The Monkey Wrench Gang


The Monkey Wrench Gang is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey, published in 1975.
Easily Abbey's most famous work of fiction, the novel concerns the use of sabotage to protest environmentally damaging activities in the Southwestern United States, and was so influential that the term "monkeywrench" has come to mean, besides sabotage and damage to machines, any sabotage, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems.
In 1985, Dream Garden Press released a special 10th Anniversary edition of the book featuring illustrations by R. Crumb, plus a chapter titled "Seldom Seen at Home" that had been deleted from the original edition. Crumb's illustrations were used for a limited-edition calendar based on the book. The most recent edition was released in 2006 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Plot summary

The book's four main characters are ecologically minded misfits—"Seldom Seen" Smith, a Jack Mormon river guide; Doc Sarvis, an odd but wealthy and wise surgeon; Bonnie Abbzug, his young Jewish feminist assistant; and a rather eccentric Green Beret Vietnam veteran, George Hayduke. Together, although not always working as a tightly knit team, they form the titular group dedicated to the destruction of what they see as the system that pollutes and destroys their environment, the American West. As the gang's attacks on deserted bulldozers and trains continue, the law closes in.
For the gang, the enemy is those who would develop the American Southwest—despoiling the land, befouling the air, and destroying nature and the sacred purity of Abbey's desert world. Their greatest hatred is focused on the Glen Canyon Dam, a monolithic edifice of concrete that the monkey-wrenchers seek to destroy because it dams a beautiful wild river.

Reception

In his book Screw Unto Others, George Hayduke states that Edward Abbey was his mentor, and mentions The Monkey Wrench Gang as the origin of the term monkey-wrenching. Hayduke says The Monkey Wrench Gang inspired environmentalist David Foreman to help create Earth First! a direct action environmental organization that often advocates much of the minor vandalism depicted in the book. Many scenes of vandalism and ecologically motivated mayhem, including a billboard burning at the beginning of the book and the use of caltrops to elude a group of vigilantes, are presented in sufficient detail as to form a skeletal how-to for would-be saboteurs. The actions are presented in a larger-than-life format, because much of what Hayduke, and the rest of the characters in the story face are larger-than-life obstacles that require larger-than-life approaches.
The symbol of the Earth Liberation Front is a monkey wrench and stone hammer.
In his book , author Matt Ruff notes:

Sequel

As of 2012, a film adaptation of the book, to be directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, was being planned. The film rights holders for the book filed suit against the producers of Night Moves, charging that the film's plot is significantly similar to the story of book.