Ceremony

By: Leslie Marmon Silko

Narrated by: Pete Bradbury

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

Leslie Marmon Silko's sublime Ceremony is almost universally considered one of the finest novels ever written by an American Indian. It is the poetic, dreamlike tale of Tayo, a mixed-blood Laguna Pueblo and veteran of World War II. Tormented by shell shock and haunted by memories of his cousin who died in the war, Tayo struggles on his impoverished reservation. After turning to alcohol to ease his pain, he strives for a better understanding of who he is.

©1977 Leslie Marmon Silko (P)2008 Recorded Books

Worth a re-read

I had a difficult time with this book at first because there is no transition when moving from character to character or past to present. I became frustrated and wanted to write it off, but I didn't and I am glad. I realized that this book is different than the average novel of today because it emulates the ancient storytelling traditions of the native american culture while having to manipulate them into the literary standards of today. Since these cultures are as different as they are, this can be a difficult task, so I opened my mind and listened again and what I got from the story is a connection to the pulse of life around me - something I never felt when reading King, Koontz, or Grisham.

Interesting

I read this book for a class. It is not something I would normally read and I had a hard time getting into the story. The story moves around and it's often difficult to to track of whether the main character is dreaming and reliving things from his past or if the things are happening in real time. This novel is also filled with symbolism and metaphors, so if you are looking for a straightforward story this is not the novel for you. It was interesting and caused a lot of thought on my part regarding the struggle and loss the Indian tribes of this nation suffered and are still dealing with today.

Exceptional

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, especially for those interested in what Soldiers deal with as they recover from wounds deeper than the physical or the traditions both past and present of Native Americans.

Great Read

Takes the reader to a different level of understanding for contemporary native american life, the struggle and the blessing.

Story was good, Audiobook was out of order

This was a good read. I read it for AP Literature and I enjoyed it. The audiobook helped me to comprehend what was happening. However, for some reason, the audiobook was out of order. This may be because there are no actual chapters in the book, but the mistake is that the beginning of the book is in "Chapter 6" in the audiobook. For a book with such disjointed storytelling to begin with (a part of conveying the PTSD that Tayo is suffering from) this is super confusing and stressed me out as I was trying to finish the book by the deadline. I hope this issue is fixed because it really is a good book.

Worth the Beautiful Scars

Part Steinbeck, part Palhunick, and part Bradbury. No one would say it’s an easy read, but everyone would agree, this Pueblo novel is uniquely American as they come!

True Spirituality

One of the best audiobooks on spirituality that I have heard. A perfect synthesis of text and narrator. One I will listen to again.

what the?

ok. I will say the narrator was really good. He made the ideas and everything of this book come a live a lot better, the dialogue and characters really clear, etc... having a lot of the things you want in a narrator.
on the other hand, the book was just weird. now I k ow it's supposedly some great piece of literature, but it was super hard to follow, and nothing made sense. It was so non linear and all over the place that there really wasn't a story line, just kind of a weird unpallored existance. he's sad, something sad happened to his past in world war two, his uncle died, he got a ceremony, got hinted down for being insane but he understood the ceremony and then wasn't hunted down anymore I guess? I don't k ow. It was just really weirs. and their were some characters that were just suddenly there with no context as to why they meant so much, then gone again without context. and there were weird sex scenes with complete strangers. I don't know. It was just so hard to follow and all I got out of it was a feeling of confused sadness.

English 1B

I have a really hard time sitting down and reading but I love that I can drive to and from school “reading” my books for my English class. It helps me hear words that I would have read wrong or misinterpreted parts of the story.

Incredible

What an amazing read! It’s my first Silko book, but it’s absolutely not my last!