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Step-By Step To Download this book:Click The Button "DOWNLOAD"Sign UP registration to access Ishmael:A Novel & UNLIMITED BOOKSDOWNLOAD as many books as you like (personal use)CANCEL the membership at ANY TIME if not satisfiedJoin Over 80.000 & Happy Readers.EBook Ishmael:A Novel [PDF, mobi, ePub]
EBook Ishmael:A Novel [PDF, mobi, ePub]EBook Ishmael:ANovel [PDF, mobi,ePub]DescriptionHere's the novel that, out of 2500 submissions, won the ecologicalmindedTurner Tomorrow Award--and caused a mutiny among the judges whenit was awarded the $500,000 first prize. Is it that good--or bad? No,but it's certainly unusual, even eccentric, enough to place Quinn (thepaperback Dreamer, 1988) on the cult literary map. What's most unusualis that this novel scarcely is one: beneath a thin narrative glaze, it'sreally a series of Socratic dialogues between man and ape, with the apeas Socrates. The nameless man, who narrates, answers a newspaper ad(``TEACHER seeks pupil...'') that takes him to a shabby office tenantedby a giant gorilla; lo! the ape begins to talk to him telepathically(Quinn's failure to explain this ability is typical of his approach:idea supersedes story). Over several days, the ape, Ishmael, as gruff ashis Greek model, drags the man into a new understanding of humanity'splace in the world. In a nutshell, Ishmael argues that humanity hasevolved two ways of living: There are the ``Leavers,'' or huntergatherers(e.g., Bushmen), who live in harmony with the rest of life;and there are the ``Takers'' (our civilization), who arose with theagricultural revolution, aim to conquer the rest of life, and aredestroying it in the process. Takers, Ishmael says, have woven a``story'' to rationalize their conquest; central to this story is theidea that humanity is flawed--e.g., as told in the Bible. But not so,Ishmael proclaims; only the Taker way is flawed: Leavers offer a methodfor living well in the world ... A washout as a story, with zeroemotional punch; but of substantial intellectual appeal as the extensiveQ&A passages (despite their wild generalities and smug self-assurance)invariably challenge and provoke: both Socrates and King Kong might bepleased. -- Copyright Â©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rightsreserved. Read more â€œA thoughtful, fearlessly low-key novel about therole of our species on the planet . . . laid out for us with anoriginality and a clarity that few would deny.â€•â€”TheÂ New York TimesBook Reviewâ€œ[Quinn entraps] us in the dialogue itself, in the sweetand terrible lucidity of Ishmaelâ€s analysis of the human condition. .. . It was surely for this deep, clear persuasiveness of argument thatIshmael was given its huge prize.â€•â€”The Washington Postâ€œIt is assuspenseful, inventive, and socially urgent as any fiction or nonfictionbook you are likely to read this or any other year.â€•â€”The AustinChronicleâ€œDeserves high marks as a seriousâ€”and all too rareâ€”effortthat is unflinchingly engaged with fundamental life-and-death
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