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.

Confusing

I hated this book. I loved the man who read the book but the writing was a mess. The way the book jumps from flashback to flashback just makes the story confusing and difficult.

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.

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.

Unlistenable Performance

My story rating is a guess because I can't listen to the narration. I still long to experience this book and I will buy a copy for visual reading after returning this. The narration here is so awful--obnoxiously overly polished and enunciated like the voice of a game show announcer. It's distracting to the point I can't even experience the story. I think I've encountered this guy before and I honestly just can't...I'll keep an eye out and avoid his narration in the future.

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.