Monkey Grip (novel)
| Monkey Grip | |
|---|---|
 1st edition cover | |
| Author | Helen Garner |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | McPhee Gribble |
Publication date | 1977 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 245 |
| ISBN | 0-14-004953-3 |
| OCLC | 11950836 |
| Dewey Decimal | 823 19 |
| LC Class | PR9619.3.G3 M6 1984 |
| Followed by | Honour & Other People's Children |
Monkey Grip (1977) is a novel by Australian writer Helen Garner, her first published book. It initially received a mixed critical reception, but has now become accepted as a classic of modern Australian literature. A film based on the novel, also titled Monkey Grip, was released in 1982.
Plot summary
The novel is set in Melbourne in the mid 1970s. Nora is a single parent with a stable job as a teacher, but she lives in an inner-city shared house, part of a bohemia of students, musicians, and actors ...and junkies. Nora falls in love with Javo, an actor and a junkie. She drifts away from him, he drifts away from her. The harder they pull away from each other, the tighter the monkey grip.[1]
Themes
Kerryn Goldsworthy writes that almost all of Garner's fiction addresses "the relationship between sexual behaviour and social organisation; the anarchic nature of desire and the orderly face of the institution of 'family'".[2]
Critical reception
Monkey Grip initially met with a mixed reception.[3] It is now recognised as a classic of modern Australian literature.[4]
Movie adaptation
In 1982, the novel was adapted to the film Monkey Grip directed by Ken Cameron from his own screenplay. The lead actors were Noni Hazlehurst and Colin Friels.[5]
References
- ↑ Perry Middlemiss (1 May 2002). "Monkey Grip Helen Garner 1977". www.middlemiss.org. Retrieved 25 November 2008.
- ↑ Goldsworthy, Kerryn (1996) Australian Writers: Helen Garner, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, p. 28
- ↑ Goldsworthy (1996) p. 1
- ↑ Featured Modern Classics at Penguin Classics
- ↑ Monkey Grip at the Internet Movie Database