Ceremonies contains a young painter’s meditations. Be prepared. It is an unusual work. The book contains the record of the women whom he loved. It moves through small town, college, travel, small town again, New York City, Paris, and travel again. It documents the stages of learning to paint: discovery, rediscovery, struggle and success. Ceremonies is not a conventional novel. It is a collection of scenes, stories, observations, lists, descriptions, etc. The entries are numbered and organized into sections. It describes sex frankly, as a part of relationships, rather than excluding it as something about which not to be talked. Ceremonies explores the rituals women and men go through with each other. S. Gray