONY is a rare masterpiece of fiction from one of America's greatest writers. Profoundly moving; exquisitely written.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning, heart-breaking, a dare...
Review: I have loved this book ever since I first read it, and it is
near the top of my list of great books. Silko manages time
in such a fabulous way, jumping back and forth among three
specific periods in Tayo's (main character) life as he
struggles to overcome the sort of existential dilemma
Sartre explored in "Nausea." Silko addresses the fundamental
danger in placing too much power in the hands of others
as a means for deciding identity. Although this is
first and foremost a Laguna Pueblo story, and that warning
carries that strong racial/cultural dimension, it is
at heart a human story. Ceremony ultimately does what
great writing does: takes a specific person from a
specific point in time, and through exploring those
specifics, discovers essential truths that transcend
those specifics.
Rating:
Summary: Just perfect
Review: I read this book years ago in college, and still find myself re-reading it periodically. It's brilliantly written--while putting you very much in Tayo's mind, it also gives the aura of being seen from a far-away, benign presence. I can't explain it, because I could never write like Silko, but it's a book that makes ugly realities beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: CEREMONY is a rare masterpiece of fiction from one of America's greatest writers. Profoundly moving; exquisitely written.
Rating: 
Summary: It's about death.
Review: The point of the book is that an individual Indian sees himself not as individual like the people in white society but as a member of a people. The main character could not define himself as psychologically distinct from his culture. He was sad because of what he saw in war but he could only define this sadness in terms of how Indians saw the death of humanity. The only thing that brought the main character out of his shell shocked vomiting state of mind was a story about how it was the Indian culture itself that set the evil destroying white culture against it through witchcraft. The story came from a medicine man and it empowered the Indian. Either way everything around the Indian spelled disaster because destroying white society had defeated the Indians. His life was empty and the world is doomed. This is not romantic or uplifting, only sad.
Rating:
Summary: Silko's best
Review: Book Review I think that the book was one of the most, well written books that I have ever read. The book includes a somewhat of a poem writing style. I found the writing style pretty difficult to understand when I started to read it. However as I kept reading it I either got used to the writing style or the books writing came to be easier and not so complex. With this happening it became easier to comprehend what was going on in the story.
For never having read a story such as this and not particularly liking the reading that this book included in the past I did on the other hand enjoy it the beginning of the book was a very slow start, but in my opinion I thought that the book came to be more and more interesting as I read on. When I started reading this book, I started reading it with no one referring it to me or prior knowledge of the book or any of Leslie Silkos writings.
After reading the back of the book, I thought that the book sounded interesting. But as I read through it, I found that the book was a lot more than interesting. I think that there are some very boring and slow parts in the book that you may not want to put the book down and say "where is this going". There are also parts that hold your attention and you don't know what may happen next or wonder what is going to happen to whomever in the book.
If you don't like books with hard-to-understand writings included in it, this book may not be something that you would like to purchase or read. I know in my opinion, I found the book pretty enjoyable for not really liking the type or reading that Silko used in this book. But I'm not sure if all of her books are written with this style of writing. If it is you would probably enjoy this book a lot.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly captivating
Review: CEREMONY is a stylistic masterpiece worthy of the highest honor. Leslie Silko's refusal to tell her tale in an expected, pedantic format works to pull the reader deeper into the narrative, to feel that he is a part of the story himself. It is not a straightforward narration, but one that twists and turns through more than one character, through more than one time period and finally through more than one style of story telling. Silko somehow manages to make her plot gell with the poetry and mythology employed until at the end all three of these elements come together to create one story and one message. It is also a novel founded deeply in setting. The landscape in this novel-both physical and spiritual-is overwhelming, and the statement Silko makes about her main characters connection to the land and the old ways could not be made outside of these specific settings. It is that connection that Tayo forges between himself and the land that allows for his transformation, and in effect allows the land itself almost to become a character within the story-an active participant within the narrative. The story itself is beautifully, if soberly told, and the narrative, instead of being one of piecemeal patchwork such as you might expect from a work that weaves in and out of prose and ceremonial poetry- instead achieves the hushed, somber, reverential aspect of the ceremonial poems and stories it contains. It is by this achievement that Silko manages to make the stories and the landscape that figures so importantly in them alive to readers. The settings and themes of CEREMONY are specific, but its lessons universal. We all have `ceremonies'-things we must do to keep us sane, to keep our worlds in balance, and we must accept that these needs change over time. Gorgeous work, not to be missed.
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