Ishmael Book Review

Category: Snow Flower-a story that takes you on an emotional journey

Genre: Fiction

“With man gone, will there be hope for gorilla?” And so this koan kicks off the conversation of a lifetime between teacher and student, between man and gorilla, between the Takers and the Leavers, between all that we have to learn and all that we refuse to see, between writer and author. If you found an ad in the Personals section that read, “TEACHER seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person,” would you? Would you feel that fire reignite within you that had been lost to “realism” as you graduated high school? Would you allow the smallest, tiniest, quietest voice to ask if such a teacher exists? Would you believe your questions could be answered about what to do? Would you have the guts to apply in person? Would you have the courage to believe you were the pupil? Or would you perhaps react as the main character did.

Starting at the bottom of the page (a very curious place to start), the story begins, “The first time I read the ad, I choked and cursed and spat and threw the paper to the floor. Since even this didn’t seem to be quite enough, I snatched it up, marched into the kitchen, and shoved it into the trash.” Even so, perhaps you would be seduced, (just as he was) to just see, to satisfy that burning question once and for all that no such person exists. Upon arrival, you might start feeling justified, looking around the dingy interior and noticing the lack of anyone else around. You might even start deciding what you want for lunch. That is, until you look in the mirror and find not a mirror, but a glass, and instead of gazing into your own eyes, you find another pair of eyes looking back.

What would your courage be filled of then? Mettle and bricks and vibranium? Or would it crumple beneath your weight like a hollow cardboard box? What would you truly be looking for? An image from which to better see yourself or a guru through whom you can better understand human folly? And which answer will most satiate that hunger?