The Monkey Wrench Gang

The Monkey Wrench Gang

First edition cover
Author Edward Abbey
Country United States
Language English
Genre Anarchist, novel
Publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Publication date
August 1, 1975
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 352 pp (hardback edition)
ISBN 0-397-01084-2 (hardback edition)
OCLC 1256794
813/.5/4
LC Class PZ4.A124 Mo PS3551.B2
Followed by Hayduke Lives

The Monkey Wrench Gang is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey (1927–1989), published in 1975.

Easily Abbey's most famous fiction work, the novel concerns the use of sabotage to protest environmentally damaging activities in the Southwestern United States, and was so influential that the term "monkeywrench" has come to mean, besides sabotage and damage to machines, any sabotage, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems.

In 1985, Dream Garden Press released a special 10th Anniversary edition of the book featuring illustrations by R. Crumb, plus a chapter titled "Seldom Seen at Home" that had been deleted from the original edition.[1] Crumb's illustrations were used for a limited-edition calendar based on the book.[2] The most recent edition was released in 2006 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Plot summary

The book's four main characters are ecologically minded misfits—"Seldom Seen" Smith, a Jack Mormon river guide; Doc Sarvis, an odd but wealthy and wise surgeon; Bonnie Abbzug, his young sexualized female assistant; and a rather eccentric Green Beret Vietnam veteran, George Hayduke. Together, although not always working as a tightly knit team, they form the titular group dedicated to the destruction of what they see as the system that pollutes and destroys their environment, the American West. As their attacks on deserted bulldozers and trains continue, the law closes in.

10th Anniversary edition (1985) from Dream Garden Press, with illustrations by Robert Crumb

For the Gang, the enemy is those who would develop the American Southwest—despoiling the land, befouling the air, and destroying nature and the sacred purity of Abbey's desert world. Their greatest hatred is focused on the Glen Canyon Dam, a monolithic edifice of concrete that dams a beautiful, wild river, and which the monkeywrenchers seek to destroy.

Reception

Legacy

In his book Screw Unto Others, George Hayduke states that Edward Abbey was his mentor, and mentions The Monkey Wrench Gang as the origin of the term monkeywrenching. Hayduke says The Monkey Wrench Gang inspired environmentalist David Foreman to help create Earth First![3][4] a direct action environmental organization that often advocates much of the minor vandalism depicted in the book. Many scenes of vandalism and ecologically motivated mayhem, including a billboard burning at the beginning of the book and the use of caltrops to elude a group of vigilantes, are presented in sufficient detail as to form a skeletal how-to for would-be saboteurs. The actions are presented in a larger-than-life format, because much of what Hayduke, and the rest of the characters in the story face are larger-than-life obstacles that require larger-than-life approaches. The symbol of the Earth Liberation Front is a monkey wrench and stone hammer.

In his book Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy, author Matt Ruff notes:

"One of my other literary inspirations for the ... subplot was Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang.* That book’s protagonist, George Hayduke, is a Vietnam vet and former POW who launches a campaign of sabotage against the polluters who are ruining his beloved southwestern desert. Hayduke is a pretty angry guy, but he also loves life, and in his own fatalistic way he remains an optimist (my favorite line in the novel, uttered at a moment when Hayduke’s luck appears to have run out, is 'When the situation is hopeless, there’s nothing to worry about')." [5]

Sequel

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

As of 2012, a film adaptation of the book, to be directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, was being planned.[6] The film rights holders for the book filed suit against the producers of Night Moves, charging that the film's plot is significantly similar to the story of book.[7][8]

See also

References

  1. AbbeyWeb: The Monkey Wrench Gang
  2. AbbeyWeb: The 1987 Monkey Wrench Gang Calendar
  3. Screw Unto Others, p. 77
  4. Lindholdt, Paul (2015). Explorations in Ecocriticism: Advocacy, Bioregionalism, and Visual Design Ecocritical Theory and Practice. Lexington Books. p. 93. ISBN 9780739194997.
  5. http://www.bymattruff.com/my-novels/sewer-gas-electric/faq/
  6. "The Monkey Wrench Gang (2013)". The Monkey Wrench Gang (2013). IMDB.com. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  7. Gardner, Eriq (September 14, 2012). "Producer Launches Legal War Over New Eco-Terrorist Film Starring Jesse Eisenberg". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 26, 2013.
  8. Patten, Dominic (September 15, 2012). "Night Moves Director, Producers, UTA Sued By Edward Pressman & Edward Abbey Widow For Copyright Infringement". Deadline.com. Retrieved July 26, 2013.

Further reading

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