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Title: The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey, Douglas Brinkley ISBN: 0-06-095644-5 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (84 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: There's Abbey himself in Doc, Seldom Smith, and Hayduke.
Comment: This is the first fiction by Abbey that I've read. That it almost reads like a true story largely stems from the keen sense and accurate knowledge of Colorado Plateau geography that Abbey had. His description of the gnarled and surreal landscape---and the interplay of light, sky, and rock---especially of the Canyonlands area of Utah, is so vivid that it harks back to his compulsively readable nonfiction work in "Abbey's Road", "Down the River", "One Life at a Time, Please", and the like. Readers who fancy this setting will benefit from the author's expert familiarity with the Southwest.
I couldn't help but notice that there is a little (or maybe much) of Abbey in every male character of the book: Doc Sarvis' intellectual ruminations and academic bent, Seldom Smith's knowledge of almost every nook and cranny of the canyonlands and the Four Corners area, and George Hayduke's unfettered and no-holds-barred love for the desert and penchant for irreverence, the ultimate desert rat and indestructible desert Rambo. Bonnie Abzzug personifies people, myself included, who love the desert yet do not seem to be sure exactly what to do to stop its corruption, exploitation, and destruction.
A lot of non-PC thoughts, ideas, and convictions nothwithstanding, the book leaves me wondering how much more of the desert can be paved, accessed, bridged, and defaced before we realize it's too late. The characters represent the extreme end of those who feel that "enough is enough".
Rating: 5
Summary: How To Be an Ecoterrorist
Comment: Is this a book that teaches you to be an ecoterrorist? Edward Abbey's very specific technical descriptions of the sabotage carried out by the Monkey Wrench Gang have the air of feasibility. Anyone who wants to destroy heavy earthmoving machinery or blow up a bridge might get some nice ideas from this book. Of course, people should take accountability for their own actions and not use a book as a weak scapegoat. For the rest of us who know the difference between fantasy and reality, Abbey has given us a very entertaining comic novel of this motley crew of budding terrorists. What Abbey is really doing is commenting on the destruction of the beautiful desert southwest by industrial "development" just for the sake of development, while the gang represents the feelings of the longtime natives of the area who want to save all that natural beauty. That's the true good side of this novel, although the characters can be a problem. Hayduke's intelligence level rises and falls ridiculously based on the situation, while the Bonnie character is a serious problem. Here Abbey only demonstrates his lack of connection with real females. Regardless, the screwball plot and subversive political commentary in this book lead to a legitimate classic of environmentalist fiction, and comic fiction for that matter. Now I yearn to make another visit to the southwestern deserts - my latest stint as one of those tourists that the Monkey Wrench Gang can't stand!
Note: Try to find an edition of this book from the mid-80's, with great illustrations by R. Crumb in conjunction with a calendar project. This edition is out of print but I found mine at the library, so you never know.
Rating: 2
Summary: Very disappointing book....
Comment: After reading "Fool's Progress", I began to become interested in Edward Abbey's other books. So I read "Monkey Wrench Gang", probably one of his better known ones, and I came away from it quite disappointed. Yes, I know it was the 70's, when it was written, but did we really need a stereotypical J.A.P feminist and a flat ex-Green Beret, who loves violence and to litter. The sentiments that the dam at Glen Canyon ruined the Colorado seem right, but that was the book's only strength. By the time I got to the end, I didn't care what happened to the characters, although I give it credit for not being a "hollywood" ending.
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Title: Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey ISBN: 0345326490 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 January, 1985 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Hayduke Lives! : A Novel by Abbey ISBN: 0316004138 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 04 September, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Fool's Progress : An Honest Novel by Edward Abbey ISBN: 0805057919 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West by Edward Abbey, Jim Stiles ISBN: 0452265622 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: January, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Down the River by Edward Abbey ISBN: 0452265630 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: January, 1991 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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