[In Ceremony] Silko demonstrates that she is a "saver"—of songs, religious rituals, histories, and stories of the Laguna Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. Her determination to preserve so much, however, makes great demands on the reader, who must exercise a selectivity the author has not provided. Theoretically, there is no reason why a work of fiction cannot accommodate both the curator and the scribe of a culture, but Silko, I think, has not found the proper form for combining these offices.

By "ceremony" she means the use of traditional tales to cure the grief and despair of her hero, to bless the land with fertility, and to exercise the ancient "witcheries" that threaten its people with violence and cruelty. This calls for a slow, meditative response to Silko's material. Yet at the same time she exploits popular fictional elements, raising expectations of speed and suspense that she...