Rating: 
Summary: Eye Opener
Review: First off, don't listen to all the nay-sayers out there. Quinn does a terrific job of presenting the material. History needs to be revisited for the a point to be illustrated. No he doesn't give you a HOW-TO guide of how to change the world. Is he suppose to? Once again humanity shows us how people just want to be lead around and told what to do and think.Now the book. READ IT. I never told anyone to read a book before I read this one. It is fantastic. A journey for your mind. In fact, after reading this you will start to think again. I'm not putting anyone down. I'm just saying that kids are the smartest humans on this planet; however, school narrows our vision and leads us directly into 9 to 5 prison (the preoccupation of the human mind)and the next thing we know we're retired and RVing. Yeah that sounds like a load of fun. NOT! This is a must read. This is a must have. In fact I have bought 5 copies and just sent them out to people and told them to read it, sign it, and pass it on. Every graduation present I ever buy from this day forward will be a used hardcover of this book. Dont read too much about it first though. The journey is YOURS to take. You find the meaning. Yes, you will have to think. That is the point. No spoon feeding allowed! Read it and pass it on. Thats all I ask.
Enjoy
Rating:
Summary: Do not wait to read Ishmael
Review: No matter what you may believe about life, the universe and everything, be prepared to be blown out of the water. Daniel Quinn is the most important writer of this age, or any other.
Rating:
Summary: A spiritual guidepost
Review: Ishmael came to me via a spiritual journey in which gorillas were dominant. On telling an acquaintance about this journey, she recommended and loaned me her copy of Ishmael. It has been days since I finished reading the book and I still havent reached the depths of its effect on me. This book makes entirely too much sense to me. The last book that affected me this way was Richard Bach's Illusions. That book turned my life around and started me on a spiritual journey. I have a feeling this book will do as much.
Rating:
Summary: New thinking
Review: Ishmael will change the way you view the water you drink, air you breath and earth you cultivate. As the sun will rise in the east, everyday I will think about this book. A must read for any human being.
Rating: 
Summary: Brings up some provoking arguments
Review: I found Quinn's "Ishmael" to bring up some interesting arguments about humanity and the problems that we face today. While many of Quinn's ideas were thought provoking, I found many to be inconclusive and without enough explanation. Those who argue that it's unrealistic because a gorilla communicates telepathically should understand that in the story the narrator and the gorilla only serve to present Quinn's philosophy. "Ishmael" was not intended to present a great plot with intruiging characters, it was intended to send a message to the reader about the earth today and how humans take advantage of it.
As for those who call Quinn's novel "hippie, tree-hugging, communist material", these people either obviously did not read the book or are just plain ignorant.
Rating:
Summary: One of those books
Review: I find myself particularly drawn to ideas stirred by Ishmael lately. It's one of those books where after you read it you keep thinking "[...]...what do we do now?" My only complaint is that Daniel Quinn writes in such a dense and at times condescending style. I get the feeling from reading a few interviews that he wouldn't be my favorite person in the world...but he is an important person, I'm very glad he wrote this book. In short: not a fun or enteratining read but a very provocative one. I've given almost a dozen copies to friends and not one hasn't been deeply affected by it.
Rating: 
Summary: My High School Composition Teacher Would Have Given This a C
Review: I was very disappointed by this book. The insipid dialogue and the pandering nature of the entire book was distracting. Quinn could have made his point in about 20 pages, but he painfully drags it out, beats it death, then beats it some more. The points that this book has to make are quite valuable. It is unfortunate that the presentation is so weak.
Rating:
Summary: A new pair of lenses with which to see the world...
Review: As Walker Percy said in his essay "Loss of Creature," sometimes we need to take off the set of lenses through which we see the world and put on a new pair. Quinn's Ishmael helps you do just that. I was assigned to read this book for my Environmental Science class, and it turned out to be a godsend. Quinn's work is a tour de force of not a new way of thinking, but a way of thinking we have all but forgot. In order to save the world, we have but to realize our captivity, realize the bars around a cell of our own making, and make a step forward to change for the better. I can think of no other work better suited to engendering this mind change than Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. I heartily recommend this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Too many people don't read this book with a critical mind
Review: This book has a lot of ideas that sound great, but in the harsh ligh of critical thinking don't really pan out. While reading the book, I kept thinking "yes, but..." and
"didn't you think about...". It's too easy to say things like
"treat the earth well", or "treat your fellow man well" - but how
in the world could you get from our current society to the one
you'd have if you followed the strictures in the book. Ok, maybe
this book just meant to be thought provoking, but it would have
been so much more interesting if actually tried to provide some
ideas how to achive the goals it set forth - even if it didn't
even pretend they were serious, they'd be more thought provoking
than this book actually is. Witness all the dazed cows hypnotized
by this book's chant of "harmony".
Rating: 
Summary: describes a problem, but never attempts to solve it
Review: the ape idea wasn't too thrilling. quinn could have at least made the ape not omniscient. for this, quinn tries to convince the reader to listen to the ape and change your beliefs. i thought the whole book was a sermon. the dialogue was horrendous. one couldn't understand whether it was the omniscient ape or the man talking. first everything the man answers is wrong. then all of a sudden he too becomes omniscient and is answering all the questions perfectly. quinn has innovative thoughts, but his evidence and support are dwindling. he continues to go off on tangents. by the end of the novel, i was thinking i'm gonna go watch "the planet of the apes." if you really want to help the environment like quinn says, take a class on waste management or pollution control.
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