Oceanstory

by Leslie Marmon Silko

A new novella from the acclaimed author of Ceremony, and Almanac of the Dead.

Leslie Marmon Silko is the author of the novels Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead, and Gardens in the Dunes. She has also written many short stories, poems and essays, and her most recent book is a memoir, The Turquoise Ledge. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and an NEA fellowship, Silko lives in Tucson, Arizona, on the boundary of Saguaro National Park West.

69 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 17, 2011

About the author

Leslie Marmon Silko (born Leslie Marmon; born March 5, 1948) is a Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and one of the key figures in the First Wave of what literary critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance.

Silko was a debut recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Grant, now known as the "Genius Grant", in 1981 and the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. She currently resides in Tucson, Arizona.

(from Wikipedia)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_...

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written short story about a particular time and place.

Coincidently I have been thinking about the role of the setting or place in a story since I saw 'August: Osage County' the other day. At one point one of the protagonists in the movie tried to make the point about what a godforsaken place Oklahoma is as she drives to her parents house with a sense of dread. She wonders why whites bothered to steal the place from the Indians.

In fact the movie fell short of of giving the viewer a sense of place. It was supposed to be 108 degrees but no one one was sweating, there was no dirt or grime on people. The house looked real but the interiors were old but clean. Strangely if Oklahoma, the place, was a metaphore or even a protagonist it was way down on the list.

If there is one thing Australian films get right is a sense of place. They are often badly written and directed and lack money but you get the feeling you are there because when it is hot it looks hot and people are grimey with red dust if they are in red dirt country. The landscape can be menacing more often than not but what ever it is, it is there around you, on you, inside of you. If there is one thing the average white Australian gets, even if it is just a bit, is the sense of country that the indigenous Australians have.

I had not heard of Leslie Marmon Silko unti three days ago. I read something about what an important writer she was about race in America and that she was an indigenous American from the south west of the U.S.. I then read the glowing reviews in Goodreads about her novels and I felt I really should look into this marvellous writer I had never heard of.

A short book or novella in the Kindle format seemed the best introduction. Once again a Kindle single came through. The writing is tight but flows beautifully. The sense we get of the narrator as she tells the story is just right. It all makes sense. Her descriptions of the place Sonora is peerless and because she speaks of the place the people come out from the facts of the place. She tells the history of the first peoples of this area and how they related to the place. After this we know the place and the place is a genuine and important protagonist in the novella.

The time is also important as this is just after 9/11 and the paranoid and demimondes are freaking out. The man she hooks with is on the very far edge of the secret state. He is French Algerian, which on reflection is no coincidence if we are talking murky state sanctioned violence. Is he paranoid? Is he just careful? We cannot be totally sure. He decides to vanish to the Sonora coast of Mexico and a make a new life doing shady real estate deals. The whole story is about his angry arsehole (asshole) existence. Silko never gives him a name because he is pretty much a standard issue jerk. It of course all turns to shit. The narrator sort of passively and sort of not passively is involved but she is above it all in a very zen way.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A really quick look at a few characters who are extranjeros in coastal Mexico, buying land, involved in schemes, and trying to fit in - they don't. Alcoholism and the emotional mayhem provide a slice of writing that offers a peek at lives, but really doesn't go anywhere. Leslie Marmon Silko, however, is a very good writer even though the scientific meanderings of ocean, and the liminal don't give the story the depth (sorry) the author may have intended.

It's like a long chapter out of a longer book - and I hope it finds its way.

I'd skip it.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella (which if I understand correctly is a Kindle exclusive) reads like an outtake from, or extension of, Silko's monumental novel Almanac of the Dead. The themes, character types and stylistic devices are familiar. Corrupt gringos caught in south of the border economic machinations; shadowy government complicities; snippets of Native history; a profound respect for the forces of nature. It works better with the larger frame in place. Not exactly sorry I spent the time on it, but on what's been "novella day 2012," it really suffers from comparison with Dennis Johnson's Train Dreams. Even if you don't have time for Almanac's 750 plus pages, there's much better Silko around (Ceremony, Storyteller, her memoir the Turquoise Ledge).

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really disappointed in this short novel by Silko. I've been a big fan of hers since the 1980's when I first read Ceremony and followed with several others. Never quite got into it or cared about the characters.

[Regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this Kindle single.