Book Review: "Monkey Grip" by Helen Garner

I remember reading This House of Grief by Helen Garner and I was pretty excited to see what else she had available. Yet, alas I didn't seem too interested just yet. I waited, and I waited until Monkey Grip came into my periphery again. It definitely did not impress me as much as This House of Grief did but it was genuinely a pretty good book. The more I got into it, the more I started to enjoy it. It felt less emotional and linear than the former book and yet, still held the narrative together. Honestly, I am quite surprised she can write well in these differing styles.

We open the story in 1970s Australia with the inner-city life and bohemian atmosphere of everything we want from this era. From swimming pools to bike rides, it seems rather idyllic but it definitely is not. We all know that it's probably not ideal living as a bohemian in the sense that they are really not realistic at all. This is where we get our main characters Nora and Javo - who are people going through this very cycle and not very well if you ask me. They are really not handling it the way a redemption story says that they should. Garner tries to teach us a lesson in shifting emotional boundaries even when safety and life is at risk and how this probably is not a great way to live your life.

Nora clearly doesn't have the adult freedoms her era promised to her. She's a 30-something single mother juggling her boring life with her domestic duties. Her desire for romantic fulfillment gets her involved with whatever the hell Javo is supposed to be. She records this as a diary and honestly, it is actually quite cool to read about her inner-thoughts because they do read as a person incomplete and searching. Her diaries read as a woman longing for something but I wouldn't say her answer is romantic entanglement with that weirdo. But, she goes ahead and does it anyway because it's the 1970s.

Javo is an addict and he is Nora's new obsession, especially his blue eyes. Her relationship with him seems to mirror addiction with these intense highs of passion and love and these withdrawal lows where the addict knows that the substance is abusing their system. It is complete with hangovers and realisations in which Nora wants to get 'clean'. Every time she tries to leave she always goes back out of a mixture of lots of different emotions. These include love, pity and hope. Garner writes this extended metaphor so well that it's only by the end of the novel do you really realise what you've just read - and I haven't given it all away here.

Then we have Gracie who is Nora's daughter - often only viewed secondary in Nora's life as she navigates her obsession with Javo. But weirdly enough, Garner doesn't present Nora as neglectful of Gracie but instead, she seeks to teach the reader that motherhood (especially single motherhood) can be really unpredictable and chaotic. And, that even though you may have a child, it does not necessarily mean that your life stops entirely for them. It is true that people think that mother's must stop their lives and feel nothing for themselves unless it is in the 100% interest of their child as well when they become mothers. But the reality is far more complex and often this is not confronted by anyone, especially the men in the mothers' lives.

Garner uses various settings to be metaphors for certain things that I won't say since they would be spoilers. I've already mentioned the swimming pool but there was also the parties that she and Javo were at and I recall a scene where he is sitting in the corner by himself. There's the temporary family they make along the way for convenience and they too, represent a sense of place. Garner uses all of these for the overarching extended metaphor of drug addiction being much like the chaos of love and life.

All in all, I thought this book definitely became more interesting as it went on and turned more destructive. It slowly descended to less of a love story and more of a fragmented tale of a woman balancing her entire life and all of its emotions. I would highly recommend this one.