Finished 12-6-08, rating 3/5, fiction, pub. 1992
“TEACHER seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person.” -Chapter 1
The narrator of this book answers this ad in the local paper and finds a full-grown gorilla, Ishmael, waiting for him in an office. Ishmael and the narrator can talk to each other and Ishmael shares the truth about the history of the world and mankind. The narrator is a willing, if somewhat daft, student and becomes convinced that everything the gorilla says is true, from his take on overpopulation and how it relates to feeding starving people to the destructive things Mother Culture teaches us that are ruining the planet.
Jason and I read this together and it took us over 6 months and not because it was long! This book is an overly repetitive philosophy lesson. It has some really interesting and thought-provoking ideas, but went out of the way to repeat each idea ten different ways so that it made me feel like I was back in school with a bad teacher. There was no plot or storyline to follow, just a guy listening to a gorilla tell him what was wrong with the world and how to fix it.
Okay, so if I disliked it so much why did I give it 3 stars? The ideas themselves were good. It didn’t necessarily change my view of the world, but it did reinforce some of what I already believed about man’s need to conquer the world at any cost. Jason’s favorite part was the retelling of the Cain & Abel story to fit the philosophies of Ishmael.
If you are looking for a good story, skip it. If you want to be exposed to different ideas about the our society and the world I think you’ll probably get a lot out the book. It won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship , a half million dollar prize, when it was published.
Stacy's Books 
Thanks for the review – I think I’ll skip it.
It’s philosophical fiction, it’s a good book but not a good read… I liked it though.
Thanks for the review. I took a different perspective from the book. Many of the ideas expressed are a mash-up of philosophical, religuous and anthropological realities – repeated over and linked in different ways. I could have got the same information from five pages of a textbook but I don’t think this is the point – I feel that Quinn is aiming the book at those who have some very ungrounded ideas about spirituality and the constructs of society.
Those people are highly resistant to anything pricking their bubble. I have sent the book around among friends two of whom have had epiphanies from it – and one is currently going through a mental breakdown and keeps referring to the book.
I feel that there is something much deeper in this book that shakes some people’s foundations, good or bad I don’t know but it does seem to do something profound.
Thanks for the comments. It’s always nice to get a different perspective, that is why I started the blog after all 🙂
I do agree that it is deep and does offer an alternative to core beliefs. I guess if you accepted everything in it as pure truth (and it is a novel) it could shake you up. It did generate some lively discussions!