Customer Reviews

Talking to the Ground: One Family's Journey on Horseback Across the Sacred Land of the Navajo

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This book and its predecessor, Cities of Gold, chronicle the amazing, arduous, foolhardy, inspired journeys of a "yankee" in search of the traces of cultures his own people have nearly annihilated. Unlike many memoirists, Preston doesn't shrink from chronicling his own failures and misjudgments, and that's what makes him so accessible to the people he meets along the way, and to the reader him or herself. Most of us will probably never have the guts to make these journeys or get to know all these people - that's what makes this book such a radical act of anti-tourism. Above all it's a poignant homage to "the people." (They know who they are!) If you're a horse person, a traveler to the southwest, or if you're just interested in the question "what is American?" you have to read these books now. And don't miss the great story about the skinwalkers - it's enough to keep you cold in July.

Preston's TALKING TO THE GROUND is one of the most gripping narratives I have read. Why? He takes us along with him (and family) to the dusty trails of Navajo Mountain on horseback down into Navajo Lands including Monument Valley and eventually Shiprock. As we ride the pilgrimage trail with the author, we too become faint and dizzy as we pick our way down incredibly steep, almost trailless cliffs. We hope, as we follow the route of the mythological monster slayer, that there will be some little spring or seep for our horses to take a drink. We hope we will get to the next Navajo dwelling where we might purchase some hay for our tired and hungry animals. We are elated when Preston and family make it to safe terrain after weeks of hardship. No novice to this marvelous country of the American Southwest, Preston had studied Navajo mythology and mysticism deligently during his days as a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History. He had also studied maps and made inquiries about the possibility of riding across the entire Navajo Nation to gain spiritual strength and wisdom. It is as shocking to the reader as it was to Preston when he was told by sunglassed young Navajo turks at Monument Valley that he couldn't possibly know a damn thing about Navajo lands and culture on such a superficial trip as this--riding horseback for several hundred miles and reading other honkies' books. Yet this moment of humility strengthens the narrative by allowing for soul searching and further journeying into wonder to trail's end at Shiprock

It's a pleasure to enjoy the author's background studies (dry) and then his reality (with large hail stones) on a search that leads to more respect... for everything.
Reading this book caused me to yearn for some concrete search of my own, and that is the dream this book passes along. It was given to me as someone else's favorite book. I can see why. Thanks.

Enjoyed this book very much and am re-reading it now to go over the stories of each place they came to---The book tells of a family's horseback journey following the Navajo story of creation---visiting the many Sacred spots on the Rez. Besides that interesting part, the whole book is full of humor and the inter-action of the people--the family and the Dine (Navajo) who thought mostly that this was a good thing they were doing, even if they were Anglos!
Photos are included throughout.

The title might easily be 'The Ground Talking to Us." Preston, his fiancee and her daughter go on a journey through Navaho country that has the effect of creating more openness between the three humans and the ground, and particularly between Preston and Selene, the young daughter of Christine. It seems the more they travel and get rained on and have trouble with horses, weather and other humans, the more Selene gets bent out of shape. Then after a while, everyone starts to relax, get less White and uptight, accept the mountains, the red ground, the little streams and the Navaho. Interestingly enough, Preston speaks very little about Christine on this journey but quite a lot about Selene,who apparently is a very intelligent 8-year-old redhead with a very definite will of her own, who actually does not really want to be there, because she sees the whole enterprise as an endeavor to get her to call 'Doug' 'Daddy' or 'Dad.' Can hardly blame her.
The scene that got to me was near the end of the book, with the old man who had lost 8 goats, and somehow Preston and he do a rather one-sided conversation of the naming of the four sacred mountains, turning round as they point them out. In the end, the old man is weeping - the 8 goats being not as important as the delineation of his world and how wonderful it is. This is a terrific book, to read again and again.
Linda Sheean

It helps immensely to have travelled to the Navajo Nation when reading this story. I found that I had minor interest in the developing family story, compared to the lore and myth of the SW Native Americans. If you've travelled to the SW and are familiar with horses, you'll love this book.

I read this book immediately after reading another one of his other horseback journey books Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in Pursuit of Coronado. As many know, Douglas Preston is a skilled and popular writer of popular fiction. What you may not know that Mr. Preston is also an accomplished horseman and survivor of several long journeys across the deserts of the Southwest U.S. As always, you learn about the subject at hand as well as his traveling companions. This book is about traveling the Navajo creation story and learning a little about the traditional Navajo people's world view. This story is also about a modern family as it struggles to blend into a new family and it is also about living with and riding those wonderfully beautiful and horrible animals called Horse.

A great read - you'll learn much more than you expect - just have your canteen at your side as you read.

In the style of Tony Hillerman without the murder mystery. The 4 Corners area comes alive thru vivid description and pictures and the Navajo story of life is clearly told. The horse trip thru this magical country is one to be wished for by all who love the West.

As a native of New Mexico I found this book wonderful. I live with a Navajo who was raised very traditionally and he found the book wonderful also. Douglas Preston is the best.

A wonderful read, both encouraging and disheartening, with some real family values thrown in. A graphic, first-hand description of the way things were and are, and might be. Mr. Preston provides many enduring messages about the sanctity of life and living that the Bilagaana have nearly completely lost in our rush of subservience to the technology god.