The Monkey Wrench Gang

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Summary: Fun stuff!
Review: Just reread this after about 10 years, such fun stuff. Abbey is a sheer treat (The Fool's Progress is my favorite, plus the essays). In this day and age of George -the hell with nature- Bush, the younger/'stupider' this book should be manditory reading. Let it bleed! Let loose the rivers! Enjoy...j

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Summary: A Rebellious Romp
Review: A true classic masterpiece. Fun and exciting. Thought provoking. Especially fun for anyone traveling to Northern Arizona or Southern Utah. Abbey gives a liberal left look at the SW - years before the millions of people moved and built it up.

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Summary: A seminal work of ecofiction
Review: Having come to Edward Abbey and TMWG only recently, I was struck by the debt later fiction works that focus on environmental issues, like the comedies of Carl Hiaasen and even Rand Johnson's superb eco-fable "Arcadia Falls", owe to this pioneer of eco-fiction. Through his comic tale of an intrepid band of eco-terrorists, Abbey gives pointed voice to a vast and too often silent segment of American society: those who don't believe that economic exploitation is the highest and best use of our ever-dwindling natural areas.

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Summary: Abbey's Best - If Thoreau Had A Bazooka
Review: Forget the Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservancy and all the other mealy-mouthed environmental organizations. Abbey tells a fantastic tale of four misfits with a singular love for the American wilderness - and a strong disdain for the corporate mega-machine bent on destroying what's left of it. This is Thoreau with a bazooka (and a big wrench, and a few semi-automatic weapons, and a carload of high-explosives). Hilarious and provoking.

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Summary: What a piece of ...
Review: This book lacks a plot, character depth or develpoment. It also contains a rather horrible male fantasy character of an "independent" woman. It is, however, an interesting piece on ecoterrorism. It definintely is a piece of something.

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Summary: A book for all liberals.
Review: Under the current addministration that's been forced down our throats by the supreme court, this book deserves to become popular again. Anybody who still gives a (care) about the environment or fair play will thoroughly enjoy this book, and applaud those who immitate it.

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Summary: Five Stars for Effort
Review: Cliched story, amateurish development, shallow characterizations.... Wait! This is a five-star book? Yes, in a particular way: I think everyone should read it. In whatever he writes, Abbey has a way of making fence-sitting seem so indefensible. This is the kind of book that helps people to square off. If you really love the wilderness you gotta hate the Glen Canyon Dam, and if you can't get rid of the dam any other way, you gotta blow it up. If after reading "The Monkey Wrench Gang" you find yourself, like me, rooting for these (poorly drawn) characters, or hating them and everything they stand for, then the book will have served its purpose. Love it, hate it, but read it.

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Summary: Not his best but a great ride just the same
Review: This is not my favorite of Abbey's books but it definitely the closest to what you would expect of a modern day suspense/action movie. It does leave you wanting more not only from the characters but the different ideas brought up through-out the text. Luckily there is a sequel which also very good. If you are looking for the meaning of life...or even just the meaning of man against machine this book might not take you there but it is a great read and keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is about more than just environmental guerillas fighting against technology and big business but you will have to read between the lines to find the rest. This is a great piece of fiction intertwined with either personal experiences of his own or ones that he has been told. I know people who fight the system in similiar ways to those in the book and can attest that the characters in this book are very real. There are people out there willing to put it all on the line to protect what they feel is important. Although I may not agree with their methods or even their causes I respect them for the fact that they do not just sit around and complain. This book is made for people who like to feel alive and like to feel as if they can make a difference even if it is just a tiny one.

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Summary: A hilarious environmental rampage
Review: Ever watch bulldozers mauling a forest to make way for a residential subdivision? Ever think of doing something less than civil to stop it? If so, The Monkey Wrench Gang is your kind of novel. I couldn't stop laughing the first time I read it - the antiestablishment mayhem is nonstop, and Abbey's lush imagery makes you feel like a fifth member of the gang. This is fun reading - it isn't great literature by any stretch. Abbey was adept at puns and clever wordplay, but his characters are somewhat superficial and riddled with stereotypes. But at the heart of this novel is Abbey's passion and sorrow for the Desert Southwest, a love that we can all begin to understand as we follow his motley band on their crusade to save the wilderness.

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Summary: All-time favorite
Review: What can be said about the Monkey Wrench Gang...Ed Abbey at his best. This book is a classic and it is one of my all-time favorites. Abbey is hilarious and the reading is always entertaining but lurking beneath (not too deeply) is a social statement we should all heed.