A review by serendipitysbooks
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Ceremony is an important novel, part of the so-called (at least in white academic circles) first wave of the Native American Renaissance. It incorporates oral traditions and ceremonial practices from the author’s Navajo and Pueblo people. It tells the story of Tayo, who returns from World War II (where he was held as a PoW by the Japanese) suffering from what we now know as PTSD and haunted by memories of seeing his cousin die. Tayo’s also struggling with the renewed reality of racism after earning respect while in uniform as well as feelings of not fully belonging in either the native or white worlds. He initially self-medicates with alcohol but is later sent on a ceremony by a medicine man and it is this which enables him to overcome the trauma of the war. Interwoven with this main storyline is a mythic story of how Hummingbird and Green Bottle Fly saved the Pueblo nation from drought. I appreciated the way the culturally traditional was interwoven with the contemporary, something that was possibly revolutionary for white readers at the time. I was always engaged by the writing, never struggled as the story moved around in time or place, and found the depictions of the landscape to be especially evocative. A modern classic.
 
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