Rating: 
Summary: Changed
Review: As I began reading this book, I thought to myself, oh boy another book on how White Americans are in the wrong. There are so many books that I have read lately, that point out that the White American should feel guilty because they stole America from the natives. Then as I continued reading this book, and learned about Tayo's story, I realized just how angry and upset the Native Americans were, and still are. Another argument that I learned from this book, is that people with Native American and European dissent are seen as outsiders, and they do not fit in within either race. I did not realize that 'half-breeds' were looked at as different, or wrong. This story takes place after WWII, and in one situation in the book, Tayo explains, that when he was in uniform women saw him as a heroic and attractive man. They did not see him as a 'half-breed' until he was out of uniform and in street clothes. I found this chapter to be sad, but true. We do this often in our society. We judge people before we know them. I am able to say that this book changed my outlook on life. After reading Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko, I realize that we as Americans, should be grateful for the land that we live on, and we should not be so quick to judge others before we know them.
Rating: 
Summary: Ceremony
Review: While reading Ceremony I was very uncomfortable at times with the voyage that the author takes the reader on. The attention to detail that Silko brings to her writing engulfs the reader and allows them to really get inside the head of the characters and share their emotion (whether it's good or bad). I'm not a Native American, nor have I fought in the military, but throughout the novel, I often found myself experiencing and identifying with some of the emotions that the main character (Tayo) goes through and I'm able to see the critique that Silko is trying to make. The novel can serve as a healing process for the characters in the story as well as the reader.The novel's critique is the effects of colonization on Native American culture. Reading Ceremony really makes you think about the way of life you have today and who or what was sacrificed in order or you to have it that way. It's very depressing when you think about what the white man did to the Native Americans and their land. I recommend reading this book if you are interested in human spirit and emotion. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard Time
Review: I needed to read this for a class in desert lit, and I found the book to be difficult. Not because of the non-linier format but because of the authors style. Stylistically, she has much to say and needs to say it. This book was easy to put down!
Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful and hope-inspiring novel
Review: ... "Ceremony" is a wonderful, well-written novel that deals with the dis-integration of a particular culture and cosmology in the context of a larger, global disintegration: the second world war and its repercussions. Tayo, the protagonist, is a "half-breed", and his journey towards re-integration involves rediscovering his people's ceremonies. This journey itself is a ceremony, a process that necessarily changes with time. Tayo is completely lost at the onset of the novel, and begins to find himself as it progresses. The structure of the novel reflects this beautifully: "Ceremony" starts off disjointed, with frequent changes in time, and gradually becomes fixed in the present. This book inspired a good deal of hope in me, hope that the disjointedness of our "modern" world can be mended, and that it is a worthwhile process to attempt (just as reading this book is.)
Rating: 
Summary: Language and the Ceremony
Review: I just finished reading this magical book--wow! The way Silko manages to draw the reader into the plot sequence at the end of the novel--negating the way the reader is hoping the story will go--was breathtaking. I had an eery feeling when the last page was turned, I felt like Silko was talking directly to me, questioning the way I define the earth and my own country's origins. I was also impressed with her excellent command of language, the images and musicality of the text were a wonderful display. I felt like I was watching her book unfold, not reading it. I thought the character, Old Betonie, was one of most timeless characters in the novel. He represented all time and all places--he was to Indian spirituality what the Madonna is for Catholicism: A mediator between the Divine and Mankind. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Filipina's Point of View
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: worthwhile reading, but well short of a classic
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: This book will change your life
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Freedom from alienation
Review: "Ceremony" demonstrates how people seek freedom from alienation.That white people see Indians as inferior occupies the thinking of the Laguna community, and to see yourself as an American, young men decide to join the army as Tayo,Rocky, and Emo did. That joining the army will "Americanize" and free them from the misconceptions associated with Indians in Laguna. The army's promise of traveling around the world was also seen as "Freedom" as it is envisaged that the circle of inferiority would be broken. At one point, Emo had to pretend to be an Italian in his quest to date a white woman. Tayo's return from World War 11 and the traumatic experience, as well as Rocky's death during the war, are pointers to the fact that the freedom they were seeking was after all tragic and deceptive. Veterans discontent found roots in alcoholism, disgruntled life, and a sub-standard way of living.All these, represent a mockery of freedom. Tayo's psycholigical instability on his return to Laguna land after the war, and Auntie's racist undertones against her own people- Indians, are ample manifestations of false freedom, even when white people are not directly involved in the perpetuation of submisiveness and acceptance of inferiority by a minority group. The Laguna community and its dictates attest to this assertion. To free himself from inferiority and stereotypes, Tayo could not be healed through the very apparatus which he thought would have guaranteed his freedom.That did not heal him. In Betonie, a return to Laguna medicine practice ushered itself once again to the healing process - a return to tradition. That freedom did not help Tayo. Rather, it traumatized him - memories of war, and a disease Western medicine cannot heal. In effect, the run for freedom was not worthwhile - joining the army in the name of recognition did not yield the desired result.
Rating: 
Summary: Ceremony was a horrible book
Review: this book was a confusing mess and i was forced to read it. the whole time i wished Tayo would come to life and try to kill me with a beer bottle. it was so tangled up.
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