Ceremony

Published in 1977, Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony is an earnest and heartfelt story involving a World War II veteran (Tayo) who returns home to his impoverished Laguna reservation after the war. The story has some very good moments describing the war's impact on Tayo’s mental state and especially his identity (Tayo fights in the war as an American but is not treated as one when he returns home). It also highlights the cultural importance of stories to the Laguna: "I will tell you something about stories... They aren't just for entertainment. Don't be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death."