The Monkey Wrench Gang

Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: Being involved in the attempted destruction of a highway going through my back yard and seeing the disturbing fact behind the damn dams This book was a humorously serius book my only hope is that someone will join me in the desturtion of all that is plagueing the natural world.

Rating:
Summary: my favorite book of all time.
Review: My favorite book of all time. The characters will resonate with you for the rest of your life. Hayduke is up there with Captain Ahab, Scout(To Kill a Mockingbird), Oliver Twist, etc. I am a conservative political, engineer type who loves the outdoors. there are more of us than you might think in spite of the media's obsession with compartmentalizing us all. i.e.: "liberals can be the only environmentally conscious individuals on the planet." I have read the book twice, once in high school and once in college. It would make a great movie if they would only "shoot the book". Read it!!!!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read.
Review: The Monkey-Wrench Gang is by far one of the best books I have ever read. It is not just one of the best; it is one of those chosen few which stand out as the best of the best. I would recommend this book to anyone from 8 to 80. Young or old, democrat or republican, male or female, this is a gem of a novel

Rating:
Summary: Edward Abbey at his best; hilarious and thought provoking.
Review: Edward Abbey really out does himself in this book. He melds his four main characters;(George Hayduke, Doc.Sarvis, Seldom Seen Smith, and Bonnie Abbzug), into the story with great skill. George Hayduke has a great love of the desert south west and an even greater hate of the destruction that greedy corporations are doing to the land he loves so much. The story is full of chaos and commedy, yet it is a real eye opener. You will come away from this book with a new respect for our environment. Now no one should take this book too serious, it after all is a fiction novel; however,you are sure to wonder if there is some real truth in some of the decriptive vandalism. I must say that it would be unwise to try any of this vandalism yourself as it could cause you to spend a great many years in the pokey. Hayduke calls his group eco-warriors and in many ways they are, but we must remember these acts are illegal. We must also remember that what big corporations are doing to our earth is even a greater crime. I reccomend this book to any one with a sense of humor and a love of nature and the preservation of it. Enviromental groups such as we have today,may not have been created without the influence of people like Edward Abbey, John Muir, and yes even Hayduke and his eco-warriors.

Rating:
Summary: This is my favorite book of all time
Review: Other than Desert Solitare (by Abbey), this is the best story love for the planet ever written. Just do us all a favor and accept it for the metaphor that it is

Rating:
Summary: YEEEEEEEE HA!
Review: Not only did this book start Earthfirst and raised our consciousness about the Environment but it all singlehandedly took Environmentalism out of the hands of the granola crunching, self-righteous, potsmoking, banner waving, Leninist hippies and gave it to the cowboys where it belonged. None of the characters are vegetarian or whiny like most Environmentalist Stereotypes but hark back to the real man macho bullshit that has been critiqued, criticised and deconstructed to death. Abbey melds these two strains of thought and made environmentalism cool again. Maybe you don't want to go out and break a bulldozer that is trying to do away with swampland, but after this book you will buy a spare set of wire cutters---just in case..

Rating:
Summary: Good As American Beer
Review: I just finished reading Monkey Wrench Gang for the second time. The first time, in college I didn't care for it, skipped through it, thought it was low grade schlock that wasn't worthy the effort of my philosophical, overly cerebral mind.
Then 9 years of life happened and man, I now realize this is one of the best books ever written because it meets the two basic criteria:
1) entertainment
2) convey an idea
I don't read as much anymore because frankly, the history channel and discovery channel are just as informative without putting me to sleep. But this book is paced to move and the characters are actually worth getting to know. Also, Abbey spends time on descriptions of a landscape as big as the sky but doesn't fuss with pages of set-up or description of inane, everyday things. His characters live in a world that moves and they move through it.
And the message is there too. Abbey says you can be concerned about the environment, live on the land, and get the subtle vibe of Mother Earth without pooping in a PVC tube. People who like shlitz can have high ideals, pick-up trucks aren't meant to be washed (much), and people who are offended by Abbey's lack of PC protocol probably wouldn't survive in the environment he loved so much. And you gotta love the fact that the only female character in the book is the composite of a 13-year-old boy's female fantacy.

Rating:
Summary: Tilting at windmills
Review: This is a great book. Edward Abbey was an amazing writer, and despite some tense shifts, he was stylistically incredible and very unique. I would recommend this book to anyone -- it's interesting environmentally, but also well-written.

Rating:
Summary: a very slow starter
Review: My husband totally hyped this book up - he's a huge Abbey fan - and I was pretty let down. Nothing really happened for the first 100 pages, and seriously - who wants a two-three page detailed lesson on how to operate a huge piece of machinery? Not me. I consider myself an environmentalist, and was amused by the idea presented by the book...but the story itself was way too predictable, little character development, and not the best work Edward Abbey has done. A better fiction piece by Abbey is The Fool's Progress.

Rating:
Summary: Subversion, Obstruction, Destruction and Other Shenanigans
Review: Filled with eco-antics, sabatage and shenanigans that will bust your gut and keep you spellbound cover-to-cover, the Monkeywrench Gang is rollicking good read about halting - or at least tripping up - the impending, mindless juggernaut known as "Development," or civilization creep.

As Abbey says himself, the book was mainly aimed at the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River: bohemeth of all eco-blunders, perhaps the most reviled construction project in American history. But that is exactly what one would expect from the multi-headed hydra of Development: horrible construction projects fronted by big business swindlers who have little interest in improving quality of life for the public or protecting important places.

That said, the book is much more than a critique of Glen Canyon Dam. It speaks more broadly about how the bulk of our lives are spent mindlessly serving the interests of economic development at the expense of the places and communities we love, our own health and common sense. It also chronicles the absurdity of a society which values property above human life.

You don't have to be a "Green" to appreciate this book; you simply have to enjoy life on this misty green ball. Abbey is the voice of the land, and a particularly American voice at that. Moreover, he is just a really good writer. The character development is so good that, despite everything, you will find yourself enwrapped and identifying with his off-the-wall characters.

Just to give you a dam update... Now been 36 years afer its initial 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.

j. william krueger
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