In its extraordinary range of character and culture, Almanac of the Dead is fiction on the grand scale. The acclaimed author of Ceremony has undertaken a weaving of ideas and lives, fate and history, passion and conquest in an attempt to re-create the moral history of the Americas, told from the point of view of the conquered, not the conquerors. Author readings.
The Almanac of the Dead: A Novel
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Silko's ambitious but meandering novel untertakes an epic narrative, heavy with intrigue and carnage, about an apocalyptic Native American insurrection. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
When the ex-mistress of a sinister cocaine wholesaler takes a job as secretary to a Native American clairvoyant who works the TV talk show circuit, she begins transcribing an ancient manuscript that foretells the second coming of Quetzalcoatl and the violent end of white rule in the Americas. Witches and shamans across the country are working to fulfill this prophecy, but the capitalist elite is mounting a dirty war of its own, with weapons such as heroin and cocaine. This novel belongs on the same shelf with Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo ( LJ 10/1/72) and Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975). Occult conspiracies multiply at a dizzying pace, and eco-radicals actually do blow up the Glen Canyon Dam. Silko succeeds more as a storyteller than a novelist: the book is full of memorable vignettes, but the frame story of apocalyptic racial warfare is clumsy comic book fare. Recommended for collections of magic realism and Native American fiction.
- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch . Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch . Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Great American Novels of the Latter Half of the 20th Century
July 4 2012
By John Kwok
TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
By any standard of measurement, Leslie Marmon Silko is a great American writer, and her novels, beginning with "Ceremony", are notable additions to American literature. "Almanac of the Dead" may be her literary masterpiece, a magnificent "stream-of-consciousness" novel that looks back on more than five hundred years of sordid history between Western European invaders (and their descendants) and the original Native American inhabitants of the Americas. Silko draws upon Native American mythology from both continents in creating a narrative that switches back and forth between the present and the past, with much of it set in present-day Tucson, Arizona. Hers is an imperfect work of fiction, and yet, it is one that deserves favorable comparison with the likes of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", especially as a most beguiling mixture of fact and fiction, legend and history, or any of the great novels by Thomas Pynchon ("V", "Gravity's Rainbow", "Vineland"). Like Melville or Pynchon's great work, "Almanac of the Dead" is a novel that deserves to be read by as wide a readership as possible; a great work of literary art which remains most relevant now.
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Leslie Marmon Silko has created an intensely profound window into the deep undercurrents of American civilization. Her complex characters and revealing looks into their lives opens a porthole into the human condition that is intersting and intense all at once. The reader becomes an intregal part of the lives of the characters that she has created. The shortcomings of the characters are buried beneath reality and Silko is able to make a connection that is intriguing. Aside from the all consuming length of the book Silko manages to stay the course and complete a novel that is worthy of the time investment. I read this book as part of an essential study on modern American novels and I agree that this book has characteriscs that make it worthy of its lofty modern day status.
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I am a Native American woman, and I found this book empowering, depressing and very raw. I can see people that I know in the characters in the book as well as having had some of the same experiences. The book gives a realistic glimpse of a small population of Native American experiences. It shows how hard our world really is, and how Natives struggle through their lives knowing that there is no alternative. This book shows the other, real side to the "noble savage" myth.
Want to see more reviews on this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 28 reviews
3.9 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't bother with it
Despite what some people claim, this book is horrible. No, it's not the issues addressed, it's the racism and hatred of white people, it's the the whole book. Read more
Published on Oct 22 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent book...
Wow, what a concept...we finally have a Native American stream-of-consciousness novel! Enough of these white-man's dreams like The Tunnel or Gravity's Rainbow, we finally are... Read more
Published on Oct 5 2000 by Yuri Kuzyk
1.0 out of 5 stars
A novel? A jumble? A really long book.
A book only for those good at skimming. Where were this woman's editors? There are plenty of good stories in there, sadly, they are overwhelmed by Silko's yen to regurgitate... Read more
Published on Sep 6 2000 by A consumer of ethnographies & novels
5.0 out of 5 stars
prettysnake says, sssssuper book Sssssssilko!!!!
Not nearly as complex as some would like to make it. The "land" interacts with people to manifest its spirits. Read more
Published on Sep 4 2000 by Zane Ivy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Almanac of the Dead
This happens to be one of my favorite books of all time--yes, it's "disturbing", rambling, complex, and shocking. Read more
Published on July 15 2000
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing
I found Silko's book too disturbing to keep on reading. I understand that the disturbing nature of the work is the point of the book, but it was too depressing (and,as another... Read more
Published on April 7 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful....& food for thought.
What can I say but I loved this book. Got it because a friend mentioned it and he was not wrong. It is a deep book and one has to concentrate a bit in order to follow all the... Read more
Published on Jun 11 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best novel I have ever read
Anybody who thinks this is merely fiction is mistaken. This is reality, and it is happening as I type. Read more
Published on May 9 1999 by Marc Rikmenspoel
2.0 out of 5 stars
It took months to read this
I got this from the library, since Ceremony was such a good and dense book. I tried to like this book from start to finish (2 months later), but I can't help but think the author... Read more
Published on Mar 22 1999
4.0 out of 5 stars
a scatter-shot Dos Passos vision-questing on crystal-meth
then again- how often do you get to read about airliners being brought down with static electricity shot from a rabbit's paw? Read more
Published on July 20 1998
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
