I really ought to trust my first instincts more. There's some really nice writing here: lovely turns of phrase from time to time and well-observed descriptive passages, but despite that, and the improvement in my response thanks to reading it in a different manner, I still ended up feeling unfulfilled and, basically, bored. This is essentially a diary and should perhaps be read as such. Her characters are exploring new ways of loving and living - and nothing is harder than learning to love lightly. It is narrated in first person by the main character, Nora. reading as much of it as I could each night, but eventually had to put it aside as it was getting me down too badly.Īfter starting another book, I kept this one going from the halfway point where I had paused by reading just one (brief) chapter each evening, and I must say that made it a better experience. In Monkey Grip, Helen Garner charts the lives of a generation. I tried to read it like a 'normal' book, i.e. Starting off, I found this disjointed, dull and, of course, depressing. My gut aversion was to the subject matter: a woman endlessly in love with a junkie despite all the bullshit that entails.

| Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) | Melbourne (Vic.) - Social life and customs - 1965- Fiction.I knew there was a reason I was avoiding this book, despite knowing that Helen Garner is a fabulous writer. 'A lyrical, rough-edged novel full of warmth and uncompromising feeling' The Sunday Age.'- Website.įirst published by McPhee Gribble Publishers, 1977.Īustralian fiction. But caught in an increasingly ambiguous relationship, they are unable to let go - and the harder they pull away from each other, the tighter the monkey grip. Nora falls in love with Javo the junkie, and together they try to make sense of their lives and the choices they have made.

In this acclaimed first novel, Helen Garner captures the fluid relationships of a community of friends who are living and loving in new ways. Inner-suburban Melbourne in the 1970s: a world of communal living, drugs, music and love. It initially received a mixed critical reception, but has now become accepted as a classic of modern Australian literature. 'Monkey Grip (1977) is a novel by Australian writer Helen Garner, her first published book. Melbourne, Victoria : Penguin Group (Australia), 2008 National edeposit: Available onsite at national, state and territory libraries National edeposit: Onsite at National Library of Australia.

Monkey Grip by Helen Garner