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Overview
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 to teach someone so young, and convinces him to take her on as his next student. Ishmael knows he can't apply the same strategies with Julie that he used with his first pupil, Alan Lomax—nor can he hope for the same outcome. But young Julie proves that she is ready to forge her own spiritual path—and arrive at her own destination. And when the time comes to choose a pupil to carry out his greatest mission yet, Ishmael makes a daring decision—a choice that just might change the world.
Synopsis
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 to teach someone so young, and convinces him to take her on as his next student. Ishmael knows he can't apply the same strategies with Julie that he used with his first pupil, Alan Lomax--nor can he hope for the same outcome. But young Julie proves that she is ready to forge her own spiritual path--and arrive at her own destination. And when the time comes to choose a pupil to carry out his greatest mission yet, Ishmael makes a daring decision--a choice that just might change the world.
Publishers Weekly
In 1989, Ted Turner offered a $500,000 fellowship for a work of fiction that offered positive solutions to global problems. Out of 2500 entries worldwide, Quinn's quirky first novel, Ishmael, won the prize (which after some controversy, was never awarded again). The book featured a wise, telepathic gorilla who engaged in Socratic dialogue with a young man, teaching him how he could help save the world from its self-destructive path. In this predictable sequel, disenchanted 12-year-old Julie Gerchak responds to a classified ad: "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world." So begins a 300-page lecture by a silverback gorilla who expounds his theories on the suicidal plunge of contemporary culture (the Takers) and his belief that learning from tribal cultures (the Leavers) is our only path to survival. The simian scholar tries to distill thousands of years of human wisdom and experience into a few simplistic preachments and parables. Despite the author's claim that Julie represents a new challenge to Ishmael, the little girl is no Phaedrus, and in any case the gorilla hardly seems to need an interlocutor. His reflections are a novel like a two-by-four is a pine tree. Fans will buy; others may content themselves with the Web site. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Nov.)
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewThe national bestseller and underground classic that has changed the way readers (including Oprah Winfrey) say they view the world, Daniel Quinn's 1992 book Ishmael has become a testament to a burgeoning spiritual movement. Now, five years after winning the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship — a prize honoring fiction that offers creative and positive solutions to global problems — Quinn offers his follow-up, My Ishmael.
In My Ishmael, the Ishmael saga takes a startling direction that is in no way prefigured by the original. Julie Gerchak is one of the most engaging young heroes since Huckleberry Finn — and one of Ishmael's most challenging and rewarding disciples. Unable to justify turning her away, the gorilla accepts the daunting task of juggling two pupils of widely differing characters, one of whom (Julie) insists on remaining unknown to the other (Alan Lomax, the narrator of Ishmael). Julie is unquestionably bright, quite possibly brighter than Alan, but she's also shy of his educational background by ten years. It is clear that Ishmael can by no means follow the same strategy with both, or expect the same outcome. Alan and Julie take different routes with their simian mentor and end up in very different places.
But something else distinguishes Ishmael's relationship with Julie. When the infrastructure of his life begins to crumble, Ishmael must choose one of his students to entrust with a great secret and a great mission. Surprisingly, his choice falls not on the older, more experienced student but on the younger one. Revealing the missionandthe secret entrusted to her, Julie pens a conclusion to the Ishmael story that will raise cheers from his fans around the world.
Publishers Weekly -
In 1989, Ted Turner offered a $500,000 fellowship for a work of fiction that offered positive solutions to global problems. Out of 2500 entries worldwide, Quinn's quirky first novel, Ishmael, won the prize (which after some controversy, was never awarded again). The book featured a wise, telepathic gorilla who engaged in Socratic dialogue with a young man, teaching him how he could help save the world from its self-destructive path. In this predictable sequel, disenchanted 12-year-old Julie Gerchak responds to a classified ad: "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world." So begins a 300-page lecture by a silverback gorilla who expounds his theories on the suicidal plunge of contemporary culture (the Takers) and his belief that learning from tribal cultures (the Leavers) is our only path to survival. The simian scholar tries to distill thousands of years of human wisdom and experience into a few simplistic preachments and parables. Despite the author's claim that Julie represents a new challenge to Ishmael, the little girl is no Phaedrus, and in any case the gorilla hardly seems to need an interlocutor. His reflections are a novel like a two-by-four is a pine tree. Fans will buy; others may content themselves with the Web site. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Nov.)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.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.