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Summary: Seeking reader with an earnest desire to change the world
Review: It will change your outlook on the world the instant you finish the book. Very easy and fun to read. I'm not a fast reader, but read it in two days. Read with an open, but critical mind, and it will make sense. Fascinating. Eye opening.
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Summary: Ishmael's Ladder to Paradise
Review: Ishmael's book is a book that would passed on to my oldest sister. I would recommended to anybody who loves to read. Daniel Quinn is an excellent writer. Once you begain reading, you will be eager to know its ending. It develops a great dialogue. Ishmael's version of Adam and Eve was really good. This book talks a lot about nature and history. I like the way he brakes down the story into first, second, and third version. I never in my life had read a book that interesting as this one. Trust me, you'll love it! I give this book five starts because this book was amaizing.
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Summary: Without Gorilla, would there be hope for man?
Review: I think that Ishmael was a story that could have been summed up in maybe 20 pages, but was elongated into a couple hundred. I would have given it zero stars, but that wasn't one of the options. It was about a talking gorilla, a gorilla that is smarter than most humans are. The gorillas name was Ishmael, and he had opinions about the world; that evolution was not supposed to stop with man. I completely disagree with this though, i believe that god created man to live in this world how he wanted to. Ishmael kept talking about how man took living into his own hands and out of the gods, but I disagree with this also. This story was also really boring. It lacked action completely, the whole thing was almost completely dialogue. I could barely pay attention to what the book was about, i found my mind wandering all the time. The idea of a gorilla talking throughout the entire book made me so tired and bored. I know a lot of people disagree with my opinion, but that is what i think of it. I think this book is unnecessary to read, I didn't get anything out of it except a sore [backside].
Rating: 
Summary: An awaking experience
Review: Over all reading Ishmael was an awaking experience. The issues that Quinn used were all facts based on research done by philosphers, biologist, ecologist, and anthropologist. The truth in what the author was describing, with the gorrilla and narrator, about our culture was factual. It made me realize that our culture is rather spoiled. Some of the theories that the author wrote about I did not agree with, such as evolution. I did like how the biblical aspect was portrayed in the book.I like the wording in the book, for example I think this quote is great, "Man was born to the world into a paradise, but tragically he was born flawed. And so his paradise has always been spoiled by stupidity, greed, destructiveness, and shortsightedness." I think this quote pretty much sums up our culture. Overall if you want a book that test your intelletual view point about our world and the different views on how we came to be, I highly recommend this book to you.
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Summary: The Review
Review: I recently read Ishmael for my college english course and all though it has recieved great ratings from major critics, I do not agree.
There is really only one main reason I didn't like Ishmael and that reason is the setting and the characters. The entire books setting is in Ishmaels office. Ishmael is on one side of the glass and the narrator on the other. I also found the characters very boring. There is nothing about a man and a guerilla talking about evolution that excites me.
The other thing that I didn't like about this book was that there was no real plot or climax. There was no excitment. I am one of those readers that love excitment. I enjoy horror and action books.
Now, don't get me wrong, Ishmael has some good aspects. Even though I didn't enjoy the book, I did enjoy the information and concepts that it brought up. I found that information about mans greatest destiny and how the world is suppost to be a paradise, but its not because we as people have a defect and mess it up. I think that if the author, Daniel Quinn found a more affective way of presenting the same information, it would grab a lot more readers attention.
Although I did not enjoy this book, I know a lot of people who would beg to differ. My best friend loves to read books like this, but I just can't get into it.
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Summary: Self-Destruction is a calamity
Review: Ishmael is a gorilla that Daniel Quinn personfied to give the narrator the enlightment to reveal manifestly the mundane problems that go about all around us, which are taking place in our industrial modernized world today. The author describes the two types of men. These men are those who are destroying and annihilateing the natural resoures because of egotistical necessities who Daniel describes as the Takers, and the Leavers are the men whom he describes as men who are in the hand of the gods. Ishmael,the gorilla, who philosophizes the on the word "captivity. It teaches the narrator step by step on the how the world went through physical change. Ishmael said that men did not evolve, but men learned to gather more knowledge converting it into wisdom. It also used illustrations to direct and guide his pupils to earnly save the world from those who lack the common sense of exterminating the living ceatures, plants and any thing that has life. The gorilla taught one student who really got intrigued with the philosophical teachings that it gave out by demostrating it through history, theology, and science. The narrator learns through asking quizzical questions that lead him to realize how msn's destiny falls into place,which he emphasizes how the takers endeavor in a world of luxury and comfortable set back, and the Leavers were those who did not care to live flamboyant life-style. They were the one lacked knowledge and lived in dependency of animal meat. They were the hunter-gather who also lived off an agricultural environment.
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Summary: opening up to Ishmael
Review: Ishmael was a very intersting book. If it had not been assigned to me I am sure it is a book I never would have read. However, after finishing the book I am glad it came into my hands. The book emphasizes human behavior and whether you agree with it or not it allowes you to open your mind to new ways of thinking. With the use of analogies the reader is able to envision what is being said. Ishmael, while not centered on environmalism, helps bring the reader to a new awareness of the world around them and all life in it. I recommend this to all those seeking a book with a different kind of style and opions on life in general.
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Summary: Monkey Finally Shocks Man
Review: This book is a definate eye opener. It has everything that is painfully obvious to us all and brings it back to the spotlight.I really love the way Daniel Quinn chooses the charaters to illustrate some very important points. There are times where you feel confused but then we have Ismael to jump in at all the right moments to help us understand.Once you allow yourself to get wrapped up in this amazing story with real life issues.You will find yourself caring about what is at stake in our everyday lives.It goes even further to illustrate some serious points to ponder.Please put this book on your list of "must reads" It wil take you places that you will never have thought to go.
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Summary: Who's the Master, Who's the Beast?
Review: Many would say this book is too long, not suspenseful. I would argue they missed the whole theme of the book. This book isn't meant to be solely suspenseful. It's a book that makes you see familiar things in a different, fresh way. I never understood the importance of an animal's habitat and their particular niches. This may sound odd to all of a sudden begin thinking about an alternate point of view now, but that's what this book does. The sign in Ismael's room reads "Without man gone is there hope for gorilla?" Eventually, this message is transposed by the narrator to read, "Without gorilla gone is there hope for man?" I can't help but wonder if Daniel Quinn is trying to point out a future that could actually come true.
Are we really building a paradise, but instead, in the process, destroying the innocent animals in our world? To conquer Nature and to build this paradise (at whatever the cost) are the images fixed in our minds. Have we begun to fail in this task, seeming to continue doing more harm than good? We don't understand the way of living, as Daneil Quinn said, but we seem to want to find a way. We are eager to find a way in spite of ourselves. Meanwhile, our audience of creatures seem to sit back and laugh at us while we destroy instead of create a paradise. We who would like to believe we have learned so much, have really learned so little. Who are the true beasts? Who are the real masters?
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Summary: A true must read for all of those who wish to survive!
Review: I recently read Ishmael, and I found it to be the most enlightening thing that I have ever heard. In it, Quinn quashes our basic beliefs that society has ingrained in our minds and does not give out doomsday prophesies, but rather gives healthy, doable solutions.
However, I saw one review giving this book one star. This is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard. For one, it's obvious he didn't even really read the book, because he says it blames society's problems on the so-called "evil white people," when in fact Ishmael never says anything whatsoever to single out the whites as the cause of society's problems, and actually speaks out against the false belief of all societies under Mother Culture (you'll understand what I mean if you read the book). He/she says that the characters are two-dimensional, but I could not disagree more. The characters are mysterious, and though on the surface may appear undeveloped, if you read into it and think beyond the box (something that I believe this reviewer has not done), you will see their personalities come alive. He tells us to have an open mind, but he is the one of accusing this writer of brainwashing us. I can disprove this by saying that I have studied techniques of mind manipulation used throughout the modern world, and he is applying no such tactics. Furthermore, in this story, Ishmael unmistakeably implies several times to Alan Lomax (and, in My Ishmael, Julie Gerchack) that he is simply telling him this information, not forcing him to believe it or do something with it. In the end, for example, Ishmael seems absolutely indifferent when Alan asks him what to do with the information. In novels, you have to think beyond what the author says. So do not listen to this person who obviously has not. It is your choice to believe it's message or not, but please don't condemn it so that others won't have a chance to believe it.
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