The first fifty pages of Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko were a real struggle for me to read. I love reading and this book was one of the most boring thing that I have ever picked up. The author used way too many details in my opinion. I was confused right from the start. There were short Native American “folktales” I guess you would call them in between random paragraphs of the novel that caused me not only to lose track of the story, but of the main character. I hardly ever knew where exactly he was or understood just what he was doing at the time. What time was it anyways? The setting jumped to so many different places in such a dull, not-so-transitional way that I could hardly hold the book up, whereas most other books I can hardly put down! I was not impressed with the start of the story, because it often failed to hold my attention until I literally sat down and forced myself to read it.
I was, however, impressed with Silko’s use of sensory details. I can understand that she wanted her readers to be inside the story and feel everything that the main character was feeling (I think). I like sensory detail just as much as the next book lover, and walking through the minds and eyes of the characters is like going on vacation for me, but this journey was more like one that you’d take through a desert. A dry, lonely desert where you notice every grain of sand and take notes on them. I will admit though that as I read along further, I gradually began to understand more about Tayo (the main character) and his position in his world. I understood that he was just as confused, lost, and broken as I was trying to read about him. He was on a farm. He was on a war battlefield in Japan. He was at a mental institution or hospital. Seemingly all at once and light years apart “at the same d**n time”!
Tayo seems to be deeply connected to his roots, his heritage, his town, and to his family. He talks a great deal about lost loved ones who kind of left empty voids/spaces in his life and more literally in his heart. Each member of his family is described with great detail so readers, like myself, can see exactly what the characters must have looked like to him. This type of detail, I appreciate. But when you get into explaining the crevasses on a cow’s arse without any general purpose, I start to get annoyed. The only explanation I could give myself for the author’s over explaining everything is that maybe that’s how Tayo saw the world. Maybe paying attention to and thinking about every little thing was the only thing that kept him grounded during the days and nights in such a drunken, traditionally deep-rooted town like his. No one seems to see Tayo in this town. I mean the other characters acknowledge his presence, but no one seems to know or care that he is hurting other than his blind grandmother. Irony.
eng1920 