Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

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Summary: From Monkey Mind to Gorilla Grace: Salvation from below
Review: Perhaps human arrogance is about to lose its place of honor. In this book, the mindless chatter of modernity's empty consumerism and the trashing of air, earth, water, fire and our creaturely neigbors, are eloquently exposed to the angst-ridden Student through a Socratically inclined Gorilla, Ishmael. Uncharacteristically, the Master human listens, and the creature prevails but only through using the Master's Tools (A. Lorde) of logic and persuasive human speech. But it takes what it takes. I have my doubts that the mind ever persuades the heart as much as one heart persuades another, but this book is one more route to follow in getting "It": to understand that humankind cannot continue its domination of an earth that was not created by or for it. "Ishmael" means "Let God (El) hear." I am glad that this wise creature has offered words that will switch our internal chatterbox off, and given us human-gods some news that will require nothing less than revolution and courage to realize. But whoever said saving the world from ourselves would be easy? There's no such thing as cheap grace

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Summary: Answer for Questions from deep thinkers
Review: In a suprising, simple and humour way Quinn has brought an attention to answers many questions that many of us prove as we grow. Intelligiently presented, the perspective of questions in life is not only seen from human view. But it is an awakening to realize that other living beings are also have simillar experience and contribute as much to the experience that human faces. The only significant difference is that human talk about it. While others just accept, adopt and grow with it

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Summary: pointing out the obvious...
Review: I read Quinn's novel two years ago and saw the first-ever stage adaptation one year later. Initially, I was very moved by the underlying message of the story which I interpreted (fundamentally, at least) as a wake up call. I'm not at liberty to call Mr. Quinn's historical or scientific facts into question because I am not an historian or anthropologist. I do know that a good book is characterized partially by its ability to cause change and urge its audience to question things that they might otherwise overlook. The message of Ishmael is so simple, yet so hard to incorporate into our technologically-advanced, power-hungry lives. Even if the book doesn't cause people to alter their destructive "Taker" ways, it will most certainly force them to think about what it is they're are doing and what effect this inevitable damage will have on their lives and the lives of generations to come

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Summary: A pyrotechnic display of what *not* to do in a book
Review: This novel commits the cardinal sin of failing to entertain. I won't comment on the many technical and literary flaws, as there is hardly enough story to support them

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Summary: A book written with the intention of opening peoples' eyes.
Review: This book, as well as The Story of B (also by Daniel Quinn) were written as works of fiction with the intention of opening our eyes and asking us to start questioning that which we think is true. To those of you who appear completely concerned with the writing and the "exact science" of the book, obviously your eyes have not opened. Ishmael, The Story of B, as well as Providence are "must reads" if we plan on keeping the human race around for a while. Please read the book with an open mind and by all means, start questioning! Nothing should be taken at face value. Come to your own conclusions and come up with some solutions. Check out the Story of B web-site for some more interesting reading! Peace

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Summary: Ishmael: Literary Pestilence
Review: I think it is rare for an author to so effectively capture every literary (and intellectual) horror. Ishmael is the home of atrocious writing, painful logic, and quicksand pacing: it is the longest of short books. And Quinn, with sadistic flair, so pummels the reader with repetitive, tiresome pseudo-socratic ramblings, that one is left weak and confused, hoping for mother culture's only certain salvation: the whisper of "nuclear winter."

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Summary: Philosophy taught by a strange professor with humor!
Review: An strange ad in the paper unfolds into numerous lessons of philosophy taught by a very peculiar teacher. Because we are hurting ourselves and the planet around us, Ishmael, the professor, shows the reader how to change our lives to save ourselves, and Mother Earth. Using stories and a bit of humor, he spreads our timeline of events, dating back three million years, into order, showing us where we went wrong and how we can still, if we start now, change the outcome. The Student often times did not think about what Ishmael was teaching, confusing himself when Ishmael went farther. Many times during this book, Ishmael scolded the student, telling him to think harder and not to say, "I don't know," without thinking a little bit first. At first I did not think this book was very good, but I found that I was in the middle of the book in NO TIME. If there is a man or woman out in the world who has the wisdom that Ishmael had, I would be glad to become his student!

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Summary: Excellent story/quest for new models of perception
Review: Ishmael begins by making one incredulous and ends by leading to a new way of thinking. In the tradition of Carlos Castaneda and other Socratic stories of personal revelation, Ishmael at once annoys and educates by illuminating the preconceptions of our perspectives. The image of the "voice of mother culture, whispering in your ear" will always have a new power to free me to think of other ways of perception. Read this book!

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Summary: Boring and Repetitive
Review: The book endlessly repeats its theme, so much so that it marginalizes its subject. It's a story that can be told once and then elaborated on with supporting detail, which seems to have escaped Mr. Quinn

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Summary: Disappointing at best
Review: I bought this book after reading the great reviews here on Amazon. What a disappointment. Quinn starts from an important premise: industrial humans are killing the world and we need to find out why we do this in order to stop the destruction. This is an issue I'm passionately interested in. However the book doesn't investigate the question or answer it in a satisfactory manner. The book has faulty logic, feel-good answers and totally flat characters. Do yourself a favor and read something else