Monkey Grip [Mass Market Paperback]

Helen Garner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1984

In "Monkey Grip", Helen Garner charts the lives of a generation. Her characters are exploring new ways of loving and living - and nothing is harder than learning to love lightly. Nora and Javo are trapped in a desperate relationship. Nora's addiction is romantic love; Javo's is hard drugs. The harder they pull away, the tighter the monkey grip. A lyrical, gritty, rough-edged novel that deserves its place as a classic of Australian fiction.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Helen Garner was born in Geelong, Victoria, and was educated there and at Melbourne University. She has worked as a high-school teacher and freelance journalist, and has won numerous literary awards. She has published a large number of books, both fiction and non-fiction, including Postcards from Surfers, The Children's Bach, The Feel of Steel, The First Stone and, most recently, Joe Cinque's Consolation and The Spare Room. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 245 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140049533
• ISBN-13: 978-0140049534
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,883,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well, I love this book!, April 6, 2003

By 

BJS (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monkey Grip (Mass Market Paperback)

Maybe you have to be "of a certain age" and have lived through a certain time, with all its complexities, to appreciate this book. There was a lot of high and low life in the counter-culture, a lot of confusion, but there were some wonderful experiences to be had as well. I've read this book completely through about six times. I think of it as an old friend with which I will never part. I think her prose is breathtaking in its immediacy; it breathes life. Some of her descriptions of what she sees/hears/observes are so amazingly wonderful that I stop every time I read them to savor them a while before moving on. She is poetic in the true sense: not trying for an effect, but responding with her whole heart to a moment in such a way that your heart also is touched.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for everyone, but definitely for me, June 26, 2003

By 

Cannane Richard "Late night listener" (Lucerne, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Monkey Grip (Mass Market Paperback)

As an Australian living overseas one of the first things that I found attractive about this book was the manner in which Garner paints the suburban Australian landscape and lifestyle. The party scenes made me laugh out loud. I also enjoyed the realistic descriptions of shared houshold life. The troubled relationship which forms the central theme of the book rung true to me with its unresolved tensions, misunderstandings and developments. I very much enjoyed the rhythm and style of the dialogue and descriptions. In fact, I have marked many lines and quotes from my favorite parts so that I can find them to re-read again and again. I can see why other reviewers may have disliked this book for their own reasons. I vote it, however, as one of my favorite books of all time. This is my first review in Amazon, and I just felt drawn to writing something about this book in the hope that maybe some other readers around the world may find as much enjoyment in it as I did!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fitzroy meets Fitzrovia: drugs and ennui in 1970s Melbourne, March 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Monkey grip (Hardcover)

Helen Garner is scarcely known outside of Australia, but in Melbourne she's been regarded as one of the finest writers of the past twenty years. After a brief, botched career as a high-school teacher she moved to the skanky-bohemian areas of Carlton and Fitzroy near central Melbourne and wrote for a publication called Digger. Apparently she was also working on a novel during this time (1974-76). If Monkey Grip is not thinly disguised autobiography then it is a masterful piece of mimesis. It reads like a succession of arty, impressionistic, diary entries, mostly written on bright mornings under the influence of a bad hangover.

The story runs like this: our protagonist, Nora, lives with a group of other bohemians and their children in a succession of houses. Occasionally she works on a newspaper or chats about feminist issues at the pubs and cafes. She drifts from one male lover to the next. A burnt-out young man named Javo takes her fancy. We don't know what his game is precisely; he does a little acting, a little writing, a little drawing. He also does a lot of smack. This upsets Nora vaguely, but she doesn't mind so long as he's around for her. Javo, you see, is great in bed. He goes away and gets himself arrested in Bangkok. Nora pines for him. He returns and she is happy. He drifts away again, returns, leaves, hangs around, quits heroin for a few days, shoots up again. Sometimes they hitchhike to Sydney or visit Tasmania, where Javo's mother lives. Nora gets a part in a film about junkies. Javo gets a part in a play and another minor film. All the while they're surrounded by dozens of interchangeable and unmemorable characters.

Two things are immediately apparent about this book: 1) an editor's blue pencil could have improved it enormously by condensing the longeurs and repetitions; 2) the panache of the book is pure old avant-garde from the Paris of the 20s and 30s. The plot is there but instead of being strung between the two ends of the book it cycles over and over like the refrain of a song. If you want a straightforward story, you'll find this novel extremely irritating.

The book was made into a film a few years ago. A friend in the Australian film business gave me her copy after I'd returned from Melbourne (her own hometown) and raved about what a swell place it was. A tiny smile played at the corner of her mouth as she handed me the book. Was it all a great leg-pull or was she was really curious to know what I'd think of this dreary but fascinating little tome?