Ceremony

By: Leslie Marmon Silko

Narrated by: Pete Bradbury

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

My favorite novel

When I first read this book in 2013, it made me see the world in a new way. My life has never been quite the same since.

How little America thinks or cares about the first people

This was my first foray into Native American literature, and Ceremony left a profound impression on me. Silko’s novel is haunting, poetic, and deeply political—an exploration of a people forgotten by mainstream America, their land stolen, their history obscured, and their culture fragmented. And yet, in one of history’s cruelest ironies, Native Americans like Tayo were called upon to serve in World War II, to defend a country that had systematically disenfranchised them.

Silko captures the pain of that betrayal—of fighting for a country that neither sees you nor welcomes you. The book’s depiction of post-war disillusionment is devastating. The return to the reservation is not a homecoming but a collapse, a return to isolation, poverty, racism, and spiritual dislocation. The trauma isn’t just individual—it’s generational, historical, and cultural.

What struck me most was how Ceremony becomes more than a story—it becomes a healing ritual. Silko’s structure mirrors a ceremonial act, blending Laguna oral traditions with Western narrative form. The non-linear storytelling, the interweaving of myth and memory, creates a space where the very act of telling is curative. Tayo’s journey is about much more than recovery from war trauma; it’s about reclaiming identity through tradition, land, and story.

Tayo’s mixed-race identity adds another painful layer. He is caught between worlds—never fully accepted by the white Americans, nor entirely embraced by his own community. His suffering is psychological, but it also reflects the broader consequences of cultural erasure. Silko gives voice to this inner fracture, showing how colonialism not only seizes territory but also splinters identity, memory, and belonging.

One of the most powerful aspects of the novel is its reverence for nature. In Silko’s world, the land is alive—sacred, watching, responsive. The natural world is not scenery but participant. Losing connection to the land is spiritual death; reclaiming it is essential to healing. The contrast between this worldview and America’s extractive capitalism is sharply drawn. The novel doesn’t just critique the commodification of land—it shows how the American Dream itself is built on a foundation of greed, violence, and environmental destruction.

Silko also turns her eye inward, exploring how trauma can breed cycles of internalized violence. Characters like Emo, who lashes out and mimics the very systems that dehumanize him, embody the corrosive effects of historical oppression. Their pain is real, but their rage is tragically misdirected.

Ultimately, Ceremony is a story of resistance—not through revolution, but through remembering. Silko’s work reclaims narrative space for Native voices and offers a new way of understanding healing, not as forgetting trauma, but as integrating it through connection: to land, to story, and to each other.

This is a sad, powerful, and deeply spiritual novel. It challenged me, moved me, and made me reflect on the contradictions of the America we live in—the beauty and brutality, the promise and betrayal. It’s a book I will return to, and one that deserves to be read slowly, reverently, and more than once.

great book

Wonderful read and listen. Had it for a school project. Recommended read. Confusing at first but falls together to make sense.

Creative, Creative, Creative!

This book has magic in it. I am more awake in the world now- seeing the world through fresh eyes. Beautiful, devastating, and ultimately healing. Well written and read!

Riveting

A quintessential American novel and an homage to the power of storytelling culture… must read!