Will I love Ishmael?

Daniel Quinn’s award-winning novel illuminates the historical roots of our consumer culture from the perspective of a gorilla who teaches a human the lessons of sustainability.

Before he died, Daniel would meet with my students to discuss sustainability and the lessons of Ishmael. His wisdom comes through clearly in this well-told tale of how Homo sapiens become a species of unsustainable “takers” and what the consequences are of a global consumer culture.

This is a very original book with deep wisdom delivered through a most unique relationship about a man and the Gorilla who becomes his Guru!

One of the most life-changing concepts I took from the book is that there are two kinds of people in the world: leavers and takers. I recognized that I am essentially a taker, but the book made me realize that to be a better person it was time for me to become a leaver.

"Man lived harmlessly on this planet for some three million years but the Takers have brought the whole thing to the point of collapse in only five hundred generations."

This award-winning book Ishmael is a thought-provoking book, with particularly interesting quotes about tribalism and the Chaldeans from ancient Mesopotamia, my ancestry. There are two characters; the teacher Ishmael (a telepathic Gorilla), and a nameless student who is seeking to save the world. Ishmael classifies humanity into two groups, the “Leavers” and “Takers.”

The first are hunter-gatherers and the latter are civilized agriculturists. Even if the reader doesn’t agree with some… show more.

As a child of the 80s, when Earth Day became a thing, a book set in the future that questioned human supremacy seemed a sure bet for a good time. Picking up this novel by Quinn when it was released a couple of years after I graduated high school was enough to shake the foundations of my personal system of beliefs and fire my imagination for what might be possible if only humans learned. The book itself is written as a conversation between the main character and the student he advertises for in the newspaper. The subject matter of their… show more.

Ishmael is one of the most unique novels I have read. Years after reading it, I still think about it. I’m sure it is one reason I am concerned about the impact of our choices on the people who come after us. Hard to imagine that a book about a gorilla who teaches a human using the Socratic Method could have such an impact on me. But it did. The gorilla wants to help humans understand why things are the way they are. (This is something I want to understand too.) All of this sounds philosophical, and it is. At… show more.

This book taught me how to look at the world I lived in and the history I come from in a different way. After reading this book I questioned everything I was doing as a teacher and began to see my role as a teacher, as a father, as a citizen concerned about my ecological impact in a different way. And it’s written as an immensely compelling and engaging conversation between a man and a gorilla. I mean, what more could you want?

Another of my favorite novels, Ishamel starts off with a simple ad. Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person. From there, the reader is taken on one of the great spiritual adventures in modern literature. I can’t say enough positive things about Ismael. Everything about it––the writing, the story, the ideas––works.