Rating: 
Summary: A Stunningly Novel Novel
Review: There is no one out there thinking like Quinn thinks. His vision of human history, told through the voice of a sage, lowland gorilla named Ishmael, is the the most original, hopeful, sensible story I have ever heard. I have read countless reviews on this book, and I am facinated to find that poor reviews, without exception, reflect a cursory read of this simply masterful work. Ishmael is not a book to be read in one sitting and swallowed quickly. And it is not a book to be read only once. The strength of this book is in its ability to question in an engaging fashion our most fundamental assumptions and superstitions about "The Way Things Are." Never have I had such questions posed to me in any book, fiction or non. And now, mulling over those questions that I can no longer ignore, I find myself changed forever for the better. As a gorilla, Ishmael speaks from a different landscape, and the dialogue between Ishmael and his lead-headed student is a never ending delight. I understand that some people have turned away from the book because of a mistaken belief that novels---fiction---aren't "real." and cannot contain "real" discourse. Think again. And again. Don't miss this one.
Rating:
Summary: A paradigm shifter. Critical reading.
Review: There are good books that are great to read, and there are paradigm shifters with critical messages. Ishmael is the latter. I read a lot, but I rarely recommend books to friends. I have, however, been adamant that they read Ishmael.We live from day-to-day, unaware of our cultural mythology that tells us it's OK to keep consuming, destroying the environment, producing more food and multiplying our population at insanely unhealthy levels. It's a mythology folks! Quinn isn't saying that humanity is BAD, and that there are no solutions; rather, he's encouraging us to understand that our current way of functioning exists in a mythological construct, and that "our culture" is only one of tens of thousands of cultures that have existed on earth ... almost all of them in harmony with nature. We can create a new culture with a new vision. That's his message. To all those who scream about how horrible the book is, face your fear. Face the reality of your day-to-day decisions. Face the truth of environmental desecration. Don't blame the messenger when you don't like the message.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Start
Review: I made the odd choice to read "The Story of B" and then "My Ishmael" before I read "Ishmael", and as a result I feel my impressions upon finally reading "Ishmael" are ones of disappointment. For those who do not know, "Ishmael" tells the story of a man who answers an ad in the paper for people who are interested in saving the world. What follows is roughly two-hundred pages of Platonic dialogue, between the narrator and a half-ton gorilla named Ishmael, about the nature of our civilization and its effects on the earth and the lives of all creatures and ourselves. In such the ideas are intriguing and offer interesting insights, especially after page 160 when Ishmael starts correlating the nature of agriculturists (Takers, or "Civilized" people) with the conflicts encountered with the pastoral Semites (one of the many Leavers, or "Primitive" people) and how their story is basically chapters three and four of Genesis. Unfortunately a lot of verbal gymnastics between a patient and very wise gorilla and the curious, but not too engaging narrator takes place that proves more frustrating than enlightening. Daniel Quinn simply does not have a good knack for smooth dialogue, and after numerous conversations that involve Ishmael saying something of a grand assumption and the narrator responding with a simple, "True", or "Yes, that is so." I begged for a token challenge to Ishmael's statements, or at least to strip down some of the veneer of the all-wise sage he was trying to portray in the great ape. If the narrator is trying to be a portrayal of the average reader, I felt insulted. That being said, I do believe that Daniel Quinn has done a marvelous job trying to get his ideas into print, but his attempt in "The Story of B" is by far the most effective and engaging and worthwhile out of the three books. Maybe if Ishmael were used as a starter -- as it is intended -- I would have felt different. I was tempted to give this book three stars, but I decided to keep in mind the potential of having read this book before the other two.
Rating:
Summary: Read me if you didn't like this book
Review: I have read a number of the poorest reviews for this book just now. I read ishmael at 17 on a whim. I found it to be an eye-opening experience for a close minded know it all teenager (i'm only all of 20 now though). The book is written simply because everyone should be able to understand it, but not everyone has the patience or ability to understand something so simple. I find it similiar to tying one's shoe; it's easy to do, but try to explain it to someone who doesn't even know where to begin...not as easy is it? As well, this is not simply a book of man vs mother nature; not just man is bad, go hug a tree, love your neighbor and everything will be ok. People who read the book expecting to have a utopian future laid out for them in simple terms are just an example of this culture becoming accustomed to a fast-food, single-serving answer to everything. Quinn simply says that everyone on the planet engaging in totalitarian agriculture is too much of a strain. The goal as some have taken it is to revert back to "the uncivilized tribal heathen"; but Quinn is just saying that people can live all sorts of ways, that no one way is the right way for everyone to live. As for it's lack of concrete plans for the future: Quinn cannot know how it will turn out, he cannot know how things will change, the best way that he can can make a difference is to help others see the problem so that they can find their own solution. When enough people find their own solutions, then the problem will have been eradicated. Share this book with others, Quinn has said something like "even if you reach just one person, that one may reach a million".
Rating:
Summary: Ready to rethink your entire existence?
Review: This book alone reshaped how I think about everything. It is a narrative dialogue between a gorilla and a naïve, disgruntled young man. The man represents a common cultural icon, the kind we all know too well: unhappy, hopeless and confused. The gorilla: wise, challenging and viewing the world of humanity from an animal's perspective. Ishmael, the gorilla, takes the narrator onto a journey of humanity while challenging the him to see humanity, and its role on this planet, in a way never before told. What's more is that everything Ishmael brings out is confirmed by the work of anthropologists, philosophers, biologists and ecologists, and, unlike others who question humanity's position in life, Ishmael questions whether we need prophets. A new way to live is more on his agenda, and it may follow the model lived by humans for millions of years: the tribe. This book is touching, easy to read and difficult to grasp. I've read it six times, taught it as a high-school unit twice, and I still haven't received all that is presented in here. I joined an Ishmael email list for some time and discovered most of the people on there saw Ishmael as some New Age guru telling us to eat a vegetarian diet and live simply. (Needless to say, I quickly left that list.) I recommend this book selectively--because I'm not sure many who read Ishmael actually understand it.
Rating:
Summary: Open your mind and eyes
Review: Awesome! When you get into the meat of the book, Daniel Quinn puts in words what many (hopefully most or all) of us have felt. We learn about 'human history' and see the effects of religion (as opposed to spirituality) and the population explosion. He fills in the blanks left by Mother Culture and shows us that there is hope for all species and the earth. Read on!!
Rating:
Summary: Will Open Your Eyes.
Review: This is book has something few of us actually get a chance to witness: Wisdom in simplicity. (The Bible has it too but it's a little overly metaphorical at times). It will seem ridiculous and maybe even alien at first, but the purity of the book will become attractive. You will start questioning everyday things that seem so simple, and become intensely aware of yourself and your surroundings. If you have ever felt trapped, obligated, or unfulfilled this book will give you a starting point to liberate yourself! It will re-affirm your faith in your god and in life. These are the effects of this book, and Quinn does a great job of sharing his thoughts and ideas with the rest of the world and he does it so attractively.
Rating:
Summary: Ishmael
Review: I never thought that I could learn so much from a talking gorilla. While the ideas presented in Ishmael were very interesting and held my attention, the book as a whole was not that special. There were few truely original ideas in the book and there really is no plot. In fact, it would make more sense for Quinn to put these ideas into an essay rather than somehow stuff a talking gorilla and his student into the novel. Ishmael also talks constantly about how we will believe everything that "Mother Culture" tells us to believe and calls us fools for having believed what we have been told. Yet, in the end, the book is asking us to blindly follow Quinn's ideas on the world just as blindly as we have followed our previous beliefs. While this was a good book and deserves to be read, make sure that you keep an open mind. Ishmael presents many problems and yet does not present many solutions, making me hesitant to trust the majority of what is said.
Rating:
Summary: A book in a league all of its own.
Review: On the cover of ISHMAEL it says, "From now on I will divide the books I have read into two categories-the ones I read before ISHMAEL and those read after." This review by Jim Britell speaks so true to my experience after reading ISHMAEL. I never thought a book could change the way I see the world, and change my life, quite like Ishmael has. Ishmael brought to words feelings that have been inside of me since I was a child. From childhood on I have always felt something wasn't quite right with this way of life, now I know why. We're enacting a story, The Taker Story, that compels us to destroy the very thing that keeps us alive, the landbase. From birth on the myths of The Taker Story are told to us this way: Our way is the one right way to live (Why did we try to convert the indigenous of North America to God fearing full time farmers?); that God has created us flawed (Original Sin sound familiar?); God made the world for man to be the ruler of (Why are they our forests; our wildlife, our waters, our air?). Ishmael points out to us that these are myths and they don't exist outside of our minds. Ishmael then shows the reader that humans have enacted, and are still enacting, a different story. In fact, for most of humanity's existence on this planet there has been a different story enacted. This culture, Taker Culture, is the aberration. One very important point that Ishmael brings forth about this story we are enacting is that it is quite similar to the story the people of Germany were enacting during Nazi Rule. A lot of people enacting the story of The Thousand Year Reich were willing to put their life on the line, commit atrocities and sell their souls all for this vision of the "right way" to live. The people of Germany were captives of this story whether they wanted to be or not. But, one thing they could do to escape the story was to leave Germany. There is no invisible boundary line we can cross to escape the story we are enacting, because over 99% of the world's population is enacting this story. Our job is to make people aware of this Taker Story and start to enact a different one. Ishmael, I think, is the best tool to bring people to this awareness. It's time to enact a different story and I think people are ready for it. Since Ishmael was published 1992 it is estimated that Twenty million people have read it, and the number of readers doubles every year. Check out the Ishmael phenomenon at www.readishmael.com.
Rating:
Summary: A True Experience
Review: I began to read this book with the impression that is was about a talking gorilla who seemed to know the answer to our world's deepest social problems. My friend had been assigned to read it for his college English 101 class, and recommended it to me. Never did I think that a book could sway my views on our society so swiftly yet so surely. Even after the first 50 pages or so I knew that this was nothing that my friend had tried to explain to me, and maybe even worse, my friend had completely missed the point that Quinn had been trying to get across. I got the feeling throughout Ishmael's dialogues that I was on the outside of both the Takers and Leavers, and looking in on a planet populated with a species that I had never heard of before. It allowed me to view not only our societies in a new aspect, but our species as a whole as well. All of my teenage life I have been looking for something to give me foundation for where I stand in my thoughts about the way our culture works; "Ishmael" certainly gave me a good foundation to start upon. And as a fairly young adult in the world, only at 19 years old, this feeling almost overwhelmed me sometimes while reading. But it was this overwhelming feeling of being cut off from the world around me that made me keep reading. Never before have I read a book that has allowed me to leave behind all the cultural and social restraints against me as soon as I opened it up and begain to read. It is books like these that need to be read in the higher levels of high school and younger years of colleges. This idea that Quinn has has needs to be passed on to people everywhere, especially among the vulnerable and growing minds of our culture's youth. I believe it is now my duty as a person to complete this book to pass it along to another, and have them pass it along to another, and so and and so forth. The ideology within this text is truly enough to save our culture from the conquering pathyway of cultural destruction that we feast on everyday, I am convinced of it. The impact this book has had on my personally has been enough to make me take a physical journey of my own this coming summer. I am traveling to the bush-country of Alaska to submerge myself in a Leaver-like culture for jut over 4 months. I will work a job, and suppport my basic needds for survival all within their lifestyle. I feel that experiencing something like this will give me a much better idea of how Leaver cultures live and survive.
I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking something within themselves. If you are lost in your mind, and you feel that you don't have a stand in your thoughts of our culture, please read this and take the journey that Quinn has laid in front of all of us so gracefully. I beg of you, it will change you forever.
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