The Monkey Wrench Gang (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Great book! If you’re in for a good laugh and all.

Influential books of the 1960s included Carson's Silent Spring and Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb. Counterculture environmentalists were quick to grasp the implications, Hubbert's "peak oil" prediction, and concerns over pollution, litter, effects of the Vietnam War, automobile-dependent lifestyles, and nuclear energy. The "back to nature" theme was prevalent in the counterculture by the 1969 Woodstock festival, the first Earth Day in 1970 brought environmental concerns to the forefront. Counterculture interest in ecology progressed well into the 1970s. Released in 1975 Monkey Wrench Gang introduces us to George Washington Heyduke a Viet Nam vet. He meets up with Seldom Seen Smith, a river rafting guide, Bonnie Abzug and flying Doc Sarvis, over a campfire they plot their revenge on over development & sprawl. Claimed to be inspiration to several environmental movements of the time.

The Monkey Wrench Gang holds up well; is still entertaining and thought provoking. All of the characters are flawed, but that may be the point. Those of us who fit well into society are seldom eager to risk our comfortable lives in the service of a greater good. Those of us who are marginalized, however, have less to lose and may be more likely to make political statements and take political actions.The adventures of George Hayduke, Doc Savis, Bonnie Abzug and Seldom Seen Smith as they attempt to fight back against development and the destruction of the West by destroying bulldozers, dams and the egos of their pursuers are cartoonishly entertaining. Today, the idea of an environmentalist throwing a beer can out of a car window seems more than a little odd. In 1975, however, Abby seemed to be combining the mythic image of the Marlborough man with some new age sensitivity to the environment to create characters who both entertain and enlighten and have held up well for 40 years.If you are looking for a light read to entertain you on a flight or at the beach, and have missed it in the past, The Monkey Wrench Gang is a great choice. It is also worth reading to get some historical knowledge and understand where Earth First got some of their ideas. So enjoy the humor, the descriptions of the West and your trip back in time with one of the books that inspired the environmental movement.

This year proved to be my second time to read The Monkey Wrench Gang. I was in my early 20’s when read it for the first time. Now I’m 66. Life got in the way of getting back to it sooner. Like a fine experience I had that I knew I needed to repeat, but somehow I never got around to it. Until I did.If you’ve never read this book, it awaits you. That is, if you have a genuine curiosity about how the legendary Edward Abbey would construct an outlandish, rebellious novel around a group of marvelously described characters who follow Abbey’s imagined narrative of destruction and mayhem. There are notes that are certainly not PC and at times maybe a little dated. But his bold, brave heart was/is always in the right place.If you have read this book before - don’t let 40 years of water roll down the Colorado River before you read it again.

I decided to read Monkey Wrench Gang because one book of Edward Abbey's or another was always sitting at my late father's bedside table. My Dad tended to read existential, philosophical novels and was a big fan of Hemingway and Camus. Clearly I had the wrong idea of what Abbey was about. The Monkey Wrench Gang does occasionally wax philosophically, but only in the midst of one character whining or thinking about the bourgeois influence of sanitized American adulthood on the natural environment. Most of Abbey's energy in Monkey Wrench Gang is spent having a good time - following a troupe of 4 troublemakers each shaking off their own shackles of middle-aged boredom to help fight for environmental freedom. But what I found I liked most about Abbey was that, if that was his plot, it's devoid of any sentimentality, any politeness, and even just the occasional whiff of sympathy, even for the characters we care about. At its center, George Hayduke, the beer-guzzling sorta-traumatised vet who never met a can of cheap beer he didn't like, is so fun to watch not because of his drive, but because his drive to clean up the environment seems to come from nothing more than his hatred of anything besides open land, and even then, he'd never be able to put that into words. For a 400+ page book, Abbey's narrative never slags - there's always a race, a crime, or a good yelling match keeping the book moving. And then there's that philosophical sense, which shows up in asides throughout the book, making Abbey's writing a lot like a Vonnegut or Tom Robbins - prone to smart observations that make you like the writer even more than you thought you already did. Take this observation, on women going to bed before men while camping: "The ladies first. Not because they were the weaker sex - they were not - but simply because they had more sense. Men on an outing feel obliged to stay up drinking to the vile and bilious end, jabbering, mumbling, and maundering through the blear, to end up finally on hands and knees, puking on innocent sand and befouling God's sweet earth. The manly tradition." Observations like that show how punchy Abbey can be in making a point, even is his point is that civilized westerners, to the environment and beyond, have been pretty annoying.

This is my third go-round with this beloved book. Abbey’s storytelling and writing style are compelling and unique. You will fall in love with Doc, Bonnie, Seldom Seen and my very own personal hero George W. Heyduke lll. Their “beautifying” projects will leave you wanting to join up: got to remember though the unbreakable rule #1: no damage to people! Ever!!Abbey’s storytelling style and the gut-busting hilarious prose will make you laugh out loud long and hard.And DO NOT fail to read the follow up book;Heyduke Lives!Something in this book(s) changed something in me. I have, for many years, worked and lived in some of Mother Earth’s most sacred places - (find Spatsizi and Edzisa in northern B.C.) We’ve had many such..ah..adventures particularly in the Spatsizi.But always remember: no damage to people! Ever!!Good luckBe smart and keep your head on tight!!

Good

A good joke. Have a laugh but don't imitate these guys. What I don't laugh at, are the coments on Indians.Un livre écrit dans la bonne humeur, ou comment commettre des crimes pour la bonne cause : ne le prenez surtout pas comme exemple ! Mais une chose m'y déplait souverainement, ce sont les épithètes adressés aux Indiens : paresseux, lâches, sales, incultes. Ce n'est pas vrai.

In dieser wunderbaren Edition kommt ein Traumteam zusammen! Der kritische Griesgram und Zyniker Edward Abbey und der kongeniale Illustrator Robert Crumb! Das Visionäre Buch nimmt den Kampf gegen die Zerstörung unserer letzten Naturparadiese zum Thema, und inspiriert Widerstand und Action gegen Grosskonzerne und deren Helfer in Politik und Establishment.

Edward Abbey's classic tale of environmentalist/anti-capitalists traveling around the US south west undertaking schemes of direct action is a thrilling romp of a tale that engages and enthralls. Well written, well paced and providing enough information about the causes to make you want to know more, whether you agree with them or not!