JediKermit's Full Review: Edward Abbey - Monkey Wrench Gang
A few weeks back I was on a tour of the Southwest with about thirty other history teachers, and one of the topics we ended up talking about was Edward Abbey. It's been years since I read "Desert Solitaire," but our discussion, while driving through the land that Abbey loved so dearly, made me want to read more. So of course my next stop was his masterpiece, 1975's "The Monkey Wrench Gang."
I already knew the premise of the book--four people get together to blow up Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. I've been at that dam and Lake Powell dozens of times, and although my father's generation still mourns what was lost in Glen Canyon, I'm not quite enough of an eco-terrorist to what to blow up the dam. The Monkey Wrench Gang is. Abbey, who was a forest ranger at one point, takes things further than most environmentalists I know, and his characters do become eco-terrorists, striking out at the coal companies, road-builders, and other groups who are despoiling the West. They work toward their goal of the destroying the dam with single-mindedness, only taking care not to kill anyone on the way. And even that won't stop some of the Gang from accomplishing their mission.
The Monkey Wrench Gang is comprised of the following members:
Seldom-Seen Smith - often seen as the leader of the group, Smith is an ex-Mormon (or "Jack Mormon") Utah polygamist with three wives in three different cities. He runs a river rafting company on the Green and Colorado Rivers, and this is where the four members of the gang meet. He's passionate, he's committed, but he's also a bit more cautious than the other members of the Gang.
Doc Sarvis - The financier of the group, he's a doctor in New Mexico who spent some time burning and then chainsawing billboards along the side of the freeways. He hates the "progress" and growth that's destroying the landscapes of the Desert Southwest, and is more than a little bit paranoid about what the government and other groups are doing to all of us. He's the oldest member of the Gang, but also one of the most radical. Without Sarvis, there wouldn't be a Gang.
Bonnie Abbzug - The only girl in the group, she starts out as Sarvis' nurse and lover, but her role grows from there. She alternates between being the conscience of the Gang and being the most committed of all. She's the one who reminds them not to kill anyone, she's the one who finds alternate methods to do things that are ultimately more efficient and destructive than the boys thought of. She's a femme fatale of sorts, and all the boys want her.
George Washington Hayduke - he's the character most people remember from the book. A Vietnam veteran in his mid-twenties, he's rash, he's kind of dirty, he's repulsive, and he's hilarious. When I think of Edward Abbey, I think that Hayduke is a lot like he must have been. He uses the "F-bomb" like it's air, and he says things that no other person would dream of. Ostensibly he's the most violent of the group, and yet there's a sweetness somewhere underneath the surface that usually comes out when he's talking about the land. He's about one step away from insane.
The characters are interesting and compelling, and even though they have common goals, are different enough that there is some real conflict and tension in the Gang. I enjoyed reading this book a lot more than I thought I would, and a lot of that has to do with Abbey's writing style. Even reading it more than thirty years later, it's still conversational, fast-moving, and very entertaining.
I enjoyed the adventure aspect of this book--much of the story has the Gang 1) plotting their crimes 2) committing their crimes 3) on the run after their crimes are committed. It comes out as a a combination of great heist books and high adventure--I kept thinking of movies like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "Bonnie and Clyde," and even "Thelma and Louise." Sometimes those kinds of plots bore me--too plodding or too obvious--but "The Monkey Wrench Gang" had me on the edge of my seat. Abbey also has a good handle on the complicated social and political world of the Southwest, folding in Mormons and Indians and cattle ranchers and coal magnates and oil men into the story as he goes.
The final thing about this novel that I loved was Abbey's obvious familiarity with, and love for, this part of the country. I have summers off, and spend as much time in the backcountry of Utah as I can with my wife and sons. The area he's writing about is some of the most remote land that exists in our nation. Places like the San Rafael Swell, the Maze, the Vermilion Cliffs, the Kaibab Plateau--you can't spend time there without being impressed at the majesty of the geology and at your own insignificance. As I read Abbey's words, I was remembering all those trips, and enjoying this new journey through that area. His writing describes the landscape beautifully, and even if you haven't been there, the words are rich enough that you'll you have been. "The Monkey Wrench Gang" sees themselves as defenders of this land, not as vandals or terrorists. By the time the book ends, you're firmly on their side, no matter how you felt about them at the beginning of the book. I went from being repulsed by the property damage they were doing to wanting to sign up as a part of their criminal little band myself. A lot of that comes from Abbey's love of the land--a love he wants you to share.
Even if you don't blow anything up for it.
If you've never read Edward Abbey, he's a very polarizing figure. Even then, this book is a fascinating read, no matter what your political leanings. I enjoyed the characters enough that I'm going to pick up the sequel, "Hayduke Lives." I'm not expecting it to be as good, but I can't pass up another round with The Monkey Wrench Gang.
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