7.4 /10 1 Votes
Country Australia Publication date 1977 Pages 245 Originally published 1977 Genre Novel Publisher McPhee Gribble | 3.7/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print ISBN 0-14-004953-3 Page count 245 Adaptations Monkey Grip (1982) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 inner city suburbs of Melbourne in the mid 1970s. Nora and her young daughter live in a succession of share houses. She is in love with Javo, a heroin addict, who repeatedly drifts out of Nora's life, then back into it again. Di Gribble of McPhee Gribble, the book's first publisher, wrote that the title of the novel referred to both a linking of hands and the monkey on your back of drug addiction.
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'".
Critical reception
Monkey Grip initially met with a mixed reception. It is now recognised as a classic of modern Australian literature.
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.