Rating: 
Summary: Ecological vigilantes
Review: In this book, which is considered to be Edward Abbey's crowning achievement, people actually begin to fight back against the terrors of environmental depredation. Strip mines, logging operations, dams that destroy ecosystems, new highways, bridges spanning canyons, even billboards--all of these things ruin and deface the natural environment, and all are targets of the self-styled Monkey Wrench Gang. They are a unique breed of eco-terrorists (so to speak) who wage a war against machinery and THE machine in an attempt to keep the wilderness as fertile and unmolested as possible. Theirs is a losing battle, and they know it, but they fight it simply because their consciences won't allow them not to.
Though Abbey treated this novel as a joke (most of the time), he no doubt intended it to have some impact, which it did. Many new environmental groups took this as their Bible, and count it as a sort of rallying cry. Many people don't get involved in the issues of environmentalism (such as myself), but you can't help admiring the small band of eco-crusaders in this book. They don't expect to win. They just hope they can slow things down enough to make a difference.
The novel goes from one exploit of the gang to the next, as they vandalize bulldozers, burn helicopters, sabotage mining operations, etc. They are driven by a compulsion to help the environment (the hero, Hayduke, cannot pass a piece of machinery without stopping to vandalize it). The characters are likable, the writing superb, and the story just downright engaging. Sometimes suspenseful, sometimes funny, often irreverent, the Monkey Wrench Gang is a great novel that, if it doesn't inspire you to action, will at least make you stop and think about what is happening to the natural land around us (or what's left of it).
Rating:
Summary: How To Be an Ecoterrorist
Review: Is this a book that teaches you to be an ecoterrorist? Edward Abbey's very specific technical descriptions of the sabotage carried out by the Monkey Wrench Gang have the air of feasibility. Anyone who wants to destroy heavy earthmoving machinery or blow up a bridge might get some nice ideas from this book. Of course, people should take accountability for their own actions and not use a book as a weak scapegoat. For the rest of us who know the difference between fantasy and reality, Abbey has given us a very entertaining comic novel of this motley crew of budding terrorists. What Abbey is really doing is commenting on the destruction of the beautiful desert southwest by industrial "development" just for the sake of development, while the gang represents the feelings of the longtime natives of the area who want to save all that natural beauty. That's the true good side of this novel, although the characters can be a problem. Hayduke's intelligence level rises and falls ridiculously based on the situation, while the Bonnie character is a serious problem. Here Abbey only demonstrates his lack of connection with real females. Regardless, the screwball plot and subversive political commentary in this book lead to a legitimate classic of environmentalist fiction, and comic fiction for that matter. Now I yearn to make another visit to the southwestern deserts - my latest stint as one of those tourists that the Monkey Wrench Gang can't stand!Note: Try to find an edition of this book from the mid-80's, with great illustrations by R. Crumb in conjunction with a calendar project. This edition is out of print but I found mine at the library, so you never know.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiration for Activists
Review: The most important thing about this book is the fact that Abbey doesn't spend time trying to convince you that what Doc, Abbzug, Hayduke, and Seldom Seen are doing is right. They simply do what they do and there is no time for questions (usually thanks to Hayduke!) The problem many activists face is despair. Sometimes, even though they know deep down something MUST be done, there are too many questions, too many problems, too many variables. Often they are afflicted with what is called "paralysis by analysis," which can happen to any one, in any position. But like in martial arts, as in Taoism and Zen Buddhism, we learn to let go and flow with your emotions and instincts - not to be burdened by worry and doubt, fear and anxiety. True learning, afterall, comes not from books and instruction, but from direct experience - DIRECT ACTION. And that, I feel, is the most important lesson from The Monkeywrench Gang. The Gang is constantly on the run, and is going from one action to the next without much time to doubt themselves and worry themselves into despondency. The characters are, for the most part, active, alive, and in high spirits. And this is because even though the question of "why" they are doing what they are doing keeps coming up, they refuse to waste time answering it when the Wilderness needs them.
Rating:
Summary: Abbey Delivers the Goods
Review: Edward Abbey (1927-1989) is a touchstone for anyone involved in the radical environmental movement. Abbey, who looks like the product of a union between William James and John Muir, churned out numerous books and essays concerning the American Southwest and its wondrous natural beauty. His best known work is this novel, "The Monkey Wrench Gang," a fictional tale about four nature lovers who decide to wage relentless war against America's manic desire to spread the industrial system into every corner of the country. Abbey apparently based some of the characters in the book on real people he knew during his life in the boonies. It is important to remember this while you read the book because it will scare the heck out of you that people like this actually exist. Abbey does not waste much time introducing the reader to his main characters. There is Seldom Seen Smith, a jack Mormon and river rafter who rambles around the countryside when he's not visiting his three wives. Seldom Seen quickly hooks up with Bonnie Abbzug, a Brooklyn born beauty with a predilection for older men and geodesic domes. Abbzug's flame of the moment is Doc Sarvis, an aging surgeon with a propensity for spouting off about nature and history when he's not operating on a patient. Finally, there is the hero of the story, George Washington Hayduke, a Vietnam vet who returns to his home only to discover bulldozers raping his beloved country. When the four meet up on a river-rafting excursion, Doc throws his checkbook into the ring so the four can go on an environmental rampage of astonishing proportions. No bulldozer, bridge, or member of the area's Search and Rescue team (run by the nefarious Bishop Love) is safe from the monkeywrenching activities of these four ecoterrorists. Abbey describes the destruction of industrial equipment in loving detail. The first excursion is at a construction site, in which the gang cuts wires, pours karo syrup in gas tanks, and pours sand in the engines. Subsequent missions involve driving equipment into lakes, pulling up survey stakes, destroying an oil drilling station, and rolling boulders over pick-up trucks. Whenever trouble shows up, the four melt into the rugged terrain of the Southwest, a land of desolate wastes interspersed with stunning plateaus, mountains, and rivers. Abbey's eye for beauty rarely fails in his descriptions of these haunting images. Even the most hardened soul will feel a real kinship with our vanishing wilderness after reading this novel. This novel is a masterwork of complexity, as Abbey juggles several themes simultaneously without missing a beat. One of these themes is, of course, the ferocity of nature. I interpreted Hayduke to be nature personified. His gruff and grungy appearance, his ability to become one with his environment, and his unbridled fury at the evil unfolding around him seem to represent the forces of nature itself. Hayduke is unrelenting in his quest to stop the destruction, even willing to resort to violence against the perpetrators whenever he sees fit. The other three characters act as a restraint on Hayduke, at least to some extent, but they also represent the various stages of humanity removed from nature. Seldom Seen Smith takes part in some of George's wilder escapades because he is closer to the environment. Bonnie and Sarvis, since they live in the city, tend to oppose many of George's plans and methods. Abbey is saying, and I may be wrong, that the farther some of us get away from the wilderness the less we are willing to do whatever is necessary to prevent the rampant destruction of the environment. There is no doubt that Abbey was an extremely intelligent man. His writing ability is amazingly brilliant, with numerous jokes, word plays, and multi-layered dialogue thrown in at breakneck speed. For those familiar with Ambrose Bierce or Mark Twain, Abbey will seem like an old friend. Like those two august figures of American letters, Abbey is an iconoclast, always willing to take painful swipes at any institution, accepted belief, or know-it-all jerks with absolutist values. Even environmentalists take a few shots on the chin in this book (For example, George never misses a chance to throw his beer cans out the window). Abbey's tendency to make politically incorrect comments and jokes is sure to anger many people who, in their quest to lecture us about their idea of a perfect world, accidentally left their sense of humor in the trunk of their brand new SUV. In short, when Abbey comes out swinging, be sure to duck. "The Monkey Wrench Gang" is truly an American classic, embodying just the right amount of rugged individualism, distrust of authority figures, and old-fashioned violence Americans love so well. About the only problem with the book is some of the environmentalists go nuts and try to pull a Hayduke in their own backyards. Abbey was careful to make the violence a bit cartoonish at times, perhaps to cover his own back in case someone gets a little carried away. Still, this is an entertaining that also gives an inside view of the environmentalist mindset. If you like great scenery and great writing, you will enjoy this novel.
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Summary: Abbey as Literature as Well as Politics
Review: While I consider myself an environmentalist (and I'm vitally interested in the issues presented in this book), I'm amused that most of the reviews here seem to center entirely on The Monkey Wrench Gang's political message. As fascinating and complex as that message is, that's not why I loved the book. This is great writing! One example: The chapter in which Hayduke first returns to canyon country is one of the greatest in all literature, period. I can't agree with those below who call this writing sloppy, amateurish, two-dimensional, etc. Yes, this book has a unique style (different even than Abbey's other works), but to me it is marvelously evocative of the anarchist desert-rat spirit of a certain segment of 1970's southern Utah's population. To put it another way: There was a group of people who are captured by this book in a way that no other art form of any kind has ever done. They still exist today, although they've largely been swallowed up by the new Cappuccino crowd who populate a Moab that Abbey would barely recognize. Like John Muir before him, Abbey's writing has always been overshadowed by his message, and that is more apparent here than anywhere else. Someday, though, this book will be as much a testament to a lost time and place in the American West as Muir's "The Mountains of California".
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing book....
Review: After reading "Fool's Progress", I began to become interested in Edward Abbey's other books. So I read "Monkey Wrench Gang", probably one of his better known ones, and I came away from it quite disappointed. Yes, I know it was the 70's, when it was written, but did we really need a stereotypical J.A.P feminist and a flat ex-Green Beret, who loves violence and to litter. The sentiments that the dam at Glen Canyon ruined the Colorado seem right, but that was the book's only strength. By the time I got to the end, I didn't care what happened to the characters, although I give it credit for not being a "hollywood" ending.
Rating:
Summary: There's Abbey himself in Doc, Seldom Smith, and Hayduke.
Review: This is the first fiction by Abbey that I've read. That it almost reads like a true story largely stems from the keen sense and accurate knowledge of Colorado Plateau geography that Abbey had. His description of the gnarled and surreal landscape---and the interplay of light, sky, and rock---especially of the Canyonlands area of Utah, is so vivid that it harks back to his compulsively readable nonfiction work in "Abbey's Road", "Down the River", "One Life at a Time, Please", and the like. Readers who fancy this setting will benefit from the author's expert familiarity with the Southwest. I couldn't help but notice that there is a little (or maybe much) of Abbey in every male character of the book: Doc Sarvis' intellectual ruminations and academic bent, Seldom Smith's knowledge of almost every nook and cranny of the canyonlands and the Four Corners area, and George Hayduke's unfettered and no-holds-barred love for the desert and penchant for irreverence, the ultimate desert rat and indestructible desert Rambo. Bonnie Abzzug personifies people, myself included, who love the desert yet do not seem to be sure exactly what to do to stop its corruption, exploitation, and destruction. A lot of non-PC thoughts, ideas, and convictions nothwithstanding, the book leaves me wondering how much more of the desert can be paved, accessed, bridged, and defaced before we realize it's too late. The characters represent the extreme end of those who feel that "enough is enough".
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing book....
Review: After reading "Fool's Progress", I began to become interested in Edward Abbey's other books. So I read "Monkey Wrench Gang", probably one of his better known ones, and I came away from it quite disappointed. Yes, I know it was the 70's, when it was written, but did we really need a stereotypical J.A.P feminist and a flat ex-Green Beret, who loves violence and to litter. The sentiments that the dam at Glen Canyon ruined the Colorado seem right, but that was the book's only strength. By the time I got to the end, I didn't care what happened to the characters, although I give it credit for not being a "hollywood" ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Hey...It's the Seventies. What do you expect?
Review: This is another book that is clearly a product of its times. The "gang" itself consist of the usual gang of 1970s era idiots. Most notably, the rich, quasi-establishment doctor--who's still hip and supports the destruction of earthmoving machines by funding everything the gang does and smokes high grade pot--who is kind of married to the hot babe; the same hot babe who is one of those completely self assured & liberated kind of gals that puts out every where and with pretty much every one; the ragged "handyman" character, who's pick-up truck proclaims his home town to be a burg underwater courtesy of the Glen Canyon dam, and smokes pot; a big scruffy, hairy, beer swilling pot smoking vet, who knows what he knows, and ain't no one the boss a' him, but despite his distaste (even disgust) for self assured and liberated gals, he demonstrates his respectful, sensitive side by [having sex with the liberated gal]; and some mysterous character in black who rides a horse, and appears every once in while for really no particular reason. Like I said--It's the seventies......... Did anyone pick up this book and think they were reading "Look Homeward Angel?" Probably not. I liked the book--I think the prose style is fun. But it is not Ezra Pound. Speaking of what else this book is "not," some of the previous reviews took the book to task for not adequately explaining or justifying the terroristic acts of destruction. That is certainly true. This book is no political manifesto; this book is written for people who already believe that development is "bad"--not even that "nature is good," because Hayduke's (the hairy vet) throwing beer cans around is portrayed as a good thing. But I live in the west, and I grew up in San Diego. I've seen earthmovers destroy the land, and housing developments move across the horizon like a consuming fire. "Monkey Wrench Gang" is not "Unsafe at any Speed," and I did not need it to be. That said -- While the book starts with a bang at the Glen Canyon Dam (to coin a phrase), and the initial interplay of the characters is fun, as the book wears on (and I do mean "wears"), it gets tiresome. If I wanted to read poorly written sex scenes between shaggy man-beasts and hot seventies "libbers," I'd probably borrow books from the sitting president's library. That's not what I expected, and readers frankly deserve better. But the ending, especially, is not good. I could *****easily***** have come up with an alternative ending that may not have saved this book--but at least doesn't ruin it the way Abbey does. I have to rank the ending as one of the top five worst endings to books ever. And I mean ever. So--If you have any interest in any aspect of Earth First! Or want to relive the 1970s as the 1970s thought they were lived, or if you want to know why your parents are so weird, or if you want to scare all the teachers at your school who haven't actually *read* this book (the same idiot teachers who also think "Catcher in the Rye" and "Huck Finn" are subversive, having read neither), this is your book. It's an easy, shallow read. And if you're not disappointed with the ending, then I'm disappointed in you.
Rating:
Summary: A highly overrated book.
Review: I believe this book has been highly overrated. Somehow the theme of property destruction didn't quite amuse me. Abbey's attempts at humor didn't amuse me, either. The abundance of profanities got in the way of the story's fluidity. In general, the book lacked any sort of real profundity, wit, diversity, or clarity.
Sure, there are a few pages worth reading, but it's mostly a ridiculous. . .rant.
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