Its narrative gave weight to the everyday lives of its characters, many of them women, by considering them worthy of literary treatment. After all, it is where Monkey Grip’s radical politics lie. Wood’s emphasis on the personal in the novel’s narrative and in her response to the book is important. As I said, Garner makes me look at who I am. Like all Garner’s work, it also makes me examine who I am now.’ Wood underscores that this is the reason for the book’s enduring appeal: ‘There it is, that willingness to own up and face the self, right from the start. Wood declares in her opening paragraph that Monkey Grip ‘makes me remember the person I was in my youth. I put my arm round Willy’s waist and he laid his over my shoulder Our boots beat the footpath in rhythm, and we walked back to Carlton in the cold spring night.Īt the time, Garner’s focus on the domestic and on the geography of a local urban milieu was original in the field of Australian fiction: a Melbourne author writing about her community in the areas in which she lived her daily life. In her foreword to the new edition, Charlotte Wood focuses on these intimate landscapes in both Garner’s book and in her own reading of the book. When we left the restaurant we walked up Russell Street, strung across the pavement, Gracie riding on Jack’s shoulders. They were sitting at a table with Willy and Paddy, who had their backs to the door They were glad to see me and I sat down with them to eat. I ran in, eager for a sight of their familiarity.
I chased them down Russell Street to Jimmy’s in the city. For Nora, the narrator and protagonist, it is the locus of the social encounter and emotional intensity on which the book’s narrative depends: The city is much more than a backdrop to action. Monkey Grip exhibits an intimacy with place that is built through local knowledge and the regular, routine movement through the spaces of one’s life. Certainly, it is a novel absolutely grounded in and shaped by place. In addition to being widely considered a classic of Australian fiction, Monkey Grip is frequently referred to as an iconic ‘Melbourne’ novel.
Text’s new edition of Helen Garner’s 1977 novel Monkey Grip is an opportunity to revisit the book’s influence on Melbourne.
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