Almanac of the Dead [B0886]

1992 PB in nice clean condition. From critically acclaimed author Leslie Marmon Silko, an epic novel about people caught between two cultures and two times: the modern-day Southwest, and the places of the old ones, the native peoples of the Americas. In its extraordinary range of character and culture, Almanac of the Dead is fiction on the grand scale, a brilliant, haunting, and tragic novel of ruin and resistance in the Americas. At the heart of this story is Seese, an enigmatic survivor of the fast-money, high-risk world of drug dealing-a world in which the needs of modern America exist in a dangerous balance with Native American traditions. Seese has been drawn back to the Southwest in search of her missing child. In Tuscon, she encounters Lecha, a well-known psychic who is hiding from the consequences of her celebrity. Lecha's larger duty is to transcribe the ancient, painfully preserved notebooks that contain the history of her own people-a Native American Almanac of the Dead. Through the violent lives of Lecha's extended family, a many-layered narrative unfolds to tell the magnificent, tragic, and unforgettable story of the struggle of native peoples in the Americas to keep, at all costs, the core of their culture: their way of seeing, their way of believing, their way of being.

From recent mixed Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "This novel is not just epic, but epochal. It's about the legacy of colonization in the Americas and indigenous resistance to it, it's deeply about Landback, and also it's about a bunch of weirdos in Tucson. It's horrifying. It's blazingly hopeful. I usually say every American should read Morrison's Beloved, and now I'm adding Silko's Almanac of the Dead to that recommendation."; "I am rating this book four stars because I am impressed by its characters, research, satire, intrigue, and massive scale. I also agree with the reviewers who say that it is meandering, difficult to read, and sometimes disgusting. There are a few instances of gross sexual detail that I could have done without. This book is not for everyone. If you are interested in climate, apocalypse, indigenous, or place-based literature -- then give this book a try. Like many reviewers here, you might not make it past the first 100 pages. I would say it took reading 60% (ish) of the book for characters and plot lines to start to converge. And when they did, I marveled at Silko's world view though I'm not sure if I want it to come true or not."; "I have no earthly idea why this book did not garner more praise than it has. Could it be that is was written a time ago before readers were ready for it? If so, why hasn't it been rediscovered since? What I love most about this novel was a steady merging of all its disparate parts into a march of profound justice, or something like that. It reads like Ravel's Bolero, a steady march toward an uncertain but necessary conclusion. I found it breathtaking and, as I suggested above, perhaps a little ahead of its time."; "Constantly moving and shifting and jumping around, trying to buck you off its back. Wrenches your heart and punches your gut. Beautiful, intricate plotting. Feels like a 700 page scolding by mother earth. Leslie Marmon Silko is unmatched."