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Edward Abbey
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Monkey Wrench Gang Mass Market Paperback – November 1, 1976

by Edward Abbey (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,447 ratings
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"And just what the hell are they planning next?"

The bridge, bedecked with bunting, steamers and Day-Glo banners, was ready. the throng prepared to unloose a cheer or two. Suddenly the center of the bridge rose up and broke in two along a jagged zigzag line. A sheet of read flame streamed skyward...

"This is their last stunt, Governor. We're on their tail, sir. We have a good idea who they are, how they poerate, and what they're planning next."

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Previous page
  1. Book 2 of 7
    Edward Abbey series
  2. Print length
    387 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Avon
  5. Publication date
    November 1, 1976
  6. Dimensions
    4.5 x 1 x 7 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    038000741X
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0380007417
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ed Abbey called The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a "comic extravaganza." Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it's true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief. The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to the desert to find his beloved canyons and rivers threatened by industrial development. On a rafting trip down the Colorado River, Hayduke joins forces with feminist saboteur Bonnie Abbzug, wilderness guide Seldom Seen Smith, and billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., and together they wander off to wage war on the big yellow machines, on dam builders and road builders and strip miners. As they do, his characters voice Abbey's concerns about wilderness preservation ("Hell of a place to lose a cow," Smith thinks to himself while roaming through the canyonlands of southern Utah. "Hell of a place to lose your heart. Hell of a place... to lose. Period"). Moving from one improbable situation to the next, packing more adventure into the space of a few weeks than most real people do in a lifetime, the motley gang puts fear into the hearts of their enemies, laughing all the while. It's comic, yes, and required reading for anyone who has come to love the desert. --Gregory McNamee

Review

"The Monkey Wrench Gang is a laconicI comedy played out in a vast open space Abbey loves and knows well." -- -- Newsweek

"A Real romp" -- -- Saturday Review

"Mixes Comedy and Chaos with enoughchase sequences to leave you hungering for more." -- -- San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Avon (November 1, 1976)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 387 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 038000741X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0380007417
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.5 x 1 x 7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,447 ratings

About the author

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Edward Abbey

Edward Abbey
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Edward Abbey was born in Home, Pennsylvania, in 1927. He was educated at the University of New Mexico and the University of Edinburgh. He died at his home in Oracle, Arizona, in 1989.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
2,447 global ratings
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5 Stars
Great Read
If you like the desert southwest you'll love this book. Hayduke was my kind of guy.
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Top reviews from the United States

Edashredefer
5.0 out of 5 stars Heyduke lives!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2024
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Great book! If you’re in for a good laugh and all.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Suspenseful and humorous
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2024
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This is an intriguing story of four unusual individuals hell bent on preventing progress in the desert and canyon s they love
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Nona
4.0 out of 5 stars Still Crazy, and Entertaining, after all these years.
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2015
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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.
25 people found this helpful
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E. Kutinsky
5.0 out of 5 stars An ecoterrorist good time
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2013
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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.
34 people found this helpful
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Edward Stein
5.0 out of 5 stars Abbey’s call-to-arms for the environmental movement.
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2023
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If any book is “responsible” for inciting radical response aka sabotage to extractive industry’s destruction of our environment, this is it. It was practically required reading within the early years of the Earth First! movement & Abbey was their bard. While Muir poetically laid out the ideology for what evolved into environmentalism, Abbey creates the template for battle; eco defense. It positively ignited activists when published & despite it’s sexist content is still inspiring activists. Attempts to bring this to the screen have been dashed for 4 decades now. It’s a ready-made screenplay so it must the controversial content that’s defeating film projects.
2 people found this helpful
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Carl M. Muecke
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous fun!
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2012
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I read this book 35 years ago when it came out and only remembered that I enjoyed it. Well, I enjoyed it even more the second time around! We get introduced to the four characters in the gang in the beginning who all share in varying degrees a love of the Sonoran desert and a hatred of the forces who are destroying it. They share their views sitting around a fire at night in a raft expedition down the Colorado river and agree to meet later to begin their futile crusade against the overwhelming forces of development, energy and ranching. Follow this merry band of "eco-terrorists" through a number of twists and turns to the surprising end.

The forces that they fought are even more in control these days, with even more weapons to discourage anyone getting in their way. I think Abbey was hoping this book would encourage more "eco-terrorisim" but except for an occasional strike against the dark forces, the battle has been lost. I live now in Scottsdale where Phoenix, once a medium size town of orange and grapefruit groves, farms and dirt roads when we moved here in 1948, has become another gigantic LA plopped down in the middle of the desert.

I recommend this to any and all who love the Sonoran desert. His descriptions of the merry band's travels through it are lyrical and show a great knowledge of the desert features and flora and fauna of the gorgeous and desolate canyon lands of Utah, and Arizona.
10 people found this helpful
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Margaux Sophia Paniagua
3.0 out of 5 stars Came a little greasy
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2024
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Loved it tho! It came in a good condition other than having to wipe it before gifting to my partner….
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Top reviews from other countries

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JackBlair
5.0 out of 5 stars If you love Mother Earth, READ THIS BOOK!!!
Reviewed in Canada on January 26, 2018
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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 luck
Be smart and keep your head on tight!!
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on March 18, 2017
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Good
One person found this helpful
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Hector
3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings - Du pour et du contre
Reviewed in France on February 16, 2017
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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.
4 people found this helpful
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E. J. Bucher
5.0 out of 5 stars Traumteam: Edward und Robert
Reviewed in Germany on April 28, 2015
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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.
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C R Evans
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, thought provoking and a great story!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 23, 2013
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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!
3 people found this helpful
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