Ceremony

I see why many consider it a masterpiece. Vivid, lean prose. Compelling images and characters. I read this book to continue the theme of healing that runs through Spirit Car, a memoir/history in which the author explores the trauma of her Dakota ancestors and the healing that has followed. Ceremony delivered on this with insight into the complexity of healing and recovering. I can see why some view this book as the compact inverse of the sprawling Almanac of the Dead. Almanac tells us about the alienation and pain that come from abandoning traditional wisdom, while Ceremony is a meditation on its power.

I read this for my graduate course in Native American Lit., and then again for the Lit. Theory class. I wrote a paper on it for the Lit. Theory class. Yet, it was so long ago, I'd have to look up the file to see what I actually wrote, something dealing with icons in the novel according to my journal.