The fact that it is also largely autobiographical imbues it with its devastating, startling genuineness. There's a jarring honesty to this novel that is both discomfiting and deeply moving. Nora's daughter, Gracie, grows up in this world of revolving doors, loosely-defined days, and recreational drugs, and I ache for her. Nora and Javo and the other free spirits they live with float in and out of one another's homes and lives with both ease and unease, defined by their rootless existence. 'Terminal naivety was my disease,' the novel's narrator Nora confesses, bumping up against this naivety again and again as she is dragged along in a desperate cycle of loving someone caught in the grip of addiction. For Monkey Grip is also ugly, exploring the strange connection of love that lingers even when there is no worthiness, a bind that exists even when the love itself is a thing broken and unhealthy. It might seem strange to call a novel beautiful when it is brimming with ugliness. There truly is something remarkable about this beautiful prose. Her picture of 1970s Australia feels deeply familiar while also being unfamiliar I find myself envying those who live in Melbourne and can experience that peculiar satisfaction of recognising beloved streets and landmarks and suburbs within the text. With just a few words, Garner is able to evoke images so strong it becomes entirely possible to inhabit the writing, to see what the character sees, to feel what she feels, to experience the sensation of the sun on your own skin. To me, the most powerful aspect of Garner's writing is that it is so incredibly evocative. Monkey Grip is, then, my first experience of one of her novels, and it's showing me why this author is held in such high esteem. So it was something of a surprise to me to realise that I'd only read shorter pieces by Garner, never anything longer. 'I grinned too, and shrugged, and felt again the moving of that reluctant love for him, in spite of all reason.'įor many of us who have grown up around Australian literature, Helen Garner is a familiar and revered name.

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