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Summary: If you love animals--a "deep read" you can't stop reading!
Review: While discussing a local wildlife controversy (via e-mail) with a lady who writes a Wildlife Q&A column for the Houston area, "Ishmael" was recommended to me.It's so refreshing to see that someone else (Daniel Quinn) "really gets the fact" that by destroying our planet, we are also exterminating the wildlife along with it (including ourselves). People are on this planet to care for it and all of its creatures, not to lord over it and destroy everything they touch (for their own greed, of course). If we're not careful, we may just make ourselves extinct in the process (hopefully that will be the "Takers" and not the "Leavers"). "Ishmael" starts as a difficult read, but stick with it--it is worth it! My husband usually isn't interested in the books I read, but when I explained the premise of a gorilla as a teacher, he couldn't resist. It's the first time in a long time that I've seen him with a book that he just couldn't put down! I'm glad I'm a "Leaver" and always have been. I also agree with other reviewers that people who didn't like the book, just didn't get it, or are obviously "Takers"--big time! Those of us who like the book should take Daniel Quinn's advice and write to him at the address in the back of his book. Maybe we CAN get something started, ONE person at a time.
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Summary: Just read IT!
Review: Jsut Read It
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable and profound
Review: ISHMAEL, by Daniel Quinn, was an extremely inspiring and well-written read. The awkwardness and frustrating initial stages of the Socratic Method Quinn uses to make his arguments and tell the story take some getting used to, but is well worth the wait. Once you begin to see more clearly where he is going with the plot you are instantly entranced and will find it very hard to put the book down. In retrospect, I can't see how the book could be written in any other way but Socratically. The main character, Ishmael, is a 500-pound gorilla and completely unrealistic and incomprehensible initially. However, once you have grasped the plot the gorilla is not only appropriate, but necessary and believable, as you will see at the end of the book. Quinn beautifully blends anthropology, religion, philosophy, economics, and ecology into a wonderful, profound, and life-awakening story. I truly enjoyed the way Quinn does not make the overstated claim that today's culture must revert back to the old days, but instead fosters a change for mankind that is appropriate, possible, and not cliche. The whole plot is about saving the world. However, the remedy is not to go backwards but to go "creatively" forward (I am trying not to give too much of the book away). Please read ISHMAEL. You won't regret it (but be patient with the first 50-75 pages).
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Summary: Interesting story, compelling characters, great message
Review: Daniel Quinn's *Ishmael* begins the Ishmael Trilogy, and is followed by *The Story of B* and *My Ishmael.* It is a story about a man, Alan, who seeks to find a teacher so that he may make a difference, and improve the world. He finds just such a teacher: Ishmael. Ishmael is an unlikely candidate for the position, because he is a gorilla who is able to communicate telepathically with humans. In this way, he teaches Alan some fascinating and profound lessons. *Ishmael* has a message. It tries to tell the reader that mankind is not alone in the world of nature. It seeks to let the reader know that man is not intrinsically flawed, and that man and the world are not doomed. Instead, man has his place in the pantheon of life, a role to play among earth's creatures. Ishmael's message is that the solution to our ills is to change our ways, and to not deny our origins nor try to be something we are not. It may not be easy to get back on the right path, but we can do it. On a personal level, *Ishmael* is one of the finest and most moving books I've ever read. Indeed, it and the other books in Quinn's series have changed my life, and by far for the better. I recommend *Ishmael* *The Story of B,* and *My Ishmael* to anyone and everyone.
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Summary: The Socratic Method Given New Life
Review: Daniel Quinn takes the age-old method of teaching through question and answer to new levels in this riveting book. It should be mandatory for everyone who counts themselves as a member of the living. If this book doesn't move you to take action, then nothing will, and our fate on this planet will surely be sealed.
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Summary: A life-changing book. Read it & share it.
Review: This is a book that I will send to as many people as I can think of! Quinn articulated many of the feelings that I have had swirling around in the back of my head for years but could never quite describe. Thank you, Daniel Quinn for being brave enough to say so clearly what we all need to hear! If reading this book doesn't get you to seriously reconsider how you live your life, then read it again and again until it does!
Rating: 
Summary: 4 stars for the ideas, but 0 stars for the narrative
Review: this book sucks. it has absolutely no literary merit whatsoever and is a major pain in the ass to read through. however, read through it I did and i'm actually glad I did because the ideas don't really get going until the last quarter of the book. Essentially, the first 3/4s are drivel, no-brainer stuff than anyone ought to know but Daniel Quinn feels is necessary to repeat and restate in a question-answer format (that is so annoying!) for the benefit of all. But the ideas that Daniel Quinn presents us and the evidence he offers are really innovative and interesting. Overall, it was decent. his ideas saved the book, but this story is absolute garbage.
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Summary: Want to change the world? Start here.
Review: Quinn's Ishmael started out with a difficult premise--a talking (well, telepathic) gorilla. But once I started to read the message instead of focusing on the details of the story, I was amazed! This book made me totally revise my standards and thinking, as well as opened the possibility of changing the world to me. A great book, like none I've ever encountered before. And once you finish this one, My Ishmael and The Story of B are wonderful complements which complete the philosophy.
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Summary: This is the book to set the new paradigm!
Review: Ishmael made me question a lot of my views, things we all take for granted from our "Mother Culture." Thus it was the perfect first reading for a physics course I took called "The Conscious Universe," which was all about rejecting cultural indoctrination and embracing unorthodox ideas. Quinn makes an excellent argument for why things are the way they are, through the development of agriculturalist/industrialist -- "Taker" -- society. He shows how we are at odds with ecological laws as fundamental and unchanging as the law of gravity, and suggests that our survival depends on us reconciling ourselves with these laws. Quinn envisions a widespread paradigm shift leading to great change. Reading this book will change the way you think about the world, and if enough people read it, it will change the world.
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Summary: The best book I have ever read!
Review: I have read all of Quinn's books. They all have inspired me. I look at the world and everthing on it in a diffrent light after reading Ishmael. I will never be the same. My High school English teacher gave me this book as a graduation gift. She promised me it would change my life, and it did. All of Quinn's novels have that effect on me.
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