Edward Abbey (1927-1989) is a touchstone for anyone involved in the radical environmental movement. Abbey, who looks like the product of a union between William James and John Muir, churned out numerous books and essays concerning the American Southwest and its wondrous natural beauty. His best known work is this novel, "The Monkey Wrench Gang," a fictional tale about four nature lovers who decide to wage relentless war against America's manic desire to spread the industrial system into every corner of the country. Abbey apparently based some of the characters in the book on real people he knew during his life in the boonies. It is important to remember this while you read the book because it will scare the heck out of you that people like this actually exist.
Abbey does not waste much time introducing the reader to his main characters. There is Seldom Seen Smith, a jack Mormon and river rafter who rambles around the countryside when he's not visiting his three wives. Seldom Seen quickly hooks up with Bonnie Abbzug, a Brooklyn born beauty with a predilection for older men and geodesic domes. Abbzug's flame of the moment is Doc Sarvis, an aging surgeon with a propensity for spouting off about nature and history when he's not operating on a patient. Finally, there is the hero of the story, George Washington Hayduke, a Vietnam vet who returns to his home only to discover bulldozers raping his beloved country. When the four meet up on a river-rafting excursion, Doc throws his checkbook into the ring so the four can go on an environmental rampage of astonishing proportions. No bulldozer, bridge, or member of the area's Search and Rescue team (run by the nefarious Bishop Love) is safe from the monkeywrenching activities of these four ecoterrorists.
Abbey describes the destruction of industrial equipment in loving detail. The first excursion is at a construction site, in which the gang cuts wires, pours karo syrup in gas tanks, and pours sand in the engines. Subsequent missions involve driving equipment into lakes, pulling up survey stakes, destroying an oil drilling station, and rolling boulders over pick-up trucks. Whenever trouble shows up, the four melt into the rugged terrain of the Southwest, a land of desolate wastes interspersed with stunning plateaus, mountains, and rivers. Abbey's eye for beauty rarely fails in his descriptions of these haunting images. Even the most hardened soul will feel a real kinship with our vanishing wilderness after reading this novel.
This novel is a masterwork of complexity, as Abbey juggles several themes simultaneously without missing a beat. One of these themes is, of course, the ferocity of nature. I interpreted Hayduke to be nature personified. His gruff and grungy appearance, his ability to become one with his environment, and his unbridled fury at the evil unfolding around him seem to represent the forces of nature itself. Hayduke is unrelenting in his quest to stop the destruction, even willing to resort to violence against the perpetrators whenever he sees fit. The other three characters act as a restraint on Hayduke, at least to some extent, but they also represent the various stages of humanity removed from nature. Seldom Seen Smith takes part in some of George's wilder escapades because he is closer to the environment. Bonnie and Sarvis, since they live in the city, tend to oppose many of George's plans and methods. Abbey is saying, and I may be wrong, that the farther some of us get away from the wilderness the less we are willing to do whatever is necessary to prevent the rampant destruction of the environment.
There is no doubt that Abbey was an extremely intelligent man. His writing ability is amazingly brilliant, with numerous jokes, word plays, and multi-layered dialogue thrown in at breakneck speed. For those familiar with Ambrose Bierce or Mark Twain, Abbey will seem like an old friend. Like those two august figures of American letters, Abbey is an iconoclast, always willing to take painful swipes at any institution, accepted belief, or know-it-all jerks with absolutist values. Even environmentalists take a few shots on the chin in this book (For example, George never misses a chance to throw his beer cans out the window). Abbey's tendency to make politically incorrect comments and jokes is sure to anger many people who, in their quest to lecture us about their idea of a perfect world, accidentally left their sense of humor in the trunk of their brand new SUV. In short, when Abbey comes out swinging, be sure to duck.
"The Monkey Wrench Gang" is truly an American classic, embodying just the right amount of rugged individualism, distrust of authority figures, and old-fashioned violence Americans love so well. About the only problem with the book is some of the environmentalists go nuts and try to pull a Hayduke in their own backyards. Abbey was careful to make the violence a bit cartoonish at times, perhaps to cover his own back in case someone gets a little carried away. Still, this is an entertaining that also gives an inside view of the environmentalist mindset. If you like great scenery and great writing, you will enjoy this novel.
