I think this book is kind of required reading, if you are the type who reads. Silko wrote the book in the 1970s when she was in her twenties, and it is visceral, something bigger than her demanded it be written (IMO :) ) It is her only major novel, as if this is what she was, precociously, born to say.
Silko is part Native American, but was excluded from the traditional ceremonies as a youth because she was not pure blood. Her main character Tayo also has mixed heritage, and is subject to similar prejudice. And he has been traumatised by WWII. The story of the book is of his healing. A traditional medicine man who sticks just to the old ways cannot help him. A medicine man who understands the spirit of the white man, who sees him as subject to a kind of witchery that means he sees the world as only objects, devoid of life, is able to help him. Help free him of that psychological colonising influence that is nowadays a major theme of healing amongst indigenous people worldwide.
Tayo at one point performs some traditional ceremony himself: he can't remember the details, so he invents them, but his heart understands the ceremony and its intentions, and you feel the power of that. Ceremony can heal. And traditional ways need to continually adapt, or they will die.
This is a powerful message for those who cry 'cultural appropriation' and attempt to freeze and claim exclusive ownership of their past. And a powerful message for us in the modern world, where ceremony is something we need to create, from the heart, carte blanche. The old ways are our inspiration, but they are not ours and we are not in any way beholden to them: there is much creativity and power possible at these rare points of cultural fluidity. Tradition has depth, but often at the price of the spontaneity that the heart needs.
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