The Holy

by Daniel Quinn

They knew us before we began to walk upright. Shamans called them guardians, mythmakers called them tricksters, pagans called them gods, churchmen called them demons, folklorists called them shape-shifters. They’ve obligingly taken any role we’ve assigned them, and, while needing nothing from us, have accepted whatever we thought was their due – love, hate, fear, worship, condemnation, neglect, oblivion. 
Even in modern times, when their existence is doubted or denied, they continue to extend invitations to those who would travel a different road, a road not found on any of our cultural maps. But now, perceiving us as a threat to life itself, they issue their invitations with a dark purpose of their own. In this dazzling metaphysical thriller, four who put themselves in the hands of these all-but-forgotten Others venture across a sinister American landscape hidden from normal view, finding their way to interlocking destinies of death, terror, transcendental rapture, and shattering enlightenment.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Philosophy, Novels, Book Club, Spirituality, Mythology

432 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

I had and did the usual things -- childhood, schools, universities (St. Louis, Vienna, Loyola of Chicago), then embarked on a career in publishing in Chicago. Within a few years I was the head of the Biography & Fine Arts Department of the American Peoples Encyclopedia; when that was subsumed by a larger outfit and moved to New York, I stayed behind and moved into educational publishing, beginning at Science Research Associates (a division of IBM) and ending as Editorial Director of The Society for Vision Education (a division of the Singer Corporation).

In 1977 I walked away from SVE and this very successful career when it became clear that I was not going to able to do there what I really wanted to do...which was not entirely clear. A few months later I set my feet on a path that would change my life completely. It was a path made up of books -- or rather versions of a book that, after twelve years, would turn out to be ISHMAEL.

The first version, written in 1977-78, called MAN AND ALIEN, didn't turn out to be quite what I wanted, so wrote a second, called THE GENESIS TRANSCRIPT. Like the first version, this didn't satisfy me, so I wrote a third with the same title. THE BOOK OF NAHASH, abandoned unfinished, was the fourth version.

When I started writing version five, THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED in 1981, I was sure I'd found the book I was born to write. The versions that came before had been like rainy days with moments of sunshine. THIS was a thunderstorm, and the lines crossed my pages like flashes of lightning. When, after a few thousand words I came to a clear climax, I said, "This MUST be seen," so I put Part One into print. Parts Two and Three followed, and I began searching for the switch that would turn on Part Four... but it just wasn't there. What I'd done was terrific -- and complete in its own way -- but at last I faced the fact that the whole thing just couldn't be done in lightning strikes.

And so, on to versions six and seven (both called ANOTHER STORY TO BE IN). I knew I was close, and version eight was it -- the first and only version to be a novel and the first and only version inhabited by a telepathic gorilla named Ishmael.

ISHMAEL was a life-changing book. It began by winning the Turner Tomorrow Award, the largest prize ever given to a single literary work. It would come to be read in some 25 languages and used in classrooms from mid-school to graduate school in courses as varied as history philosophy, geography, archaeology, religion, biology, zoology, ecology, anthropology, political science, economics, and sociology.

But in 1992, when ISHMAEL was published, I had no idea what I might do next. My readers decided this for me. In letters that arrived by the bushel they demanded to know where this strange book came from, what "made" me write it. To answer these questions I wrote PROVIDENCE: THE STORY OF A FIFTY-YEAR VISION QUEST (1995).

But there were even more urgently important questions to be answered, particularly this one: "With ISHMAEL you've undermined the religious beliefs of a lifetime. What am I supposed to replace them with?" I replied to this with THE STORY OF B (1996).

The questions (and books) kept coming: Why did Ishmael have to die? This gave rise to MY ISHMAEL: A SEQUEL (1997), in which it's revealed that Ishmael was not only far from being dead but far from being finished with his work as a teacher. The question "Where do we go from here?" was the inspiration for BEYOND CIVILIZATION: HUMANITY'S NEXT GREAT ADVENTURE (1999), a very different kind of book.

With these questions answered (and 500 more on my website), I felt I was fundamentally finished with what might be called my teachings and ready to move on.

I had always taken as my guiding principle these words from André Gide: "What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it, written as well as you, do not write it.

Reviews

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Q:
There is a lie to be told about everything (c)
Q:
I don’t always know what I’m doing, but I always know what I’m not doing. (c)
Q:
All these questions and many more like them, Aaron posed over a period of two years, and Howard began to feel he was being covertly interviewed for a job.
Q:
He was on a journey into the past and was drunk on an infusion of remembered youth, freedom, and mystery. (c)
Q:

[Jack Tripper · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's kind of hard to get into a novel when you never once buy into the premise. Some rich dude wants to find out why the ancient Israelites gave up on God and turned to other, "satanic" gods like Moloch, Baal, and Ashtoroth, so he hires...a low-level private investigator. Not a historian, not a theologian, but just an average Joe who knows next to nothing about Judaism, or any religion for that matter.

Still, I thought this could turn into a decent American Gods-style adventure, where we hopefully get to meet various downtrodden, forgotten gods who are no longer powerful due to the fact that no one cares about them anymore. That does happen, but mostly it's lots of conversations with psychics, satanists (the boring, hippy kind of satanist), tarot readers, etc. It all becomes very convoluted, with a fair bit of sermonizing from various characters, and all I really got out of its 432 pages was that the environment is good and destroying it is bad. Oh and religion can be bad, too.

Very disappointing, as Quinn's Dreamer was one of the best horror novels I've read in recent years. I'm willing to give him another shot, though, as he has an engaging writing style, and I find it hard to believe that Dreamer was just a fluke (I know, Ishmael is his big one, but I don't know if I'm ready for an entire novel where a wise gorilla teaches me the meaning of life. One day, perhaps).

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure how to write a review, so this will be something like an essay where I talk about the novel and how I reacted to it.

I think it took me three days to read this, which is fast for me. I used to devour books in a day when I was a teenager, but I don't have the luxuries of time that I did then. When I finished this morning not long before dawn, I had a difficult time falling asleep because I couldn't turn my brain off.

The narrative was, I think, stronger than that of Ishmael because it was more of a narrative with fully developed characters than the other, which was predominantly a fairly one-sided dialogue. But in many cases I don't feel qualified to judge if a narrative is "good" or "bad" but rather that you either enjoy the writer's style or you don't. I happen to enjoy Daniel Quinn.

There are four main protagonists, and one of them gets the story handed to him fairly early on in the form of a tarot reading, but of course he and the reader can't fully make sense of it until the story -- or at least the novel -- comes to an end. It actually ends in media res as the tarot reading indicates it will.

The idea is, perhaps, deceptively simple. Howard Scheim is an aging detective whose wealthy friend at the Jewish social club contracts him to find out whatever happened to Baal and Ashtaroth and Moloch and why they were so attractive to the Israelites that they abandoned the God who delivered them from Egypt, broke their covenant in order to worship these gods that even the Torah (and therefore the Bible) admits existed.

In taking this case, he starts talking to tarot readers, clairvoyants, and Satanists, but ends up part of the family drama of the Kennesey family, which leads him to these others, alternately called gods, angels, demons, fairies, yoo-hoos, and any number of other words which are, in fact, lies and abstractions.

The truth, such as it is presented, is troublesome. Each of the four is tested. They're offered gifts. For some it is definitely the proverbial forbidden fruit.

I don't want to give away the plot, but I would recommend this to people who like Daniel Quinn, people who like Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and anyone who likes to consider other interpretations of Biblical lore. Or vision quests. Or detective mysteries.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books where I wish to become a film director just so I can make this into a movie. Quinn's food production rants and points of view on sociatal collapse are only a backdrop to a story that's fast-paced, riviting, and all around just sucks the reader in.

The sub-plots are great too, presenting characters who are jaded from life or simply waking up one day and realizing that the way they lived thier lives up until that point are just wrong, and they are changing no matter how much pain it brings to themselves or loved ones. Brutal if you think about it.

This was Manayunk Book Club #1, and it's interesting to note that no one really liked the book in that inagural meeting. Some find Quinn to be too preachy, or looking down on his readers. I can understand the criticism but looking at the world in an ENTIRELY different fashion is what Quinn is asking for, and that can illicit a lot of negative response from new readers. And for that reason, I think anyone or everyone should check this out.

[Joshua Buhs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really nifty, weird book. I'm glad that I found it.
It conjures the kind of world I think Dan Simmons was after, but could never quite get, in Carrion Comfort.
The abstract--from the back cover--gives a key to understanding the novel, but really, the story mostly ignores these others. Instead, we first learn about a young boy, Tim, who sees a strange creature. We then flash to Howard, a private detcetive, who is sent the task of finding out why the Jews gave up their own God for the pagan gods; he takes the task reluctantly, and ends up in Tim's story, too: Tim's father, David, goes out looking for one of these creatures. His wife Ellen and Tim follow. They are encouraged across the country by some these things, who turn out not to be gods, but just other creatues who live among us, though their lives last millenia. Tim gets rapture; David cannot find his way to them and dies, ellen is terrified, and howard is enlightened, and does finally join with them. We are meant to know that Tim is a key to their stopping humanity's destructiveness, but he does not decide at book's end what he will do.
Excellent. Goes on the keep shelf.

[Markus · Rating 1 out of 5]

This read had potential that was so shamelessly wasted. Can't think of a book that felt like a waste of time as much as this one. I'm not kidding...I tossed this one on the embers of my backyard fire pit when I finished it. Not worth shelf space, not worth passing on either. I don't burn books as a habit, but the reaction just felt like the right thing to do in memory of the moments I lost reading it.

[Vikram X · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Quinn's "Ishmael" and "The Story of B" ; both of which I found deeply profound , philosophical and thought provoking quite contrary to "The Holy".

The story line is convoluted with strange set events taking place involving a private detective,a dysfunctional family of three and terminally ill senior, all tying back in the end . Quinn main ideology can be seen through his works where in how animalism , naturism practiced by many original settlers (eg Navajo's) has been demonized and reduced to caricatures by organized abrahamic religions , which eventually gives rise to sense of vacuity in the above characters who set on as Quinn says "A road which has no destination".

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, the book was interesting, weaving several quests together in a made-for-tv type of way and including the animist vision of the world that Quinn sold/inspired in/to me in The Story of B, that we are all connected and that life is sacred, and that beauty is the “sacred harmonic” that resonates in our hearts and souls. The book imagines that the gods before “GOD” to the Jewish people were real gods, just false gods according to the prophets, and that they still “exist” today as pagan gods, angels, demons, whatever name given by the prevailing theologians/rulers of the day. They walk amongst us, and have certain powers; they choose certain humans and issue an invitation to join them in their isolation and life away from the general populace.

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was and is greatly impressed with Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Hence, I am trying hard to find the same greatness in his other books by comparing them to Ishmael. I understand, though, that every work must be judged by itself and not as a clone of something else. Still, it seems to me, that all of the Daniel's books, I have read, do touch the similar subjects and talk about the same messages. Surprisingly, each time, the author finds very different angles to deliver the messages, which is very entertaining.

The Holy did not impress me as something exceptional. It did not provide the comprehensive picture of the environment and did not even hinted into the direction of how the environment can be explained. The notion of "them" vs "us" is an old one and is well popularized by Matrix movies. But Matrix does show how this separation came about, why it was possible, and where it would lead. I failed to grasp that reading The Holy. The book, of course, is well written and reminded me of Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Still I found myself waiting for something more until the very end of the book. In my opinion, the last few chapters of the book contained the important things, which were not really explored during the rest of the book.

[Stephen Hebert · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading much of Quinn's work and finding the sum of everything up to this point to be an exploration of different ways to express his profound, straight-forward and refreshing ideas on sustainability, "The Holy" was jarring in its seeming lack thereof and for its pretense as a jaunt into the genre of paranormal thriller. I don't read Quinn for his prose, but I was pleasantly surprised at the ability of his writing to stand strong even when he reserves the power of his ideas. The story is engaging, his characters are developed to the point of tangible, and he seems masterfully aware of the nature of the connection between his work and his audience. The careful weaving of the plot and manipulation of various perspectives creates a dynamic between novel and reader that is just as interesting as that among the characters themselves. I liken the experience to that of a marionette frantically striving to form itself to the intention of its master but finding its master purposefully unwilling to be so directly influential, and a bit loathe to be pinned down.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be remarkably similar to Neil Gaiman's American Gods...only I felt a much stronger connection (empathy, insight, appreciation) with the characters in The Holy.

The only other experience I've had with Daniel Quinn's work is After Dachau, which I felt had a brilliant plot but utterly failed in poor dialogue and character depth. I did not find these issues in The Holy, where the characters and their plots interweave into a fascinating and thrilling story.

Quinn blends philosophy, biology, anthropology, and theology to create a story asking the deeper questions we have about life, our purpose, and our experience of "the others" (paranormal beings/deities). The novel then explores these questions, drawing a clear picture of the world Quinn creates, and also leaves room open for personal thoughts and philosophies.

Basically, Quinn blends mysticism and established religion into a grey area that can be universally understood, pondered, and appreciated.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like most of Daniel Quinn's books, but this one was not in the same vein as the others and it left me feeling like there was some deep symbolism here that I completely missed. Maybe it would be great for a book club. Felt too much like a mash-up of American Gods and a bad murder mystery. The writing style and developing relationship between the 2 main characters were the most redeeming qualities.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was curious what Daniel Quinn gets up to when he's not writing about Gorillas and the environment. The answer is... some weird stuff. This book touches on some interesting themes about Western religion and its relationship to / fear of the human-nature relationship, but mostly it reads like an action / horror story.

[Murry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Quinn's idea of the Old Testament "false gods" fascinating and the premise of the book, a private detective hired to find those "lost" gods, intriguing, but the story seemed to drag on without thoroughly exploring the topic. Enlightening and worth the read, but Ishmael is a little more fulfilling.

[Erin J. Mullikin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a good book, although it gets a little weird and long winded in places, and moves away from the original storyline (which I found more interesting) into multiple plots (which I found to be less worthy of my attention). It's definitely a book you have to be in particular mood for, although I still don't know what mood you'd have to be in.

[Michael Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would give it five stars, but the ending was a little on the anticlimatical side. The book builds and builds and builds like drywood thrown into an open furnace, but at the end...it is almost as though Quinn himself didn't know what to do with his own story. But everything else this book has going for it makes it a very solid read.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of the Ishmael books and Quinn's non-fiction but this one disappointed me. It took a long time for the various pieces of the story to come together and make any sense. In the end I didn't care about any of the characters or the religious message underneath.

[kiki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've loved the other things of his that I've read. Frankly, they've been life-changing books. But this one sucked. I actually finished and said "whaaaaa??? what just happened? wtf was that about?" Utterly disappointing. Sigh.

[LaShonda Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was scary for me in its concepts. It left me sleepless thinking of the plot details. It got deep into my psyche and made me question all that I know. It was hard to follow in the storyline but the underlining premise made me continue to turn the pages. Not for the faint of heart.

[Jasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bizarre. If you are going to read just one book by Daniel Quinn, read Ishmael.

[Carlaann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Ishmael or the story of B, but interesting. The first half of the book was really intriguing; I was mildly disappointed with the ending.

[Neisha Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment compared to Quinn's other works.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was so promising, and it began strong, with some interesting stuff going on and a good storyline. It just didn't pan out. The second half did not deliver.

[Cynthian Leather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept that goes all over the place but ultimately kept me interested. Some golden nuggets of wisdom within.

[Jim Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this before (maybe 6 or 7 years back, maybe more) but I've been in a Daniel Quinn mode these past few months and felt the need to read it again. Glad I did, as I think I got more out of it this time around.

Most of Quinn's fiction is only "fiction" in the loosest sense, in exactly the same way Plato's Socratic dialogues were "fiction." In Ishmael, The Story of B, and My Ishmael, the plot is simplistic, a device that sets the reader up to spend time with a number of long lectures. I love those books, love those lectures. The story is really secondary, has little or nothing to do with the point of the book.

The Holy is different. This is really truly a work of fiction through and through, so much so that the first time I read it I was disappointed by the lack of "ideas" present. I was looking for more of Quinn's thoughts, his "teachings" if you will, and the story sort of got in the way. This time through, I was able to see all the pieces a little better. It's a work of fiction, a bit of a supernatural detective story, but the main ideas are still there. It's a book about animism, a book about our "fall from grace" long ago, a book about there being more than one right way to live, a bit about the collective slow suicide we're all engaged in. But also, there are walking corpses and talking dummies and detectives and Satanists and people with horns growing out of their heads.

All in all, a good book, one that I'll probably read again down the road.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonder unpredictable mash of genres. Just when I thought I knew what sort of book this was it would have a twist, preventing my mind from categorising it into any clichés. This is the first Daniel Quinn book I’ve ever read, so I haven’t tasted his brand of philosophy before, but it turns out I quite like it. I love how it’s reflected in every delicate contemplative moment he gives his characters, constantly giving them room to grow and letting my mind expand in turn. I’d say this was a more challenging book to read, not because I was trudging through it, quite the opposite, it was so meticulously written I could have zipped through it in a day, the matter is simply one of a need to pause and digest and weigh a deeper meaning which doesn’t impose itself on you, rather extends an invitation to look deeper for yourself but overall can still be extremely entertaining. I would highly recommend this to fans of new age that may also like thrillers, horror, psychological, and mystery genres. I only finished it this morning but I’m sure I’ll be mulling it over and over in my head for the coming weeks, which I look forward to.

[Tom Walsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great disappointment.

Having read and been impressed by Quinn’s Ishmael I had been looking forward to reading this book. The setup of the novel led me to believe that it would involve a serious inquiry into the roots of the “false gods” worshipped by ancient Pagan peoples. Maybe they had really existed and maybe they still did!

The Holy begins with this search but then, for some reason, goes off on a number of blind alley plotlines that held absolutely no interest for this reader. It meanders around for many pages recounting events and introducing characters for no apparent reason. Finally it tries to tie all the plots together and ends with no real resolution.

By the middle I was ready to throw in the towel and should have, but my experience with Ishmael kept me reading. A mistake. Unfortunately a waste of time.

[Shhhhh Ahhhhh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book raised a lot of interesting points in passing but I found it to be somewhat too confused in terms of the presentation of the plot. I get that that was the point, that it is an emotional portrayal of a particular kind, not to include spoilers, but that also detracts from how much enjoyment the total story creates. I had a tough time with it, especially given its length. I think the information side-loaded into the narrative structure and super-structure is incredibly important though, and worth disseminating.

[Mantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I caught myself skimming through pages or only reading the dialogue in certain parts of the book. It’s more of an unfolding timeline of the characters on their own journeys. Like a long ��missed connections” until the final 50 or so pages when the mystery is somewhat solved so no real shocking moments. Entertaining enough with the imagery and storytelling but not entertaining enough to be compelled to reread.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I was a bit disappointed. I started to think that this novel was going to be religious, which was a depart from the previous novel of Daniel Quinn he is most know for (Ishmael) and which I seriously enjoyed. Then, the book took a bizarre turn and I had no idea what was happening.

In short - this was a great novel. In line with vibes from Ishmael, but in a new journey, one that many of the characters did not realize and/or knowingly embark on.