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Search - Ceremony
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Ceremony Author: |
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Book Information
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Other Versions of this Book: Paperback, Hardcover
Book Description:
This story, set on an Indian reservation just after World War II, concerns the return home of a war-weary Navajo young man. Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution. Tayo's quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient stories of his people. The search itself becomes a ritual, a curative ceremony that defeats the most virulent of afflictions-despair. "Demanding but confident and beautifully written" (Boston Globe), this is the story of a young Native American returning to his reservation after surviving the horrors of captivity as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II. Drawn to his Indian past and its traditions, his search for comfort and resolution becomes a ritual--a curative ceremony that defeats his despair. -- from OCLC
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Top Member Book Reviews
Sarah R. (
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Great book. Very interesting look at modern Native Americans, looking espescially of the effects on the psychy after WWII.
Matt B. (
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Told in the tradition of story-telling, this novel is an account of a World War II veteran's return home to the Laguna Pueblo reserve in New Mexico. He has post-traumatic shock disorder and anxiety and he turns to traditional healing against the orders of his Euro-American doctors. Spots are wordy, which leads to a certain fuzziness. For me, paragraphs at a time of magical realism had little or no focus. But overall it's a positive story about the return to life of a guilt-ridden vet, who has issues that pre-date the war, the Bataan Death March, and captivity in a POW camp. The overarching message is that Native culture is still alive, growing, changing, so much so that it can save people from the past (and alcohol) and restore them.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Tayo, a young American Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during WWII, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive only increases his feelings of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution. Tayo's quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to the beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient stories of his people. The search itself becomes a ritual, a curative ceremony that defeats the most virulent of afflictions, despair.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
From back cover:
Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soliders find easy refuge in alchohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution.
Tayo's quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, to the ancient stories of his people. The search itselft becomes a ritual, a curative ceremony that defates the most virulent of afflications, despair.
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Please Rate these Book Reviews
Ceremony puts the reader directly in Tayo's shoes in his quest for healing. A very spiritual book, revealing of Native American culture, yet mysterious at the same time. I just saw it at the National Museum of the American Indian in a new edition. I'm glad that such a classic is available to new
audiences.
Lynda C. (A young Native American soldier returns home after WWII, but cannot leave the terrors of war behind him as he struggles to survive in a world out of balance.
******************SPOILER ALERT**********************************
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One of the few books I feel compelled to review. Ms. Silko gives us a well written and well painted portrait of young Tayo, who has returned from World War II, profoundly out of balance in his life and in the world in which he lives.
He has tried western medicine, "native" medicine, and nothing is helping. It is in his expansion of the healing ceremony to encompass his whole world that he finally begins moving toward healing.
Sara W. (compelling story of a young man coming to grips with his heritage and his past endevours.
Have not read it. Bought it for class, but the professor decided not to teach it.
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