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My Ishmael (Ishmael #3)

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 · rating details · 5,045 ratings · 288 reviews

Winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, Daniel Quinn's Ishmael is a bestseller and a testament for a burgeoning spiritual movement.Now Quinn presents an extraordinary sequel, a companion novel so startlingly original that even Ishmael's most faithful readers will not predict its outcome....

When Ishmael places an advertisement for pupils with "an earnest desire to save th...more

Paperback, 304 pages

Published October 6th 1998 by Bantam (first published November 3rd 1997)

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Nov 07, 2007 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

My Ishmael is, of course, the sequel to Daniel Quinn's novel Ishmael. This book focuses on much the same subject matter as the first book. Namely, that the agricultural revolution gave rise over time to the modern-day Taker culture. With this rise the Taker's put forth the attitude that they were in control of their own destiny and chose to live in a seemingly unnatural way. They decided for themselves to conquer the world without care of the consequences to all other life. Quinn's main assertio...more My Ishmael is, of course, the sequel to Daniel Quinn's novel Ishmael. This book focuses on much the same subject matter as the first book. Namely, that the agricultural revolution gave rise over time to the modern-day Taker culture. With this rise the Taker's put forth the attitude that they were in control of their own destiny and chose to live in a seemingly unnatural way. They decided for themselves to conquer the world without care of the consequences to all other life. Quinn's main assertion is that mankind (modern Taker culture) needs to find a better way to live lest they totally destroy themselves and do irreparable harm to the rest of the planet.

The book's perspective was told as the dialogue between a 12-year-old girl named Julie and the philosopher/gorilla Ishmael. The book is insightful because we see things in their dialogue that answer questions left hanging in the first novel. However, the dialogue itself is very weak and it's hardly believable that a 12-year-old girl is going to have some of the mature conversations she does with Ishmael. In fact, some of the dialogue begins to read like a rant from the writer.

One of the more irritable things I found with this book and with Quinn in general is his sitting on the fence attitude. He continually extols the virtue of tribal (aka Leaver) culture while lamenting our own culture. However, when asked specifically if he is saying we should all revert to a more primitive form of living he will say, "no no no you have to find your own way to live." When asked what this own way is he'll respond, "you're an inventive people..so invent!" So much for practical solutions.

My Ishmael is worth reading because of the questions it generates. Questions about our way of living and if it's the best way to live. Questions about attitudes concerning wealth, government, education, gangs, and cults are all discussed within this book. More importantly, though, are the questions that Quinn fails to answer or fails to consider which render his writing a little less significant than he intends it to be. I'm going to put important questions for the reader to keep in mind when reading this book below:

1.) Quinn constantly asserts that religion is something the Taker culture had to invent to put forth a myth about how things came to be this way. Also, that only our modern culture would have to of had a myth to explain the downfall of man and a need for prophets to tell us how to live. If these ideas are true why did Stone Age peoples have shamans and have a myth about the downfall of man? Why did New World Indians have medicine men? If prophets are a nonsensical waste of time considering they only inflict their view of how to live on people then what does Quinn consider himself?

2.) If tribal cultures know the way to live which works and have been around for hundreds of thousands of years...what makes Quinn so sure that modern Mother Culture with her inventiveness, ingenuity, and intelligence won't figure it out down the line?

3.) If primitive life was so vastly superior to modern life why the short life-spans of primitive peoples? Could it be that living in that lifestyle was a fairly tough existence where you were not expected to live a long life?

Obviously there are many other valid points Quinn makes in the novel. One of them is that our legal system is messed up. Another is that schools aren't really doing that great of a job. None of these points are shockingly original but are well worth considering how to change.

Quinn for the most part continually puts forth a pessimistic feeling in his writing. I share much with Jared Diamond in the belief that for all our current mistakes humans have an amazing ability to meet the challenge presented before them. Will they do it? Only time will tell. (less)

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Mar 20, 2008 Rachel added it

Shelves: got-bored-halfway-through

It's not that I didn't like this book. I did. But, instead of writing this book in a form which uses dialogue between the characters, Quinn should have simply written a discourse on his beliefs of the world. While his theories and ideas were extremely interesting, the dialogue became tiresome very quickly. I had to put the book aside because, honestly, it started to irritate me.

So, Mr. Quinn, if you are reading this, spare us the monotony of boring dialogue and just write a dissertation containi...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Rev. Nyarkoleptek rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: _-_hated_it

A hippie grocery store clerk suggested this to me. That should have warned me off right there. From her breathlessly enthusiastic description of a psychic gorilla with The Secrets to Existence, I erroneously thought it would be a playful, Tom Robbins-esque lysergic carnival ride.

That is NOT what I got.

If this had been written as a pamphlet to be handed out by wide-eyed hippies on street corners, I probably would have considered it to be a more honest work. Instead, we're presented a cardboard cu...more A hippie grocery store clerk suggested this to me. That should have warned me off right there. From her breathlessly enthusiastic description of a psychic gorilla with The Secrets to Existence, I erroneously thought it would be a playful, Tom Robbins-esque lysergic carnival ride.

That is NOT what I got.

If this had been written as a pamphlet to be handed out by wide-eyed hippies on street corners, I probably would have considered it to be a more honest work. Instead, we're presented a cardboard cut-out lead character, whose sole duty is to punctuate the talking gorilla's pronouncements with monosyllabic agreements.

I might have been swayed by the underlying philosophical bent of the book, but I was having problems with the way the story presented its ideas. However, I was giving it (and the author) the benefit of the doubt, until about halfway through. Then I got to a section where Ishmael (the gorilla) asks the lead character a question. She basically says that she has no idea what the answer might be. Ishmael then gives the Correct Answer, to which she responds, "gee, you're right", and Ishmael continues with his novella-length monologue. What?!? She didn't need to be convinced by a well-constructed argument? He didn't need to give background information to support his claims? Just "I say this is true" and "yes, it is true because you say so"? That's how the whole book seemed to me: "I say this is true, and it is true because I say it is." It was at this precise point that I actively began resenting the book, and by extension, the author.

Often it seemed that Quinn was writing this in an attempt not to scare away the non-hippies. "Technology is not the answer. But don't worry, though: you don't need to throw away your VCR. But we shouldn't build any more VCR's." Okay, well, won't those without VCR's wonder why they don't get one? Quinn should have grown some ideological balls, and gone straight into the Luddite, "let's all go live in the woods beside an open-ditch latrine" territory that he was only tiptoeing around.

By the end of the book, I was so disgusted with it that when the chick was enlisted to help sneak Ish out of the country, and says to the reader that she won't tell you the excuse they used to convince her mom to let her fly to Africa with possible white slavery merchants, I didn't even flinch. Instead, I just rolled my eyes and thought, yeah, Quinn couldn't figure that out on his own, either, huh?
(less)

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Aug 01, 2011 Anthony added it

[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE PLOT AND ARE CONSIDERING READING THIS BOOK, DON'T READ MY REVIEW OF IT.]

Not a bad book, but I guess of the three (Ishmael and The Story of B being the other two) it was the one I least prefer. That's not to say "Don't read it." I'll explain.

First, and least importantly, Quinn created a very unconvincing 12-year-old girl to act as protagonist for this episode. And then for the last chunk of the book this 12-year-old girl went to Zaire, alone,...more [THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE PLOT AND ARE CONSIDERING READING THIS BOOK, DON'T READ MY REVIEW OF IT.]

Not a bad book, but I guess of the three (Ishmael and The Story of B being the other two) it was the one I least prefer. That's not to say "Don't read it." I'll explain.

First, and least importantly, Quinn created a very unconvincing 12-year-old girl to act as protagonist for this episode. And then for the last chunk of the book this 12-year-old girl went to Zaire, alone, to ask for permission to bring a telepathic gorilla across an ocean to leave it in the rain forest. And it worked? WTF. It worked. Like I said with The Story of B, the story is pretty weak, but this isn't really that important because it's the ideas that are important. Oh well. I've heard/seen people saying that the plot in Ishmael was non-existent, and looking back I pretty much agree. But then I guess I don't really care. I preferred Ishmael.

I would probably break down each book thusly: Ishmael, the first book, is largely a summary of the whole extent to which civilization is fuckin' up the world; the next, The Story of B, is by my estimation more concerned with culture and history, largely focused on an event termed "The Great Forgetting,"; and then finally, this book is about human nature and tribalism.

From what I previously knew of the book and from what I can tell, Quinn decided to write this book for people who thought Alan, the protagonist of the first book, was "whiny" or whatever else—they didn't like him. I guess that some people were also sad because Ishmael died in the first book. Frankly, while I think I understand why a gorilla was chosen, the telepathic gorilla angle is what I care least about in these books. It almost seems like Quinn listened to his critics who complained about a lack of plot and created an unbelievable story. He didn't leave out ideas of course, but this one isn't as heavy with them as the first (or the second) was—nor do I feel that was the point.

So it all comes down to this: I think My Ishmael was written for people who didn't quite like Ishmael, or who had some problem with it. Basically, while it's not going to hurt anyone to read this book, and I don't think anyone who enjoys Quinn will regret reading it, I don't think this is necessary reading unless one thinks they might prefer it against the first. I took more from The Story of B and would recommend that as a supplement to the first book. That said, this one is a quick read, so go for it if you're considering it.(less)

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Feb 24, 2013 Vicky Cann rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is by far the most important and inspirational book I have ever read. It totally puts a finger on why I have felt so lost in my life and it has become a big influence on how I want to live. The trilogy is written so that Daniel Quinn's ideas can be explained in a story-like fashion through interactions with a different character in each book.
Everyone is different, with different upbringings, and different views on life, and so some may relate more to one story than to another. By writing t...more

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May 29, 2011 Gillian rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A sequel to Quinn’s first book, Ishmael, My Ishmael clears up and addresses a few points that Ishmael failed to. In My Ishmael, Ishmael’s pupil is Julie Gerchek- a witty 12 year old girl with an ‘eager desire to save the world’. As with the first book’s narrator, Julie enters Ishmael’s room expecting, any thing but a gorilla. However, as she grows accustomed to Ishmael’s unorthodox exterior, she begins to listen to Ishmael’s insightful lessons.
I read Quinn’s first book Ishmael, so the first cou...more A sequel to Quinn’s first book, Ishmael, My Ishmael clears up and addresses a few points that Ishmael failed to. In My Ishmael, Ishmael’s pupil is Julie Gerchek- a witty 12 year old girl with an ‘eager desire to save the world’. As with the first book’s narrator, Julie enters Ishmael’s room expecting, any thing but a gorilla. However, as she grows accustomed to Ishmael’s unorthodox exterior, she begins to listen to Ishmael’s insightful lessons.
I read Quinn’s first book Ishmael, so the first couple of chapters nearly bored me to death. I literally fell asleep reading it. Ishmael runs through Ishmael’s previous ideas of Mother Culture, Takers, Leavers, etc and uses familiar analogies of different species to parallel human nature.
However, the book later picks up pace and beings to deal with aspect the first book fails to address. A particularly interesting point that My Ishmael brings up, I think, is the theory that all institutionalized forms of education is simply a tool to keep adolescents out of the job market and effectively, keep the economy thriving. Ishmael explains that as children, we all learn skills and gather knowledge that will later serve us a purpose- such as reading, arithmetic, and social skills. Kindergarden and the first couple grades help children harness their unlimited curiosity and ability to learn by teaching us this basic information. Once we reach adolescence, however, we are stop learning so easily and are genetically expected to (according to Ishmael) start working. The economy, however, depends on a limited amount of the unemployed. In order to solve this problem, schools and universities are used to keep us occupied until job opportunities open up. This essentially, means that schools are simply a tool to kill time with. In order to keep children and adolescence busy, we are taught meaningless, useless things, like the process with the Congress uses to pass Bills, or why the tides one both sides of the Earth tend to swell out at the same time. Very remember this knowledge after they graduate from school, and even less end up using this knowledge when they become adults.
This flaw in the educational system is not the only one plaguing our world. Everything from the way our economy works to how our government tries to stop any truly good social progress is a problem that needs to be fixed. Ishmael’s proposed solution to this is a ‘New Tribal Revolution’. He explains that it is essential to change the way people think and live because the entire world, and all of it’s inhabitants (human or not) depend on the Takers to change their way of life. He describes how the only way to achieve this is convince people that change does not mean sacrificing things that we grown accustomed to, as Mother Culture has continually fed to us. The ‘New Tribal Revolution’ will only be successful if people are offered things that are better than what they have now.
“You must have a positive revolution, a revolution that brings people more of what they really want, bot less of what they don’t want.”
Overall, I think that this is a book that this book does a good job clearing up whatever confusion Ishmael left with it’s readers. For those of you who have read the first book, you might find the first couple of chapters a bit slow and tedious, as I did, but I promise, the book does develop some new, interesting ideas as it progressed. References to Ishmael’s narrator are also peppered throughout My Ishmael (Yes! His name is revealed!), and for those who disliked him and found him a little dimwitted, you’ll find My Ishmael very satisfying. Even if you disagree with some of Ishmael’s conclusions and solutions, this book is a one that makes you think, which, I suppose, is what’s important in the end.

Recommend. (less)

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Sep 24, 2010 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

There are books that illuminate the world in new ways to us. Rarely have I read a book that sheds light on my own existence the way this book did. It isn't so much that it's a fun read, or even that it's a well written book. The fact is it makes you think. I believe this makes many who read it uncomfortable. It questions the bedrock of our society in ways that aren't easily dismissed. Some people hate this book for that. Others find it hard to read. I think the more deeply rooted in mainstream c...more

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Mar 17, 2013 David Ranney rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"This was the tremendous strength of the tribal way, that its success didn't depend on people being better. It worked for people the way they are---unimproved, unenlightened, troublesome, disruptive, selfish, mean, cruel, greedy, and violent. And the triumph the Takers have never come close to matching. In fact, they never even made the attempt. Instead, they counted on being able to improve people, as if they were badly designed products. They counted on being able to punish them into being bet...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Bea rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: re-read

I'm not a philosophical person so I don't feel like I can make comparisons of this book to other philosophical treatises. But I liked thinking about the ideas that are raised in this book and I found it a very easy read.

Whether I agree with everything is another matter. I recently read a book that discusses Papua New Guinea so I couldn't help but juxtaposing the idealized tribal lifestyle put forth in this book with some of the harsh realities and uncertainties of tribal life described in that...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Blake rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very clear look into Human history and behavior, and how developed societies compare to primal ones. There are many good points, and Mr. Quinn gives articulation to sentiments I feel many have, but did not know how to voice.

Coming from a gorilla is an interesting device. I feel more people are willing to listen to him over a human character.

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Nov 05, 2010 Mazel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophie, souvenir-de-lecture

Quatrième de couverture :

"Professeur cherche élève souhaitant vraiment sauver le monde." Un homme d'une trentaine d'années, cherchant, un sens à sa vie, répond à cette annonce et découvre que le professeur est un gorille nommé Ishmael. S'engage alors entre eux un dialogue socratique surprenant, drôle et profond, sur de grandes questions tout à la fois philosophiques, historiques et morales : comment le monde en est-il arrivé là au fil des siècles? Peut-on encore sauver la Terre et Mère Nature e...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Jared rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow. My Ishmael is to Ishmael as Wicked is to The Wizard of Oz. If you don't get that analogy, suffice it to say that this story is the "real" Ishmael. I found the beginning of the book to be a review of Ishmael and that it moved rather slowly, but by the time Ishmael started answering the specific questions and analyzing our society, I was completely enthralled. Quinn really has "done it again." He takes on the education system, the economic system, cults, gangs, and religions. It's amazing wha...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Matthew Holmes rated it 5 of 5 stars

With all of the negative reviews posted here I felt compelled to counter a bit. This may be a complete waste of time as there are many that see modern civilization as the apex of human development. Some of us disagree, some of us very strongly. I dropped out of High School as a Junior, precisely due to the critiques offered by Ishmael (Quinn). Our current education system serves no other purpose than to produce complacent, docile, and obedient employees. After dropping out of High School I spent...more With all of the negative reviews posted here I felt compelled to counter a bit. This may be a complete waste of time as there are many that see modern civilization as the apex of human development. Some of us disagree, some of us very strongly. I dropped out of High School as a Junior, precisely due to the critiques offered by Ishmael (Quinn). Our current education system serves no other purpose than to produce complacent, docile, and obedient employees. After dropping out of High School I spent the next few years reading everything from Crowley to Nietzsche to Locke to Yeats. I've been at it ever since, including obtaining degrees in higher education. My master's thesis in many ways mirrored the themes that Ishmael conversed about, and yet I had never read the book.

Interesting how some reviewers accuse this book of being for "hippies". If by that you mean people that feel with their hearts as well as think with their heads, then perhaps your assessment may be close. Excessive drug consumption can also help one to clear out all that cultural/social brainwashing that so many hold to as if it were some absolutist dogma handed down from some psychotic, sociopathic god from on high. Sorry folks, it is concocted by people in power to keep the rest of us good little slaves in our places. Whoops, naughty Marxist thinking; yes I'm a political heretic, among things.

For those of us who have experienced "homelessness" at some time in our lives, especially if you have spent long periods in wilderness settings, Ishmael's truths hit all the more home. Evolution is only the real "law" at work in this universe. The more we try to live in accordance with our own evolutionary nature the happier we will be. As long as idiots are running the show prohibiting everything good in life and forcing us all to dance to their greedy power hungry tune, with leisure time consisting of sports, news, and sit-coms that portray all men as idiots, all women as conniving divas who merely tolerate men, and children that show no sign of life or independent thought, let alone any respect for their elders. With this paradigm,there will continue to be increased mental illness and overly medicated machines that used to resemble human beings. Young men will continue to slaughter innocents, unhappy women will continue to fill their empty lives with hook-ups, unrealistic expectations, and prostituting themselves in marriages to men with money, and children will see a world without goodness and hope, preferring brutality towards their peers or suicide.

So all of you pseudo-intellectual middle class micro-brew beer drinking brats who can string together an eloquent sentence but have no knowledge about the local flora and fauna, or how to kill, clean, and cook an animal for dinner, or how to construct a shelter of any type whatsoever, well, keep not having kids and evolution will take care of the rest. Cheers. For the rest of you....

If you only read one more book for the rest of your life, make it this one.(less)

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Jun 06, 2010 Jazmin rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's taken me a long while to finish this book. I really enjoyed the premise of it, a gorilla who instructs humans on how to save the world from destruction. However, the style of writing, in which the entire lesson is given through conversation, becomes very wearisome. In order to keep myself from simply sticking it back on the shelf and forgetting about it, I had to take long breaks from it and read only a few chapters at a time. The ideas presented are well thought out criticisms of our curre...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Carrie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Philosophically interesting & provocative. A *slightly* tedious read (compared to say, Steven King novels), but worth it for the stimulating ideas. Some of his arguments seem a bit circular & his student a bit too agreeing. It seems a little presumptuous to claim to know how things were 10,000 years ago, pre-agriculture. The notion that humans just are how we are & should have systems that jibe with that makes sense. And the unschooling ideas. He (Ishmael/the author) uses the Socrati...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Bruce rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this little gem when I was 15. I loved it. Though, to be fair, considering my age and susceptibility to absorbing whatever new ideals that sound right at the time, it might have impacted me more than it should have. Nevertheless, I think everyone should read this book at some point...its insights towards society, civilization, and institutionalized education (spoiler: Ishmael is not a fan of the latter) were extremely rewarding. A bit frustrating how it leaves you with a newfound frame of...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Ginger DePriest rated it 4 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed this book. I was expecting it to be kind of dull, because I didn't think there would be much more to say after "Ishmael", the first novel. It was surprisingly packed with interesting ideas and ways of portraying them. I was especially engaged in Ishmael's take on how the United States deals with societal imperfections, education, and wealth. I love philosophical fictions and this one was well done. The only thing I wasn't particularly fond of was the teenage storytelling styl...more

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Feb 06, 2010 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book contains valuable insights and teaching points within a very entertaining story. This was my first read of Daniel Quinn so I make no comparison to his other work. Quinn uses the story and unlikely characters (a 12 year old girl and a gorilla) to addresses a very troubling question (human destruction of the natural environment). This technique may frustrate the linear rational mind that struggles with the notion of a girl communicating with a gorilla. The author poses some fascinating q...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Ray Foy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think Daniel Quinn has hit upon something very special in his Ishmael books. That special thing is a concept, or way of looking at human history, that tells the story of how people came to be the way they are. Mr. Quinn tells this story through his fictional teacher who seeks students to learn his insights and pass them on. That teacher is a sentient gorilla by the name of Ishmael.

Ishmael teaches by telling stories and engaging his pupils in a Socratic dialogue. He wants to lead them through a...more

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May 19, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: animals-and-children

Winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, Daniel Quinn's Ishmael is a bestseller and a testament for a burgeoning spiritual movement. Now Quinn presents an extraordinary sequel, a companion novel so startlingly original that even Ishmael's most faithful readers will not predict its outcome....

When Ishmael places an advertisement for pupils with "an earnest desire to save the world," he does not expect a child to answer him. But twelve-year-old Julie Gerchak is undaunted by Ishmael's reluctance t...more

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May 30, 2010 Jennifer Spires rated it 5 of 5 stars

Holy cow, this book makes me think I'm a hippie. Once you get past the fact that it's a telepathic gorilla, which is easy to do at the beginning (near the end it's not as easy but you're too into the story to care), it's one of those books that really makes you think about our society. A quick read, and "Ishmael" is another book written from the point of view of one of the other characters and actually won the 1991 Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award (fiction with positive solutions to global probl...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Whether read as a follow-up/companion to Quinn's first novel, "Ishmael" or read independently, this book will transform the way you view the world. Quinn's vision of the path to human happiness takes us back to the roots of human living... tribal, communal, characterized by emotional support and freedom to live a life that brings you happiness.... a philosophy that stems from the notion "there is no one right way to live." How could we yearn for anything less?

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Dec 13, 2010 Honeywine rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Ugh, re-hashed Ishmael...

one idea that did resonate with me was the idea that if young adults were able to escape their indoctrination *ahem* I mean "education" it would mess up the entire system... however, I don't think that there is any hope in trying to 'reform' old institutions and having young adults leave indoctrination earlier could only be good for their innate capacities for critical thinking, creative problem solving and compassionate communication.

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Jul 24, 2011 Evan Snyder rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned

I loved Ishmael and I would highly recommend that book to anyone and everyone, but My Ishmael turned out highly disappointing. Quinn tries to convey many similar ideas as in Ishmael, but in this book, Ishmael's lessons are targeted to a twelve-year-old girl. Being very careful not to wantonly dismiss a twelve-year-old's capability for such powerful and culturally dissident ideas, I honestly do not think, based on my own experience as a twelve-year-old girl not THAT long ago, that she could proce...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Tobi rated it 5 of 5 stars

I liked this one even better than the first one. It is so clear to me now and I had some idea of most of this stuff before. It clearly spells out the reason I pulled my kids out of public school. I wish I had woken up sooner though I might have saved myself and my husband from falling for all the bull mother culture tells us and we might now be the people we really wanted to be. If you care at all about the future of the human race or want to live a real life, you should read this book.

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Nov 29, 2010 David Hillman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

My Ishmael was another life changing book for me. When we read books the setting of our lives and the character of us at that moment are so very relevant. When I read this trilogy I felt alone as a non-believer and just as a alone in my feelings about the human condition. If nothing else Mr. Quinn opened my eyes to seeking out people that wanted to make things better and were willing to shatter delusion.

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Dec 29, 2010 Py rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is by far my favourite of the books I have read by Daniel Quinn. The narrator, Julie is far more likeable than Alan from Ishmael and the conversations between her and Ishmael are much less stunted. This is the best insight into the education system that I have read so far. I really like the use of smaller stories within the narrative to get the point across. Towards the end there was some 'padding' to the story that I felt was unnecessary but overall it was a great read and really compellin...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Shirari Industries rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: EVERYONE

Shelves: animals, activist-essentials, environment, scifi, unexpectedly-amazing

Wow I love Daniel Quinn. This book takes up where Ishmael left off, but you could also enjoy it on its own. A girl talks to a gorilla. The gorilla helps the little girl through a learning process. And if you read this book, you'll learn what she learned, and you'll be (I hope) as inspired as she was.

What do you learn? How to save the world. How to find meaning. How to solve all your problems.

I don't know how to explain this. You should read the book. I think it will change your life. (Ishmael ch...more

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Jan 25, 2013 John Atcheson rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this when it first came out so it's been a while, but it is one of those sequels that is as good as the original. Quinn is creative, and he manages to inform, provoke and educate without being pedantic. I teetered between 3 stars and 4, but ended up giving it a 3 because it lacks narrative tension.

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Sep 20, 2010 Portia rated it 5 of 5 stars

I LOVED this book. The entire book is dialog between two individuals and it portrays such a strong message about the world and what we as humans are doing to it. Very emotional, especially towards the end. Definitely a book that I will always remember and keep in my collection just because it's that special to me.

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About Daniel Quinn

Daniel Quinn (born 1935 in Omaha, Nebraska) is a U.S. writer.
He studied at St. Louis University, the University of Vienna, and Loyola University of Chicago, receiving a bachelor's degree in English, cum laude, in 1957.
He is best known for his book Ishmael (1992), which won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award in 1991.

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Books by Daniel Quinn

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

The Story of B: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure

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Quotes from My Ishmael

“Thinkers aren't limited by what they know, because they can always increase what they know. Rather they're limited by what puzzles them, because there's no way to become curious about something that doesn't puzzle you.” — 50 people liked it

“Children don't need learning. They need access to what they want to learn outside the home.” — 6 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17022.My_Ishmael?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320463604l/17022.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17022.My_Ishmael?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn[/url]

My Ishmael (Ishmael #3)

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