Description
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.… (more)
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*Over-simplified, of course, and leaving out much of the definitional work that is part of the foundation of the argument, but that's the gist.
The book utilizes the same 'transcibed conversation' style of the original, but this time with an innocent, eager 10 year old girl. Although, there is not much new material brought forth in this sequel, Quinn does an excellent job to present his ideas from a new perspective. He uses the text to focus his arguments on the SOLUTIONS to totalitarian agriculuralism, rather than the CAUSES. I did not enjoy the (healthy) portion of the book which recounts the protagonist's journey to Africa. This takes up a good third of the text, and adds very little to the author's arguments on civilization.
However, the novel does do an excellent job to conclude the series. Without giving too much away, Quinn leaves the reader with no doubt as to how he/she can 'help the cause'. I reccomend this to anybody who is eager to become more informed, and even become active on the topic of 'totalitarian agriculturalism'.
My favorite section of the book is the section on modern education. As with Quinn's other book I read, my eyes were opened to some very obvious
I thought Quinn presented many valid
Interesting, thought-provoking, frustrating, depressing - My Ishmael.