My Ishmael (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: erratic retaliation, one right way for people, food under lock, Daniel Quinn, Mother Culture, Erratic Retaliator (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this sequel to Quinn's controversial best seller, Ishmael, the telepathic gorilla has another pupil intent on saving the world: 12-year-old Julie Gerchak.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Another irresistible rant from Quinn, a sequel to his Turner Tomorrow Fellowship winner, Ishmael (1992), concerning a great, telepathic ape who dispenses ecological wisdom about the possible doom of humankind. Once more, Quinn focuses on the Leavers and Takers, his terms for the two basic, warring kinds of human sensibility. The planet's original inhabitants, the Leavers, were nomadic people who did no harm to the earth. The Takers, who have generally overwhelmed them, began as aggressive farmers obsessed with growth, were the builders of cities and empires, and have now, in the late 20th century, largely run out of space to monopolize. Quinn's books have not featured many memorable characters, aside from Ishmael. This time out, though, he invents a lively figure, 12-year-old Julie Gerchak, who is tough and wise beyond her years, having had to deal with a self-destructive, alcoholic mother. Julie responds to Ishmael's ad seeking a pupil with an earnest desire to save the world (a conceit carried over from the earlier novel). Once again, the gentle ape shares his wisdom in a series of questions and answers that resemble, in method, a blend of the Socratic dialogues and programmed learning. Moving beyond his theories about Leavers and Takers, Ishmael presents a detailed critique of educational systems around the world, suggesting that their function is not to usefully educate but to regulate the flow of workers into a Taker society. This is all very well, but what does Ishmael/Quinn suggest be done to redeem the Takers, and to save the earth? Quinn seems to want to sketch out how change might come about, but it's never fully explored. Instead, the novel is increasingly taken up with the mysteries surrounding Ishmael's travels and fate. This is the weakest of Quinn's novels, but his ideas are as thought-provoking as ever, even so. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (October 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553379658
• ISBN-13: 978-0553379655
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #56,645 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to break out of your prison, April 5, 2002

By	Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Daniel Quinn has finally found the proper target with his "concurrent sequel" to his rightfully popular "Ishmael." Ishmael, a mountain gorilla, enters into telepathic dialogues with his students. In this book, Ishmael's student is a twelve year old girl. The adult mindsets and idealism Ishmael dealt with in the previous book are replaced by a cynical, street-wise young adult. Julie, who is as close to an orphan as you can get and still have a resident parent, is inspired by the newspaper advert: "Teacher seeking pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world." Although she hasn't a clue how to accomplish that desire, she feels compelled to give it a go.

If you've read "Ishmael," don't assume this book is redundant. Ishmael himself is reluctant to teach one so young. After all, what could a 12-year-old accomplish? Any reader of this volume might entertain the same doubts, but Quinn's adept talent has Ishmael query Julie on what she believes and why. He's patient [unlike most adults with children] and his "teaching" is, in reality a means to make Julie examine her beliefs. Ishmael is able couch his questions in terms Julie can understand. Step by step, Ishmael prods Julie into greater awareness of that world she desires to save. In the beginning, of course, she doesn't even know what's wrong with the world. Her vague disquiet is given focus as Ishmael's questions prod her thinking.

Julie becomes aware that the basic tactic of civilization is to "lock up the food." From this situation everything else that circumscribes our lives follows. Working for wages, a hierarchical society, religion and other trappings of "culture" that bind our existence. Ishmael shows what an innovation in human experience this tactic is, and how recently imposed. Locking up the food and creating a structured society, according to Ishmael, has led to an immensely powerful Mother Culture. Mother Culture lays down and enforces the rules of society. She's created a prison, which will require re-thinking about culture in order for us, the prisoners, to escape.

Not all societies, however, subscribe to these rules. Mother Culture has created the Taker society, while those remaining outside her domain, Ishmael dubs the Leavers. The division is nearly absolute, with the Takers striving to take all, while the Leavers have survived by leaving what they don't need. Quinn assures us that the separation is neither inevitable nor absolute. But changes in outlook are necessary if the Takers are not to destroy the planet.

Quinn's excellent style keeps a "message" book from becoming a "preaching" book. That's no small accomplishment, given the immensity of the task. He reassures us that he understands the Taker society will not revert to a pure Leaver culture. In order to survive, however, it will be necessary for the Takers to "talk to their neighbours." Not just the folks next door, but all the rest of life. This is not a reversion to a simpler life, but an expansion of knowledge and understanding. It's hardly a drastic step, but it hasn't been taken. My Ishmael encourages you to take that first step. A better world is certain to follow, since that first step must inevitably lead to others. Buy this book for your children or even your neighbour's children. It may be too late for older folks to learn the lessons, but it's their world starting tomorrow.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you liked Ishmael, you will love My Ishmael!, August 8, 2000

By	Xavier de la Foret (Twisp, WA) - See all my reviews

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!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Save the Planet, and Tie-up Loose Ends, January 12, 2004

By	Joshua Christofferson (Playa del Rey, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Daniel Quinn's My Ishmael is the third installment in his "Save the Earth" trilogy (Ishmael, The Story of B, and finally, My Ishmael). In this book, Ishmael, the telepathic gorilla, attempts to seal up some of his many loose ends found in Quinn's previous two installments by relaying his knowledge to a 12 year-old girl. I liked the first two books enough to keep on reading, however, Quinn's style takes a grain of salt to take it all in.

The entire concept of the Quinn's books are to convey to the reader that we "civilized" humans have developed, and entrenched ourselves, in a system of living that is doomed to fail. It's not an anti-capitalism, pro-socialist treatise per se, however, most of the tenets of capitalism could be found flawed in Quinn's assessment. Basically, Ishmael (Quinn) has determined that native peoples have survived for hundreds of thousands of years longer than "civilized" peoples because: a) tribal cultures don't lock up their food so that you have to buy it (this locking up of food results in poverty, war, and dissent, according to Quinn); b) hunter/gather societies (with some agriculture) have been able to sustain their likelihood without disrupting family, wealth (in tribal terms), prosperity, and the environment.

Contrary to this, are the tenets of our "civilized" society. They lock up food (a substance that should be free to all humans just like air or water) and place it in the power of the wealthy who then redistribute it to those who can pay for it. This basic concept (capitalism, essentially) spawns a vast array of problems: poverty for those that can't afford to pay for the simple necessities of life (no tribal system would allow any of its members to go hungry, simply because that would mean the degradation of the tribe); family degradation, war over who owns what, and crime in general because basic necessities are no longer open for the taking. Also, this "civilized" system can only grow and live if it constantly consumes (with no regard to replacing that which it consumes). So, on this note, Quinn is quite right; we cannot continually consume. There is simply not enough resources to sustain our population (and what do we do when we run out of resources? Traditionally, we destroy or displace other populations to gain their resources).

So, we're all supposed to revert to some grand-scale tribal system (also known as socialism to some)? The 12 year-old girl asks exactly this. Ishmael (Quinn) makes a strong point here that he has never suggested such a thing. He is merely pointing out the flaws, and suggesting a starting point to fixing the problem. I can buy that on some levels, but mostly, he is suggesting that tribal systems are better than our current system, which is true on many levels, but a tribal system of living would be impossible with over 6 billion people on the planet (which, to Quinn's defense, he poignantly acknowledges).

Overall, it's a good read even if it leaves the reader with a million more questions (which I supposes is the whole point). Quinn leads the reader to believe in each of these books that his message is complete when in fact, it is far from it. He leads one to believe that he's done his job as a "Save the world" teacher when in fact he leads much to be desired. However, with that said, Quinn's book is definitely worth reading (start with the first book Ishmael). Even his conclusions are naive, they raise some vital questions about where our culture is heading. With all his flaws, Quinn is a must, if only to get you thinking in a completely different direction: can we continue to consume without replenishment, and while capitalism has proven extremely fruitful, is there a better form of capitalism that is more conducive to global prosperity on all levels?