Ceremony: Pages 5-120

In all honesty, when I first picked up this book and started to read it I was extremely confused. I really had no idea who the character of Tayo was or what was going on. Because the book seems to go back and forth between dreams I found myself getting lost in the beginning few pages. I found it difficult to keep up with what was going on, but after a while I started to get a sense of what was happening and who the characters were.

As I have been reading, there are some specific things that I have taken note of. One thing I noticed a lot of was the talk of drought. It is a very apparent image throughout this first half of the book. The author included a lot of talk of drought and how it effects the people and the animals alike. Tayo and Harley look for water, Tayo talks about the drought during his childhood, and he also mentions having to possibly sell the cattle for a very cheap price because they may die soon from the drought. The animals are all bony and sickly because there is not water for them to drink or water to help the grass grow for them to eat.

Another image I noticed a lot through my reading so far is the image of the deer head. I am not exactly sure what it means just yet in relation to the book and the message the author is trying to get across to to readers though. Tayo talks about the deer head from when he was a child and he seems to think of this image and be comforted by it while in agony.

I feel really bad for the character of Tayo but I am not exactly sure what is wrong with him. I noticed that he seems to get sick and vomit as soon as he feels rejected or uncomfortable. For example, just as he is starting to feel well again, he tells his uncle, Robert, that he thinks he is feeling up to helping him on the ranch. Tayo feels that Robert does not want him to help and that Auntie and everyone just want him to leave. As soon as this happens, Tayo falls back into his sickness again. This is only one example, of the many times that he does get sick after feeling lost, confused, or rejected.

I think that this is an interesting book, although it does confuse me at times. I feel that the author purposely confuses the reader with switching scenes so often so that the readers are able to feel how confused Tayo is with who he is and where he belongs. I may be wrong, but this is the first thought that came to my mind when I realized how lost I was when first reading. I hope that I am able to understand this book to the fullest and gain an idea for what it is like to be caught in between two cultures (Indian and American).

**My question is: How old is Tayo? This is something I am not totally sure of at this point.**

ZenZeLe: Chapters 10-end

Although I didn't totally love this book, I was able to get through it with no problem. I found myself reading and getting lost in the words because some chapters or scenes tended to really drag on. If I were to think of the book right now, after having recently finished it, there is one chapter that really sticks out in my mind. It was the chapter about love. In the chapter, I believe it was chapter eight, Zenzele's mother teaches her that she will meet two men in her life; one will make your hand shake and the other will make it steady. The story that the mother tells her daughter about the lady killing her husband and then drowning her baby all for a man was so sad to read but I think it was a great lesson for the mother to teach to her daughter and the author to teach to the readers. I'm not sure exactly why, but this chapter really stood out for me...Maybe it was because the lesson being taught was so important and moving but I enjoyed it.

Another thing I enjoyed about this book (which I really did not enjoy reading most of the time) was the end of the novel. The very last page of the book almost made me cry. I immediately thought of my mother telling me what Zenzele's mother was saying to her. I got sad at this point and really connected with the mother as an actual mother more than just a narrator talking to me.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, in all honesty. It didn't have a plot that I could follow and did not keep my interest. The author is a great writer, but just did not catch my personal interests.

ZenZeLe: Chapters 1-9

This book is extremely different than that of anything I have ever read before and to be honest I do not think that I really like it. It is not that the writing is of poor quality or anything like that, but I find myself getting bored as I read. The book is very repetitive and I find myself wanting to hear the voice of the daughter rather than the voice of the mother throughout the entire piece. I guess this is where my confusion begins...Because this is a coming of age story, I feel that the daughter who is in America should have a more dominant role in the book. I feel that because of the letter format that the book is written in and because the stories that are incorporated into the work are all about the mother I am starting to view it as the mother's coming of age more than ZenZeLe's. Although I do understand that the mother (and narrator of the book) is trying to teach her daughter about her roots, life, love, and many other things through her experiences, I am not sure that it is clearly a coming of age story for ZenZeLe. I may be missing something, but this is just the way that I have viewed the book so far.

One thing I did pick up and take note of as I read was that the mother hits on the image of "roots," "seeds," and "growth" a few times. She is constantly trying to instill African roots in her daughter and remind her that she does have a past and native roots that she must remember and not forget about while she is away from her country. The last time I noticed this was on page 104 about half way down. I know I read about the seeds and roots a few chapters earlier and am I curious to see if this image comes up again. (I have a strong feeling that it will because I am finding this book to be kind of repetitive like I said before.)

Although I am not very interested in this book so far, there have been a few times that I have been absorbed into the novel. I am not going to give up on the book or lose complete interest in it just yet, but I will say that this is not a book I would read on my own or just pick up to read on a 'lazy day.'