E quando lo fa, usa meno cattiveria, attenua la violenza, e non ci sottrae un finale che solleva il cuore. Solo che Edward Abbey si tiene lontano dal genere, noir o crime, dissemina meno armi spari sangue e violenza. Una volta abituatomi alla piacevole (!?) novità editoriale delle note fuori sync, nel senso che compaiono in basso mediamente un paio di pagine prima di essere indicate nel testo - quando sono indicate - ho avuto l’impressione di essere piombato dentro un romanzo di James Crumley: umori, personaggi, tono lo ricordano molto. It's comic, yes, and required reading for anyone who has come to love the desert. Moving from one improbable situation to the next, packing more adventure into the space of a few weeks than most real people do in a lifetime, the motley gang puts fear into the hearts of their enemies, laughing all the while. As they do, his characters voice Abbey's concerns about wilderness preservation ('Hell of a place to lose a cow,' Smith thinks to himself while roaming through the canyonlands of southern Utah.

On a rafting trip down the Colorado River, Hayduke joins forces with feminist saboteur Bonnie Abbzug, wilderness guide Seldom Seen Smith, and billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., and together they wander off to wage war on the big yellow machines, on dam builders and road builders and strip miners. The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to the desert to find his beloved canyons and rivers threatened by industrial development. Ed Abbey called The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a 'comic extravaganza.' Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it's true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief.

Edward abbey the monkey wrench