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A review by dakotamarosi
The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
1.0
This book is point blank, horrible. There is no story line whatsoever, merely an everlasting timeline of the most boring, teeth-grinding adventures of the motley Monkey Wrench Gang. Let's begin with our male characters, which makes up of about 95% of the book. What. Pigs. Bonnie is constantly objectified and often not thought of as a true human being. The men are misogynistic uncultured swine. Often she is taken to be just a body, and nothing more. Although credit where credit is due, Edward Abbey does occasionally write in warm regards to the female sex.
Next thing - they are trash ecologists. Literally. They constantly throw trash out of the truck they drive in, no regard to the nature they so desperately try to protect. Every time they burn something they further pollute the environment, every time Dr Sarvis and Miz Abzug get in a plane to fly 400 miles back to Alburquerque they just burn fossil fuels. For very violent ecologists, they are not too good at their jobs.
My next point, the dialogue and shop talk is unneccesary and slows down the story. What I mean by this is, so much of the story is just a description of how a bridge is built, or how the canyon is structure, or how the parts of a tractor or machinery can be easily disabled. This book could be a hundred pages shorter if everything wasn't described to us. It adds nothing to the story, and unless you're familiar with construction, machinery, or the topography of canyons, the descriptions will further confuse you and leave you lost.
Quite honestly, the introduction to the story was the best part. Douglas Brinkley is a fabulous writer and he posed a wonderful preposition to Abbey's terrible story. The preposition is really the only thing that keeps me going. I finished this book not because I enjoyed it, but rather because I just wanted to have the accomplishment of getting it done!
All in all, please don't read this. Please. This is a horrible book.
Next thing - they are trash ecologists. Literally. They constantly throw trash out of the truck they drive in, no regard to the nature they so desperately try to protect. Every time they burn something they further pollute the environment, every time Dr Sarvis and Miz Abzug get in a plane to fly 400 miles back to Alburquerque they just burn fossil fuels. For very violent ecologists, they are not too good at their jobs.
My next point, the dialogue and shop talk is unneccesary and slows down the story. What I mean by this is, so much of the story is just a description of how a bridge is built, or how the canyon is structure, or how the parts of a tractor or machinery can be easily disabled. This book could be a hundred pages shorter if everything wasn't described to us. It adds nothing to the story, and unless you're familiar with construction, machinery, or the topography of canyons, the descriptions will further confuse you and leave you lost.
Quite honestly, the introduction to the story was the best part. Douglas Brinkley is a fabulous writer and he posed a wonderful preposition to Abbey's terrible story. The preposition is really the only thing that keeps me going. I finished this book not because I enjoyed it, but rather because I just wanted to have the accomplishment of getting it done!
All in all, please don't read this. Please. This is a horrible book.