The Monkey Wrench Gang

Description

Audacious, controversial and hilarious, The Monkey Wrench Gang is Edward Abbey's masterpiece - a big, boisterous and unforgettable novel about freedom and commitment that ignited the flames of environmental activism. Throughout the vast American West, nature is being vicitimized by a Big Government / Big Business conspiracy of bridges, dams and concrete. But a motley gang of individuals has decided that enough is enough, A burnt-out veteran, a mad doctor and a polygamist join forces in a noble cause: to dismantle the machinery of progress through peaceful means, or otherwise.

Edward Abbey was born in Pennsylvania in 1927 and spent most of his life in the American southwest. His books include the celebrated Desert Solitaire (1968), which established Abbey as one of the country's foremost defenders of the environment, and The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975). Abbey died in 1989. He is today considered to be one of the most influential conservationists of the twentieth century.

The book that influenced a generation of radical environmentalists * Washington Post * The Monkey Wrench Gang is a magnificent snarl of genres: spaghetti westerns tangled up with the Keystone Cops, the Cervantean romance tradition and Acme cartoon capers * Guardian * A thing of beauty - a wildly funny, infinitely wise, near to tragic tale * Houston Chronicle * A violently revolutionary novel * The New York Times * Launched America's 'eco-defense' movement ... A lasting cult classic * LA Times * Mixes comedy and chaos with enough chase sequences to leave you hungering for more * San Francisco Chronicle * Inspired acts of eco-activism in its day, and remains one of the most passionate pleas in literature to protect our wild places * Independent * A sad, hilarious, exuberant, vulgar fairy tale... It'll make you want to go out and blow up a dam * The National Observer *