This was not the most comfortable read. Not because it was creepy or horrific, but because some of the religious aspects were presented in a way that...simply made me uncomfortable. Which I don't think is a bad thing.I'll admit, this is a bit outside of my comfort zone as a reader. Not because it's historical fiction, not because it's written by a Native American, but probably because of the religious aspects. There was something about them that wasn't as easy to accept as ficticious religions, though it wasn't as oppressive as some of my experiences with heavy Christian undertones have been.The story itself was quite intriguing as far as most of the main characters went. I never cared for Edward as a character and will admit to surprise that Sister Salt did become a viewpoint character eventually. It was a bit disconcerting to read a scene that then spent the rest of its chapter as a memory of past events, but I became accustomed to the style.The most intersting and appropriate thing I noticed in reading Gardens in the Dunes was that while I could approximate the time period based on events and inventions described, it wasn't until we had a white male viewpoint character (Edward) that I was able to peg a specific range of years. I like that subtle intimation that such facts are unnecessary and ultimately useless to the main characters.Overall, I'd say that this is a book I'm glad I read, but probably not one I'd return to.
Though I've heard many people disregard this book, considering it to be feminist chaff, I was very much enthralled with the story and the painstakingly detailed description of the world as Silko re-creates it. While I didn't find any male characters with much sagacity or overt charm in her novel, Silko does touch on various topics with particular grace. Her discussion of women's role in religion--including Catholicism and different Native American spiritualities--was one that kept me engaged in the novel. Particularly, the character of Hattie became the story's protagonist for a short while, stealing the limelight from Indigo of the Sand Lizard People (a fictional tribe of Silko's imagination). Hattie's work on a thesis on gnostic texts, studying the hidden and silenced female figures of the Christian canon (and goddesses of the ancient world), was quite exhilarating--though the instances were contained to only a few separate sections in the novel. The contrasts between natural/civilized, sexuality/impotence, nature/science, white/Indian, and male/female made for an eye-opening experience. While I drifted many times during Silko's descriptions of flora and locale, these themes were quite compelling and came together in a rather cyclical, though somewhat anti-climactic ending. Overall, quite fascinating.
What do You think about Gardens In The Dunes (2000)?
Book Club selection. I am two hundred pages into the book. It is VERY descriptive. While I enjoyed the first 68 pages of southwest desert description.....I am now skipping paragraphs as every flower in a Long Island garden is described. Because this book has been rated with four plus stars and I do want to know the fate of Indigo, the young girl, I am sticking with it. I think the book would be more enjoyable to me with half ( maybe one tenth as many descriptions. It got worse...as on going descriptions of flowers filled the pages.Book got somewhat better as I continued to read. The last one hundred pages were the best. If only the first two thirds of the book could have been condensed......
—Kathy
Essentially a compendium of every complaint ever lodged against "literary" fiction--boring, plotless, needlessly intellectualized/symbolic, striving for profundity--Leslie Marmon Silko's Gardens in the Dunes is far shallower than its lengthy page count suggests, and is "challenging" only in that it is an utterly joyless slog to get through.If you're looking for long passages (read: pages upon pages) of the story told in summary rather than scene, then perhaps this is the book for you. If you have the patience or asceticism to sit through pointless descriptions of flowers followed by more pointless descriptions of other flowers, then you're in for a treat. If you don't mind staggeringly abrupt shifts in narrative that are meant to give a "multifaceted" feel (but really only make it feel disjointed), then by all means pick this one from the shelf.If, however, plotting and characterization and fresh insights into the human condition are what you're after, you might want to leave Gardens in the Dunes alone. Books should do far more than what this one does.
—Derek
Not quite the action-packed epic that is Almanac of the Dead, or the purposefully laborious Ceremony, Gardens in the Dunes is an exquisite piece of storytelling that showcase the expansiveness of Silko's intellect, the magnitude of her research skills, and the deftness with which she weaves the weft of narrators through the warp of plot. Of her three novels, this one might be the spring to Almanac's summer and Ceremony's winter. One of my favorite descriptions of Indigo came from Edward when he became concerned that she acted as though she was a noble queen and not the quiet, submissive, shy, unopionated maid his wife was supposed to be cultivating. My immediate response was, well, Indigo is acting like a human being who knows her worth--she is, in fact, by interacting with the world as if she were an equal to every other person she meets, exercising her rights more thoroughly than polite (white) society women and especially more than working class white women.
—Kristen Suagee-beauduy
