A review by jbogerhawkins
The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

definitely not readable if you can't hang with a fair amount of racist and misogynistic bullshit... abbey was certainly not a perfect man, and his problematic views come through loud and clear here. nevertheless, this is an excellent adventure novel and extremely emblematic of a specific time and place in american culture. i will say i wish it was slightly more ~intellectual~ in the sense that it's mostly action without a lot of buildup to explain the characters' views or motives. he kind of assumes that readers are already on the same page as him vis-a-vis industrial sabotage and ecoterrorism, and doesn't do much work to convince people who might be on the fence. it's easy to see why this is a classic of the environmentalist movement, and i'm really glad that i read it!