A wonderful book about halting - or at least tripping up - the impending, mindless juggernaut of Development. As Abbey shows us in this timely and hilarious book, development, as it currently exists, is a threat to all life on Earth - and most importantly, to the deserts which has set himself out to protect. Filled with eco-antics, sabatage and shenanigans that will bust your gut and keep you interested all the way, this book was pure fun. Now I understand where groups like Earth First! get their inspiration as well as their sense of humor. You don't have to be a "Green" to appreciate this book. Abbey is the voice of the land, and a particularly American voice at that. As Abbey says himself, the book was mainly aimed at the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River: the bohemeth of all ecological blunders, perhaps the most reviled construction project in American history. But as Abbey shows us, that is exactly what we can expect from the hydra of Development: horrible construction projects fronted by big business swindlers who have little interest in improving quality of life for the public.
That said, the book is much more than a critique of the Glen Canyon Dam. The book speak more broadly about how the bulk of our lives are spent mindlessly serving the interests of economic development at the expense of our environment and our health. Indeed, a large portion of book is spent chronicling how our obedient gaurds place machinery above human life. This book forces us to ask the most fundmental question: What is more important, private property or human life. It forces us to question what kind of life we value.
Dam Update:
Now 35 years after its construction, there has been a call to drain Lake Powell, tear down the dam, and let the Colorado flow free again. However, this won't happen if the house-boaters, jet-skier, and energy barons of the dam business have there way. It was in the hope of seeing this lake run wild again that Abbey wrote The Monkey Wrench Gang. I hope the book is as politically inspiring as it is fun to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Less than a perfect world.
Review: In a perfect world, people would have been too civilized to allow such a monstrosity as Glen Canyon Dam ever to have been built. Ed Abbey knew this and his book shows, albeit a tad too profanely, what such eco-terrorism on the part of governmental agenices can provoke. That the most beautiful canyon in the world is buried under beer-can and gasoline polluted water shows that it was Floyd Dominy, not George Hayduke, who was the true barbarian. The opening passage on blowing up the Glen Canyon bridge is priceless. I don't advocate such things, but they do become understandable when you read this book
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I had high hopes for this book. I'm a fan of the outdoors and adventure books; this one had been recommended to me by several people. I started and kept waiting for it to get better, but it was a constant chore to keep reading. The characters were static and their relationships forced as if they were puzzle pieces that didn't quite match. But never fear, the author was there to bang the hell out of them until they stuck. The ending (and for that matter, the circumstances leading up to it) wasn't even close to a surprise. The only positive I can give it is that it does point out some of the environmental destruction we wreak on the planet around us. But many other books point this out, and some actually have redeeming value beyond that one aspect.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best
Review: Edward Abbey is a genius when it comes to writing about monkey wrenching. This book is intelligent, although I must admit I didn't hold Hayduke in much regard because of most of his attitudes, but that's okay. Abbey shows how just four people can make a difference, and really start something (in Hayduke Lives! it becomes more of a movement). I did not find it hillarious, or even all that funny at times, and am confused when people describe it as such, but it was enlightening, and really made me think about how significant a few insignificant people can really be, when driven to that point of annoyance and anger.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, predictable humor
Review: This was a fun book to read - an environmentalist's equivalent of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".
I do take issue with those who thought the humor was "uproarious" or "hilarious". It was cute, and it was funny, but really the humor is predictable - no better or worse than any witty conversation you'd expect between coworkers or friends.
Rating:
Summary: An Eco-Terrorist Manifesto...
Review: When I first read this as a teenager, I thought it was a wonderful tale of civil disobedience. However, in retrospect, I recognize that this work represents a clarion call for the eco-terrorism we have been witnessing for the past few decades.
The plot follows a cadre of misfits and criminals as they seek to do harm to private developers who are ostensibly ruining the natural landscapes of the American west. The gang mechanistically destroys private property, and the author seems to have no compunction about glorifying this activity as some kind of vague, contradictory, directionless, and unnamed cause.
In short, I would _not_ recommend this book to anyone--except, perhaps, as a means to gain insight into the liberal mindset that drives the eco-terrorist movement. I would much rather read (and recommend) books with a bona fide moral purpose--where the emphasis is on productive genius and its benefits, not destruction as an end in itself.
Rating:
Summary: Hypocritical elitists
Review: This is definitely Abbeys poorest work. Abbey fails to mention he too enjoyed the conveniences of driving a gas guzzler and other wasteful means of living in a big city. The obsurdity of libs claiming enviro groups like ALF and ELF are "right wing" is just a diversion to justify and soften the blow for their selfish actions. Though I enjoyed Abbeys other writings, I think this book is misguiding highly impressionable lost souls who still live with mommy and daddy. Johnny "Tali-boy" Walker is a good example of misguided idealism. If you really want to know more about Environmentalism and its core beliefs, then read Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto"
