The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward AbbeyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Monkey Wrench Gang is a rant against wilderness development and commercialism through the lens of outrageous ecoterrorism. It's often funny, too, and on occasion deep. But mostly, it's really, really wordy.
The first thing I noticed about this book is just how many words it takes Abbey to say anything. No simple description will do. Entire paragraphs are devoted to what could easily have been described as "the car moved forward" or "cars full of wild teenagers zoomed past on the highway" - and those are just a couple of examples from the first chapter. I appreciate detailed and descriptive writing, but this was excessive. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, he of the famous quote "Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away", would not have approved.
Once you've dug the characters and plot out of the pile of words, The Monkey Wrench Gang isn't bad. A small group of arguably insane friends got roaming around the southwestern US, protesting against development encroaching on the wilderness. These aren't symbolic protests; they inflict destruction ranging from burning billboards to crippling heavy equipment to felling bridges. This isn't a dark, gritty, realistic description of ecoterrorism; it's more the telling of a larger-than-life legend, a play set on the stage of a disappearing wilderness.
This is a novel from the 1970s, and thus it's no surprise that some of the other themes of the time are also prominent. Marijuana appears regularly. One of the main characters is a Vietnam veteran, suffering from mental trauma from his experience. Another is a woman living well outside the traditional female role of wife and mother. We're used to all of this now, largely because of the cultural influence of these kinds of books, movies, songs, etc.
I'd have liked The Monkey Wrench Gang more without about half the words, but even so it was an interesting read. A bit of cultural history that informs the things we see in today's books and other media.
