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From Amazon
Ed Abbey's 1975 novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang, ended with a classic--and literal--cliffhanger: it left its hero, George Washington Hayduke III, clinging to a sheer rock face in the wilds of Utah as an armed posse hunted him down for his eco-radicalist crimes. Hayduke Lives! allows the grizzled Vietnam veteran another day in the sun, reunited with his old comrades Doc Sarvis, Seldom Seen Smith, and Bonnie Abbzug to battle the world's biggest earthmoving machine, the aptly named GOLIATH. Their principal foe, apart from that behemoth, is the fundamentalist preacher Dudley Love, the mastermind behind uranium mines, power plants, and other insults to Abbey's beloved desert. Abbey has great fun lampooning the pretensions of environmental activists, New Agers ("vee put flowers on zee Big Bucket, vee put flowers on zee driver's neck and hug heem? her? it? and kiss and luff and squeeze and make GOLIATH stop," says one starry-eyed European crystal gazer), and developers alike as he unfolds his tale of a motorized Wild West and its latter-day outlaw heroes. As full of improbable situations and noisy politics as Monkey Wrench Gang, Hayduke Lives! proves to be great fun for readers as well. --Gregory McNamee
From Publishers Weekly
Only apparently was Fool's Progress , a flawed but highly endearing novel, Abbey's swan song (he died last summer). Here, unexpectedly, is a posthumous sequel to the cult classic The Monkey Wrench Gang , unhappily, not the finest of farewells from a very original American writer. It is the sort of sequel that picks up all the characters years later; most of them--Doc, Bonnie, even Seldom Seen Smith--have more or less settled into respectability after their wild outrages against developers and ruiners of the Great Outdoors. Then along comes GOLIATH, the Giant Earth Mover, about to trample another precious wild canyon, and the fiercest of the old gang, George Hayduke, brings his friends unwillingly out of retirement for the biggest caper of their lives. It's ditzy, entertaining stuff, and Abbey, as always, strikes wonderful grace notes off the landscapes he loves. But the characters are a yard high, and the dialogue the sort that appears in bubbles over people's heads. Naturally the G.E.M. bites the dust, but in the course of the environmentalists' coup a man gets killed, contradicting what used to be the whole point of Abbey's writing: only machines died. This time out, his work seems a little sour and tired.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sequel Never as Good,
By Richard A. Mitchell "Rick Mitchell" (candia, new hampshire United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Hayduke Lives!: A Novel (Paperback)
This book could be a poster child for "The sequel never lives up to its predecessor." Whether or not you've read The Monkey Wrench Gang, you will know exactly what is going to happen at every step of the way. Worse, Abbey takes shortcuts. For instance: all the old characters are brought back; all meet Hayduke again who asks for their help; all refuse and then suddenly, without explanation, all are on board to help him destroy the huge earth-mover, GOLIATH. The object of their sabotage and the fact that they are back together is very predictable. Also, the final scene of destruction is disappointing. It too, "just happens". The message is still great. The cast of characters still appealingly eccentric, Hayduke still a demi-god, but it does not come near to the overall excellence of The Monkey Wrench Gang. Due to the shortcuts, I would strongly recommend not reading this book unless you've read Monkey Wrench. Even then, you better have really loved Monkey Wrench and want some more of the same.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't bother....,
By
This review is from: Hayduke Lives!: A Novel (Paperback)
I've read alot of Abbey's books. His Essays are great, as are his fictional stories. HOWEVER, this novel falls far short of Abbey's earlier works. I found it to be very crude in most places, And chock full of the [people] that helped create the conditions that burned my house down this last summer. I've met too many eco-radicals to find them amusing. I will hand it to Abbey, though - he did a great job of describing how these [people] act. In my virulent opinion, skip this book and read ANYTHING ELSE he wrote. This book is bad.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A worthy sequel,
By A Customer
This review is from: Hayduke Lives!: A Novel (Paperback)
Those who enjoyed The Monkey Wrench Gang will enjoy this sequel, which contains the same winning mix of ingredients as the original: biting satire, earthy humor, colorful characters, plenty of over-the-top action,and most importantly Abbey's underlying message that wild places are worth saving - even if one doesn't endorse the Gang's anarchistic approach. Those sympathetic to Abbey's lifelong cause of opposition to the forces of development and exploitation may also want to explore Carl Hiaasen's eco-terror comedies or the more complex and literary, but equally passionate, "Arcadia Falls" by Rand Johnson.
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