The Turquoise Ledge

A Memoir

“Leslie Marmon Silko writes in the language of the spirit . . . sentence by sentence, the reader is given an enormous amount of useful information about how to get the most out of life, beginning in the present moment.” The Los Angeles Times

Profound reflections on family and the natural world-from the legendary Native American author

With the publication of Ceremony in 1978, Leslie Marmon Silko established herself as a storyteller of unique power and brilliance. In The Tuquoise Ledge, her first work of nonfiction, Silko combines memoir with family history and observations on the creatures and desert landscapes that command her attention and inform her vision of the world. Ambitious in scope and full of wonderfully plainspoken and evocative lyricism, The Turquoise Ledge is both an exploration of Silko's experience and a moving and deeply personal contemplation of the enormous spiritual power of the natural world.
Praise for The Turquoise Ledge:
 
“Engaging . . . Silko writes of many things, with affectionate portraits of friends and family and sharply observed notes on history, personal and universal . . . At dazzling moments, she pulls seemingly disconnected themes together: turquoise, rain, Aztec mythology and language, the otherworld and other worlds and, yes, snakes . . . The best parts  recount moments that many desert dwellers will instantly recognize: the near-ecstasy that comes when a cloud decides to open up and spatter a little rain on the ground, the feel of shuddering summer heat on the skin.” The Washington Post
 
“Evocative . . . Less an autobiography than an exploration of [Silko’s] relationship with the natural and spiritual worlds—and it’s a very close relationship . . . there’s nothing soft about her spiritualism or her environmentalism. She knows better than most that the strong kill the weak, and sometimes devour them.” The New York Times Book Review

“Leslie Marmon Silko writes in the language of the spirit—reading her words as she constructs a portrait of herself for this memoir is not only like being inside her head, it is like eavesdropping on her silent conversations with her gods…she thinks about things she has lost and about people in her past.  She thinks about the ghosts she has seen and what is left after the people one loves pass on . . . she thinks about the importance of animals in her life . . . sentence by sentence, the reader is given an enormous amount of useful information about how to get the most out of life, beginning in the present moment.” The Los Angeles Times
 
“Leslie Marmon Silko has painted a map out of words, allowing us to not only see the world, but walk within it with the grace of one who bows toward all living things. Encompassing both Earth and Sky, The Turquoise Ledge is more than a memoir. It is a personal mythology born out of the genealogy of her ancestors. Silko listens and locates her own story in place, through memory, language, and gesture. Portraits of grasshoppers as Star Beings; a quartz crystal found in the shape of an owl; a piece of turquoise that pierces the heart; this book is a stone in hand, a talisman brought home, that both heals and inspires. Gravity is the word that comes to mind.” —Terry Tempest Williams
 
“Wildly informative, joyously unselfconscious, this sinuous sharing of observation, obsession, and taking care is a treasure—a classic of desert writing. In these end times when humankind’s disrespect for the earth has reached the murderous depths of true mental illness, Silko’s fresh, vivid, and slantywise correspondence with beings so refreshingly not-us is as restorative as desert rain. She blesses us with her ghost dogs, her snakes and birds and star beings. This is just a marvelous book.” —Joy Williams
© Courtesy of Leslie Marmon Silko
Leslie Marmon Silko was born in New Mexico in 1948 to a family whose ancestry includes Mexican, Laguna Indian, and European forebears. She is the author of ten books of fiction, poetry, and memoir, including Ceremony, Storyteller, Almanac of the Dead, Gardens in the Dunes, and The Turquoise Ledge. Considered by many as one of the most important contemporary Native American writers, Silko's honors include a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" fellowship, the Christopher Lightfoot Walker Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for significant contribution to American literature, and the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for lifetime achievement by a writer whose work focuses on the American West. She has been named a Living Cultural Treasure by the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities Council, and has also received the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award. View titles by Leslie Marmon Silko

About

“Leslie Marmon Silko writes in the language of the spirit . . . sentence by sentence, the reader is given an enormous amount of useful information about how to get the most out of life, beginning in the present moment.” The Los Angeles Times

Profound reflections on family and the natural world-from the legendary Native American author

With the publication of Ceremony in 1978, Leslie Marmon Silko established herself as a storyteller of unique power and brilliance. In The Tuquoise Ledge, her first work of nonfiction, Silko combines memoir with family history and observations on the creatures and desert landscapes that command her attention and inform her vision of the world. Ambitious in scope and full of wonderfully plainspoken and evocative lyricism, The Turquoise Ledge is both an exploration of Silko's experience and a moving and deeply personal contemplation of the enormous spiritual power of the natural world.

Reviews

Praise for The Turquoise Ledge:
 
“Engaging . . . Silko writes of many things, with affectionate portraits of friends and family and sharply observed notes on history, personal and universal . . . At dazzling moments, she pulls seemingly disconnected themes together: turquoise, rain, Aztec mythology and language, the otherworld and other worlds and, yes, snakes . . . The best parts  recount moments that many desert dwellers will instantly recognize: the near-ecstasy that comes when a cloud decides to open up and spatter a little rain on the ground, the feel of shuddering summer heat on the skin.” The Washington Post
 
“Evocative . . . Less an autobiography than an exploration of [Silko’s] relationship with the natural and spiritual worlds—and it’s a very close relationship . . . there’s nothing soft about her spiritualism or her environmentalism. She knows better than most that the strong kill the weak, and sometimes devour them.” The New York Times Book Review

“Leslie Marmon Silko writes in the language of the spirit—reading her words as she constructs a portrait of herself for this memoir is not only like being inside her head, it is like eavesdropping on her silent conversations with her gods…she thinks about things she has lost and about people in her past.  She thinks about the ghosts she has seen and what is left after the people one loves pass on . . . she thinks about the importance of animals in her life . . . sentence by sentence, the reader is given an enormous amount of useful information about how to get the most out of life, beginning in the present moment.” The Los Angeles Times
 
“Leslie Marmon Silko has painted a map out of words, allowing us to not only see the world, but walk within it with the grace of one who bows toward all living things. Encompassing both Earth and Sky, The Turquoise Ledge is more than a memoir. It is a personal mythology born out of the genealogy of her ancestors. Silko listens and locates her own story in place, through memory, language, and gesture. Portraits of grasshoppers as Star Beings; a quartz crystal found in the shape of an owl; a piece of turquoise that pierces the heart; this book is a stone in hand, a talisman brought home, that both heals and inspires. Gravity is the word that comes to mind.” —Terry Tempest Williams
 
“Wildly informative, joyously unselfconscious, this sinuous sharing of observation, obsession, and taking care is a treasure—a classic of desert writing. In these end times when humankind’s disrespect for the earth has reached the murderous depths of true mental illness, Silko’s fresh, vivid, and slantywise correspondence with beings so refreshingly not-us is as restorative as desert rain. She blesses us with her ghost dogs, her snakes and birds and star beings. This is just a marvelous book.” —Joy Williams

Author

© Courtesy of Leslie Marmon Silko
Leslie Marmon Silko was born in New Mexico in 1948 to a family whose ancestry includes Mexican, Laguna Indian, and European forebears. She is the author of ten books of fiction, poetry, and memoir, including Ceremony, Storyteller, Almanac of the Dead, Gardens in the Dunes, and The Turquoise Ledge. Considered by many as one of the most important contemporary Native American writers, Silko's honors include a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" fellowship, the Christopher Lightfoot Walker Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for significant contribution to American literature, and the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for lifetime achievement by a writer whose work focuses on the American West. She has been named a Living Cultural Treasure by the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities Council, and has also received the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award. View titles by Leslie Marmon Silko