Customer Reviews

Hayduke Lives!: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The name Edward Abbey is a foul couple of words for some, and is followed by foul language off the tongue of the same people. But, it shouldn't...both for his great body writings and for his fierce appreciation for everything that makes the American West great. "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and its sequel "Hayduke Lives" are classic American Literature as well as important social commentary on who we are and what should matter to us as a society and a country. (This review is for both books so might be a bit longer than usual.)

Yes, Abbey was an environmentalist; but, a he was also flawed just as we all are in this area - when he was younger on his first visit to the Grand Canyon, he rolled a tire over the edge because he could. He already appreciated the American West, but the human side of him did it anyway. Yes, Abbey was a curmudgeon; but, it worked - he got the attention of everyone, on both sides of any issue.

With "The Monkey Wrench Gang", Abbey spun a fantastic tale of a hodgepodge band of characters that were bound by a love for the west, and distaste for anything that they saw as ruining it. Bonnie Abbzug, the exile from the east who couldn't stand cheap talk and always wanted action; she found a place in the canyons of the Southwest where one could hear her own thoughts - unlike the canyons of New York that she fled. Doc Sarvis, M.D., a doctor with a passion for his hobby - the burning of any billboard that ruined everyone's view of the landscape (which were pretty much all of them). Seldom Seen Smith, a few wives, a Colorado River Boatman, and a few steps ahead of the Bishop...'nuff said.

And then there is George Washington Hayduke III...this former Green Beret will not stop until he gets to the bottom of who is messing with his desert; and he intends to put a stop to it. I had a college professor like Hayduke.

At its heart, "The Monkey Wrench Gang" is a buddy movie written in words' a buddy movie about the American West. An American West that is being overrun by those fleeing the east and looking for more space and a better life, but cannot but help but bring everything wrong with where they are coming from with them; at the same time, this is a book about those entrenched in the west for generations that can't control themselves when it comes to growth, progress, and the American Way: GREED. This is a book about those who care enough about the human race to actually do something to keep it from destroying itself. This is a book about the self-determined people of the west; a group that sometimes loses its way - a fear of the decadence of East (and California), but who can't help but let a little greed get in they way of their way of live as they build and build and build to accommodate the every expanding needs of the new exiles from more crowded locales.

"The Monkey Wrench Gang" is a book about a system gone wrong and a band of idealists looking for a way to head it off at the pass before it plummets over the edge into the abyss.

As much as "The Monkey Wrench Gang" is a book about idealists, "Hayduke Lives" is a pessimistic book about idealism gone a little wrong. "Hayduke Lives" was Abbey's last book, and it was his last will and testament in a way as well. For all that "The Monkey Wrench Gang" inspired a generation of environmentalists, "Hayduke Lives" is Abbey's critique of the fourteen years that come in between. He is critiquing what he sees is a movement that has lost its way; not just his views of where the Sierra Club went wrong, but also how Earth First! stumbled and fumbled their way off the right path. But, at the same time, Abbey is screaming for us to find our way and find a balance before it is too late.

I think that while "The Monkey Wrench Gang" is universal in its message and unambiguous - a message that everyone, environmentalist and developer alike, can learn from - "Hayduke Lives" is more philosophical and introspective...introspective for the reader as well as Abbey. In "Hayduke Lives", Abbey's message is more subtle and more undefined. What I came away with was his disgust and disappointment with a movement wandering the wilderness lost; but at the same time, I found a message of hope between the lines, a message that we better find a way to get along and work together or destroy each other and ourselves.

In the end, these two books must be judged by each individual reader; the reader must find their own path to meaning and purpose in Abbey's words. Glen Canyon Dam, at the focus of both books, is a monstrosity to some and a godsend to others; to some, it has destroyed a magnificent canyon, and to others it has made unchecked progress in the west possible. The real answer, I think, is somewhere in between.

If you advocate for the dismantling of the dam, then be honest about what that actually means: that overgrown metropolises in the dry desert such a Phoenix and Las Vegas will have to cease to exist; that people in Ohio won't get good, fresh lettuce in the winter; that first people must understand what John Wesley Powell tried to tell everyone well over 100 years ago...the American West cannot support a limitless supply of humanity, that the American West has a FINITE amount of water to go around. Until everyone affected understands what is truly at stake, then the message of tearing down the dam is empty and hollow...and maybe a bit self-centered.

If you fight to defend the dam, fine, but check your own greed (five bedrooms and 3000 square feet for a husband, wife, and two kids is greed - how many storage units do you rent for all of your stuff?). Yes, the dam has brought progress to the American West, but at what cost? What is the carrying capacity of the West? Are we approaching it? Has it passed us by and we are just waiting for it all to collapse? How low does Lake Powell need to go next time before we wake up and realize that water is not a limitless resource in the arid west?

Glen Canyon Dam was built before I was born; but, if the effort were being made today to build it, I would fight with all of my energy - resistance is never futile. But, it is there and nothing that I do, or the Sierra Club does, or the Glen Canyon Institute does will change that...not without educating Americans to what we are doing wrong and how we can do it right. Geologic time will take care of Glen Canyon Dam; it could be in 200 years, 500 years, 1,000 years, or longer, but it will remove the dam - larger natural dams have existed across the Colorado River and nature has always removed them eventually.

Read these two books. Read the writings of John Wesley Powell. Visit the area, tour the dam, and figure it out for yourself. Then, lets all figure it out together.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Those who enjoyed The Monkey Wrench Gang will enjoy this sequel, which contains the same winning mix of ingredients as the original: biting satire, earthy humor, colorful characters, plenty of over-the-top action,and most importantly Abbey's underlying message that wild places are worth saving - even if one doesn't endorse the Gang's anarchistic approach. Those sympathetic to Abbey's lifelong cause of opposition to the forces of development and exploitation may also want to explore Carl Hiaasen's eco-terror comedies or the more complex and literary, but equally passionate, "Arcadia Falls" by Rand Johnson.

In "The Monkey Wrench Gang," Edward Abbey told the story of four friends who decide to do whatever possible to stop the explotation and overdevelopment of the West. Mainly, they blow stuff up and wreck machines, but they have a fun time doing it.
In "Hayduke Lives!," the sequel to that book, Edward Abbey returns to those characters and tries to stir them up to action once again, this time with the threat of a giant bulldozer about to destroy a beautiful canyon.
Yeah....
First of all, do not read this until you've read "The Monkey Wrench Gang" first. And even then, think about it carefully before reading this half-formed, rambling, disappointing sequel.
I loved "The Monkey Wrench Gang"--I've read it multiple times--and so the first fifty pages or so of this were just a lot fun to me, being reunited with the characters from that book.
But then, the story never really goes anywhere. The novel constantly digresses to describe sex scenes or Earth First! rallies, and it's not until page 270(!) of a 307-page novel that the four original members of the Monkey Wrench Gang finally reunite.
The book rambles on in an unfocused way that damages the characters that were so nicely formed in the first book, constantly digresses, and ultimately, unfortunately, becomes much more violent than "The Monkey Wrench Gang" ever did.
The writing is occassionally good--sometimes even great--and some of the scenes are exciting, but none of it ever goes anywhere. There are too many characters and not enough character development, and the whole thing with the bulldozer comes across as lame and cheesy, especially when the first book set up their next goal to be something much bigger and more exciting--the destruction of Glen Canyon Dam.
Read this only if you absolutely LOVED "The Monkey Wrench Gang," but even then, be warned that this might dampen your enthusiasm even for that book. It's pretty disappointing, especially coming from an author that we all know was capable of much, much better.

This is definitely a worthy sequel to the classic Monkey Wrench Gang, though here Abbey's writing gets rather cranky and hyperbolic. The Gang has reunited, with crazy Hayduke working undercover and in a variety of subversive guises, to pull off the ultimate humungous eco-activist caper of the century. The villain is the hubristically enormous earthmoving machine G O L I A T H, which is literally moving mountains in Abbey's beloved slickrock country, at the behest of industrial and government lackeys. Abbey unleashes an unceasing torrent of his enviro-anarchist philosophy through the mouths of the characters, both the good and bad guys, though this leads to characters who often make huge voluminous speeches, as opposed to believable conversations.

Abbey throws in some perceptive criticism of less committed and under-informed nature lovers, while lambasting the typical money-hungry developers. This is great for the thinking reader, but unfortunately the book takes on a rather cranky and unforgiving tone overall. There are some plot problems, with under-elaborated characters such as the Colonel, the presence of the Monkey Wrench Gang book in this book's universe (Abbey does not explain this phenomenon well at all), and the presence of the mysterious Lone Ranger character, who is from a different Abbey book that I thought took place in a different reality and time stream. The shifting behaviors and attitudes of Bonnie and Hayduke in particular are also real problems in character construction. But in the end, if you're in the right frame of mind and of the proper political stance, Abbey's philosophy as contained here is incredibly thought-provoking. And the climax to this novel, in which the Gang pulls off an act of sabotage that's G O L I A T H in size and audacity, is hugely uproarious. [~doomsdayer520~]

Yes, by George, Hayduke lives! Fervent admirers of the Abbey oeuvre will not have doubted this contention for a moment. For those who are only just coming across this rascally desert rat for the first time, I should perhaps note that George Hayduke has appeared in a sister volume, the now infamous "The Monkey Wrench Gang." At the conclusion of that earlier work, George Hayduke's fate seemed to be hanging rather desperately in the balance. However, not even the untimely death of Edward Abbey, in March 1989, could deprive us of all news of this most obstinate of heroes.

It would be an easy thing to say that "Hayduke Lives!" is an unpolished novel. It does seem to fall short of the demands which Abbey made of himself in "The Fool's Progress," the last volume he published prior to his death. Yet the craft is certainly there and the willingness to create is as strong as ever. Mountains motivated Edward Abbey; mountains and everything natural (and even some things man-made, it has to be said) that lay around them. His actual landscape at the last, which was also the landscape of "Hayduke Lives!", was the canyon lands and desert country of Arizona and Utah (and everywhere). So his imagery is likewise grandiose and well suited to the theme of environmental vengeance which prods this plot along. Knowing Abbey, one can sense that he is willing the earth itself to open up and swallow the machines of man that make its surface tremble. Yet he contains himself, just, to the story in hand and lets George do the dirty work in his own inimitable style.

Abbey's long fight was unrelenting and unapologetic. He seemed to sense that people need to be shocked awake in order to react to the troubles of the world. Therefore his books have a hard edge, and are often full of disagreeable people and unpleasant events. His heroes are not pretty, they are bellicose and belligerent, and given to much cussing and ill-talk. They bewail the fate of man and his planet in new ways for us, like lonesome cowboys sitting up on far ridges crying to a full moon. They are both modern, like the industrial society they do battle with, and ancient, like the landscape which surrounds them and succors them when they've lost their faith in man. Along with Callenbach and Mowat, Edward Abbey surely takes his place in that wooded and hopefully sheltered pantheon that has come down from Thoreau.

Read "The Monkey Wrench Gang" first - that is where the characters are developed. Unfortunately, Abbey wastes our time in the first few chapters of this novel trying to redevelop them. However, "Hayduke Lives" recovers with a bout against the all-encompassing American Goliath. When you realize that your government is against your best interests with your national treasures (NPS = National Parking Lot Service), then you will know it is time to pick up the monkey wrench. For example, Yosemite National Park just cut an acre of trees for new development on the valley floor after declaring them a "fire hazard." I am pro-Abbey and a resident of the American Southwest, also a kindred spirit. His "Rule #1 'Don't get caught.'" is also my own. Carry on for the sake of all things living.

Mike Zinsley, author of The Rapture of the Deep

Back in the old college days we as a class read some of Edward Abbey's novels from "Desert Solitare" to "Fire on the Mountain". And only reading it for a classroom assignment, I have to dig it back up and re-read it again after reading "Heyduke Lives". Being a native of the Four Corners area, a true native. Not those so called "native wanna be's" who claim to be from there. I can relate to the characters in Heyduke Lives! My favorite character though has to be Erika, the savy euro-proeco fem hottie stood out along with those of Heyduke himself. The desert of Utah and Arizona will be home to me and Ed as we are the stewards of this everlasting land. Lastly, from the Author himself wrote a warning: "Anyone who takes this book seriously will be shot. Anyone who does not take it seriously will be buried alive by a Mitsubishi bulldoser".

Much as I enjoy Edward Abbey's work, I was very disappointed by this book. True, the characters are there, but nothing much happens to them. And sure, there is some monkey wrenching in defense of what is really important, but the story itself is barely there at all -- a succession of small and extraordinarily repetitive vignettes. There are humorous moments, mostly when he is poking fun at himself, but they're few and far between. Lots of sexual meandering, natural description of the Four Corners area, the usual avalances of wordplay, and some violence (most corporate, but a final Lone act that seems gratuitous). It's still Ed Abbey, but he's nowhere near his best. Given that it's only available in a pricey trade paperback, I'd skip it. The two stars are relative to his other work, not to books in general.

This book could be a poster child for "The sequel never lives up to its predecessor."

Whether or not you've read The Monkey Wrench Gang, you will know exactly what is going to happen at every step of the way. Worse, Abbey takes shortcuts. For instance: all the old characters are brought back; all meet Hayduke again who asks for their help; all refuse and then suddenly, without explanation, all are on board to help him destroy the huge earth-mover, GOLIATH. The object of their sabotage and the fact that they are back together is very predictable.

Also, the final scene of destruction is disappointing. It too, "just happens".

The message is still great. The cast of characters still appealingly eccentric, Hayduke still a demi-god, but it does not come near to the overall excellence of The Monkey Wrench Gang. Due to the shortcuts, I would strongly recommend not reading this book unless you've read Monkey Wrench. Even then, you better have really loved Monkey Wrench and want some more of the same.

I think this book could have used a little more help from the editors, or perhaps the author. But in Abbey's defense, time was running a little short. This is classic Abbey, and the story does get rolling after a while. It got my blood flowing, and there's no lack of action. I'll say that. Abbey's ever-present push for anarchy is in full bloom, and it sometimes gets a little wearing. (The man seems to have a one-track mind.) His characterizations verge on comic-book, and holy cats and bananas, can this guy hyperbolate! Nevertheless, money well spent, and a good read.