Final Thoughts

Ishmael was an interesting read. It certainly read differently than most novels. This was primarily due to a lack of character importance. The characters within Ishmael didn't really matter. Aside from the Student acting as the reader and Ishmael acting as Daniel Quinn, the characters don't seem important. Which, I suppose makes sense as the novel's purpose is to attempt to tell society the truth of the world as Quinn sees it. However, then again it also makes the reader ultimately question why Quinn chose a washed up rebel/hippy (pretty much all we know about the Student) and a telepathic gorilla as the characters of his novel. I suppose that these characters established the scene Quinn wanted to set, but I feel that scene could have been set with different characters and it ultimately wouldn't matter. The reader cannot (or at least I cannot) connect with the Student in the way I believe Quinn envisioned. I think the reader can experience similar revelations or "huh," moments, but ultimately the Student is faceless. Not faceless in that he can represent anyone, faceless in that he can't really represent the audience. One of my main criticisms of the novel is that the characters lack substance. You can't empathize with a nobody or a gorilla, you just can't. This ultimately holds the message back, because it doesn't affect the reader as strongly as the reader is never absorbed by the novel. There was never a moment where I would glance at the clock and see it was already 1 AM, I held myself separate from the novel because of these flat characters.

That being said, the ideas within the novel itself were good. The ideas Quinn presents are definitely the strong point of the novel. The way he presents his ideas are often through allegories and metaphors. These devices themselves do a good job at getting the point across. For example, to show why our society doesn't recognize that it's failing, Ishmael introduces a metaphor/story about aviation. In this metaphor Ishmael essentially describes (and I'll make this brief), how a man who were to launch a 'primitive' biplane/glider would not necessarily realize he was falling, not flying, until he hit the ground. Through this, the reader comes to understand that our society might not realize it's not working (falling) until it experiences a bad end (hitting the ground).  These metaphors do a great job of allowing the reader to understand a vague concept/idea through something more concrete.

That said, there are so many of these little stories throughout the novel that it makes me wonder if it might have been a better idea to make Ishmael a collection of short stories. This isn't sarcastic in any way, I truly feel that with the characters being so lacking, it may have been better had Quinn simply compiled these allegories and metaphors into a collection and expanded upon them. Looking back, it actually feels as though Ishmael might have originally been something like that, and then Quinn decided to interconnect those allegories and metaphors by introducing a hippie and a gorilla to the mix.

Overall, the writing behind Ishmael is lacking. However, the ideas behind it are solid and cause the reader to think. I would have preferred the ideas to have been less spoon-fed to the reader though. I could easily see how someone, ahem, lacking intelligence or ability to think for them-self, might simply adhere to Quinn's ideas without question and not think past what Quinn preaches. I doubt that's a likely outcome for most readers, but it could be more common if Oprah's Book Club or some other obnoxious organization decided to promote it. That being said, it's still possible to come to your own conclusions on what is wrong with society and not necessarily completely agree with Quinn's points, so, while I don't like it, it's more of a minor criticism.

If I were to rate Ishmael, I'd give it about a 6/10. The writing's bland but the ideas are thought-provoking. It's about an average quality novel, overall, and even though the ideas are strong, they likely won't change your life and I feel that it wasn't particularly AP worthy. That said, if the premise interests you, give it a read. You'll probably regret it, but who knows!

C Thunder, signing off.