- Monkey Grip (novel)
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Monkey Grip 
1st edition coverAuthor(s) Helen Garner Country Australia Language English Genre(s) Novel Publisher McPhee Gribble Publication date 1977 Media type Print Pages 245 ISBN 0140049533 OCLC Number 11950836 Dewey Decimal 823 19 LC Classification 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.
Contents
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. http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/garnerh/monkeygrip.html. 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
External links
- Australian novels at culture.gov.au
Categories:- 1977 novels
- Novels by Helen Garner
- Debut novels
- Novels set in Melbourne
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