{"product_id":"ceremony-9798885798587","title":"Ceremony","description":"\"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe great Native American Novel of a battered veteran returning home to heal his mind and spirit, from celebrated author Leslie Marmon Silko\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eDecades after its original publication, \u003ci\u003eCeremony\u003c\/i\u003e remains one of the most profound and moving works of Native American literature--a novel that is itself a ceremony of healing. Tayo, a World War II veteran of mixed ancestry, returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. He is deeply scarred by his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese and further wounded by the rejection he encounters from his people. Only by immersing himself in the Indian past can he begin to regain the peace that was taken from him. Masterfully written, filled with the somber majesty of Pueblo myth, \u003ci\u003eCeremony\u003c\/i\u003e is a work of enduring power. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition contains a new preface by the author and an introduction by Larry McMurtry.\u003c\/p\u003e\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLeslie Marmon Silko was born in 1948 to a family whose ancestry includes Mexican, Laguna Indian, and European forebears. She has said that her writing has at its core \"the attempt to identify what it is to be a half-breed or mixed-blood person.\" As she grew up on the Laguna Pueblo Reservation, she learned the stories and culture of the Laguna people from her great-grandmother and other female relatives. After receiving her B. A. in English at the University of New Mexico, she enrolled in the University of New Mexico law school but completed only three semesters before deciding that writing and storytelling, not law, were the means by which she could best promote justice. She married John Silko in 1970. Prior to the writing of \u003ci\u003eCeremony\u003c\/i\u003e, she published a series of short stories, including \"The Man to Send Rain Clouds.\" She also authored a volume of poetry, \u003ci\u003eLaguna Woman: Poems\u003c\/i\u003e, for which she received the Pushcart Prize for Poetry. \u003cp\u003eIn 1973, Silko moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, where she wrote \u003ci\u003eCeremony\u003c\/i\u003e. Initially conceived as a comic story abut a mother's attempts to keep her son, a war veteran, away from alcohol, \u003ci\u003eCeremony\u003c\/i\u003e gradually transformed into an intricate meditation on mental disturbance, despair, and the power of stories and traditional culture as the keys to self-awareness and, eventually, emotional healing. Having battled depression herself while composing her novel, Silko was later to call her book \"a ceremony for staying sane.\" Silko has followed the critical success of \u003ci\u003eCeremony\u003c\/i\u003e with a series of other novels, including \u003ci\u003eStoryteller, Almanac for the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eGardens in the Dunes\u003c\/i\u003e. Nevertheless, it was the singular achievement of \u003ci\u003eCeremony\u003c\/i\u003e that first secured her a place among the first rank of Native American novelists. Leslie Marmon Silko now lives on a ranch near Tucson, Arizona. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Thorndike Press Large Print","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50919399751954,"sku":"9798885798587","price":36.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_b1d841eb-1437-4ede-9325-980d4a907788.jpg?v=1738892896","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/ceremony-9798885798587","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}