Ishmael

Staff Pick

For those of us who have been in the rat race of modern culture long enough that we have stopped thinking, and for those of us who have never deeply examined our place in the world, this book is an awakening. It just may change the way you think about everything. Ishmael is a teacher, unlike any you have ever met, with a final mission — to teach man about fixing the ills of the modern world before it's too late. This book is a must read, and a wonderful eye-opener.
Recommended by Linda, Powells.com

Quinn believes that we have a finer and more exciting destiny than conquering the world, and he shares his ideas with us through the voice of a lowland gorilla named Ishmael. This is a beautiful story about hope for the future, about ideas once so familiar to us that we lived them everyday. If you would like to see a better world, I can think of no finer place to start than with Ishmael.
Recommended by Linda, Powells.com

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AnnaBanana, January 30, 2013 (view all comments by AnnaBanana)
Ishmael is hands down my favorite book. A must read, and it's just as good reading it a second time. Puts life in a very interesting and eye-opening perspective. Great thought-provoking and powerful messages. It's a book well worth spreading. I've passed it around my circle of friends and they've all been hooked.

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Viharius, November 2, 2012 (view all comments by Viharius)
This is a wonderful book about the exploration of mind & spirit, of where we came from, where we are going and why we are headed where we are. A teacher and a student jointly explore the questions of life, society and culture. Ishmael the teacher is a gorilla and he teaches the human student through telepathy. This is not as goofy as it seems, for he is an outsider looking at human society, and has a unique perspective. Sometimes you need the right book at the right time to give you that badly-needed jolt that makes you look at the world and your own life with new eyes. Ishmael is such a book. If this is not the right time for you, no matter -- when the right time comes, you will remember this book and go back to it.

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McKenzie.Fletcher, August 5, 2012 (view all comments by McKenzie.Fletcher)
Ishmael is one eye-opening book. It only took me a few days to read, and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. Daniel Quinn makes some excellent remarks about society and culture and the way of human existence. I continue to use Ishmael as my fundamental understanding of my own beliefs, and I like to think that this book got me started on the journey to figuring out what I stand for and my philosophical / life views.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780553375404

Author:

Quinn, Daniel

Author:

Quinn, Mdaniel

Publisher:

Bantam Books

Location:

New York : Bantam/Turner Book, 1992.

Subject:

Literary

Subject:

Fiction

Subject:

Human ecology

Subject:

Visionary & metaphysical

Subject:

Gorilla

Subject:

Human ecology -- Fiction.

Subject:

Didactic fiction

Subject:

General Fiction

Subject:

Literature-A to Z

Copyright:

1995

Edition Description:

Trade paper

Series Volume:

104-24

Publication Date:

19950531

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Illustrations:

Yes

Pages:

272

Dimensions:

8.24x5.30x.72 in. .58 lbs.

0 stars - 0 reviews

$11.95 In Stock

"Staff Pick" by Linda,

For those of us who have been in the rat race of modern culture long enough that we have stopped thinking, and for those of us who have never deeply examined our place in the world, this book is an awakening. It just may change the way you think about everything. Ishmael is a teacher, unlike any you have ever met, with a final mission — to teach man about fixing the ills of the modern world before it's too late. This book is a must read, and a wonderful eye-opener.

by Linda

"Staff Pick" by Linda,

Quinn believes that we have a finer and more exciting destiny than conquering the world, and he shares his ideas with us through the voice of a lowland gorilla named Ishmael. This is a beautiful story about hope for the future, about ideas once so familiar to us that we lived them everyday. If you would like to see a better world, I can think of no finer place to start than with Ishmael.

by Linda

"Review" by The Washington Post, "[Quinn] entrap[s] us in the dialogue itself, in the sweet and terrible lucidity of Ishmael's analysis of the human condition...it was surely for this deep, clear persuasiveness of argument that Ishmael was given its huge prize."

"Review" by The Austin Chronicle, "It is as suspenseful, inventive, and socially urgent as any fiction or nonfiction book you are likely to read this or any other year"

"Review" by The Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Deserves high marks as a serious — and all too rare — effort that is unflinchingly engaged with fundamental life-and-death concerns."