Rating: 
Summary: An excellent expression of Quinn's ideas
Review: This book, like its companions _Ishmael_ and _The Story of B_, is not truly a novel, despite its attempts at plot. Julie is probably Quinn's most likable character yet, and provides a few emotional points to this cerebral book.The story is merely a vehicle for Quinn's ideas. Basically, he thinks civilization is a culture with the bizarre desire to dominate the world and sacrifice all other cultures, perhaps all non-human life, in order to do so. Unfortunately, it's succeeding, it may destroy itself in the process, and we're part of it. (I haven't heard many convincing rebuttals to this notion. If anyone would like to offer one, please email me at catclaws@angelfire.com. Please, no supernatural/religious arguments; stick to science.) A high point in this book is the discussion of school. To anyone who's recently been through a typical school system, it rings true -- much more so than the rest of the book's message, which is simply not as intuitive.
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Summary: A Visionary
Review: Daniel Quinn is not a god, not a devil, nor a genius. He is a person who seems to be able to see life from a higher mountain top than most of us and from his vantage point he simply tells us what he sees. What he sees hits many of us in our innards with a possible explanation to that inevitable question: 'what on Earth is wrong with us.' The vehicle he uses to tell his observations is a lovable ape, Ishmael, (representing antiquity to me) and a precocious 12-year-old who reminds me of my young friend, Caitlin Stern, and represents to me the sharp, new generation who is inheriting a world in peril. This somewhat fantastical duo make for delightful dialogue and sweet carriers of Quinn's message and lighten up a heavy subject: the fate of our species. My first encounter with the idea that farming was actually a damaging innovation in our heritage was in Chellis Glendinning's MY NAME IS CHELLIS & I'M IN RECOVERY FROM WESTERN CIVILIZATION. Now Quinn has taken me leaps forward in these ideas. I farm the land, I teach hundreds of children each year about farming. I won't be giving up the farm because of Quinn's book but during their time on the farm, I plan to make children much more aware of the consequences of man's leap from foraging to farming. I am giving copies of MY ISHMAEL to every thinking person I know.
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Summary: The Holostic Man's Guide To Knowing What's Up
Review: I want to make this short. I kept with this book for about a month before I finished it, but it was one of the most thought provoking and enlightening journies through literature I've ever experienced. From no other source have I gained such a profound and comprehensive knowledge of what's what and why in our world. He's given me the inspiration and purpose to do something with my life rather than remain another lazy 17 year old whom everybody saw had a lot of gifts but was always so dissapointed in his effort. I had no reason to give to life before reading these books. The life I saw around me was bleak and shallow and at best had some cool books for me to read. Well I've turned 180 degrees and I've got Daniel Quinn partely to thank for it. Keep on reading...
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Summary: The answer to why you think "something is just not right"...
Review: Daniel Quinn uses this fictional sequal to add to what is already taught in Ishmael. He explains in greater detail why a lot of people may think that they have everything that they could ever want, but still have that deep down feeling of "something is jsut not right". Quinn explores the idea through a 12 year old girl and her teacher, Ishmael the gorilla. It questions our ways of living not by saying they are wrong but by stating that "there is no one right way". He does this through examining the school system, the government, workign 5-8 hours a day, and all of their uses. I would recommend this book to anyone because I believe that deep down we all have that feeling of "something's just not right".
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Summary: The Sequel: Equally as valuable as Ishmael
Review: The other tale of Ishmael, one told by another of his pupils: a 12-year-old girl with a much brighter outlook than Ishmael's previous narrator. The story is more fabricated than Quinn's previous two--the girl talks and processes her thoughts as if she were in her 30s, which, come to think of it is no more or less imaginative than a talking gorilla--but the information is nonetheless just as important. Some new stuff here includes rethinking the educational process of our children, which, from my perspective, is sorely needed.
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Summary: The New Bible
Review: Do yourself a favor. Buy ALL of Daniel Quinn's books, read them and then do what I did, throw out your Bible to make room for them on the shelf.
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Summary: No you are not crazy
Review: For any one who ever felt that things were just not making them happy. YOU ARE NOT WEIRD! For all of you who just do not think it is fulfiling to be "just a brick in the wall". YOU ARE NOT A FREAK! For any one who wishes there was some other way. THERE IS! This book will tell you WHY!
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Summary: If you liked Ishmael, you will love My Ishmael!
Review: This is the "official" sequel to Ishmael. Basically, it is Ishmael revisited by a twelve-year-old girl. Although the first fifty pages of the book will bore you to tears if you have read the first novel, it deals with different issues and is definitely worth reading. Two main problems are covered in this volume. First, Quinn asks a very pertinent question: Why do we have to work hard eight hours a day, five days a week? Has it always been that way? The answer is a sounding "NO!" Many people are not satisfied with their life because of a job they don't really like. Just ask people you know if they would stop working if they won one million dollars. I'm sure most of them will say "yes, of course, my job is not fulfilling, I'd rather do something else!" But, still,they go to work every day just because they don't have the choice: no job means no money, which means no food. However, Quinn points out that it was not like that before food was put "under lock and key." That is, in ancestral cultures, you just had to go grab the food you needed where you knew you could find it. At one point in our culture, however, we produced so much food with agriculture that we needed to store it, thus leading to a new class of people: those who did not work in the field anymore as they had to manage the way food was stored. These people found that life was easier that way, and they soon realized that as long as they were in control of the food distribution, they could take it easy by letting the others work hard. And to protect this new "gold mine" they hired guards, who thus also had the priviledge not to work hard as long as they kept the food away from those who worked for it. And this is what led us to the way things are now: a large class of working people who spend many hours a day in an environment they despise, and a small class of priviledge people who have a much eaiser and enjoyable life. The second point of the book is the one of education. Have you ever wondered why you spent so many years of you life in school? Do you ever use just a tenth of what you've learned? Did not it bore you to death to go over the same things, over and over again? What our cultural myths tell us is that this is necessary in a competitive society like ours to learn about many things, and that repeating the materials is necessary for students to master everything, as they don't seem to get it the first go around. Quinn first explains why our education really takes that long, and then claims that if students cannot learn the materials properly it is because it is not meaningful to them. In ancestral cultures there is no formal education, but it is fair to say that tribal children know much more about life than "civilized" ones. Indeed, the education of the former kids is made in context, just by observing what adults do. However, in our cultures we are totally separated from the real world and thus we do not make the necessary connections to really master anything. Meaningfulness of what we learn is the essential thing we are missing; let's change this!
Rating:
Summary: Avoiding our headlong rush to catastrophe
Review: Quinn provides an unusual mix of novel, philosophy, religion, history, and science to try to wake our culture up to the fact that we are rushing headlong to the catastrophe of overpopulation and environmental destruction. The series "Ishmael", "My Ishmael "and "The Story of B" develop the argument from different perspectives.
Rating:
Summary: To have a solution, you first need a vision
Review: Quinn does not say he has the solution, but he has helped identify the problem, which is the first step in finding solutions. My Ismael, and his other books are the same but have a different format to reach diffrent people. Quinn brings an awareness and a unique perspective, which may help humanity find a better way to live.
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