Hayduke Lives! (1990)
This is a sequel to The Monkey-Wrench Gang which was
published after his death. Here the gang regroups once more for a
battle against the GOLIATH, a giant earth-moving machine that
walks. We also meet a bunch of Earth
First!ers fighting the same enemy.
In a way it was fun to meet Hayduke and the Gang again but this book is not as well written as The Monkey-Wrench Gang and a bit too long. I found it a bit "sexist" as well in it's obsession with Erika, the buxom blonde Earth First!-member. Abbey refers to her as "the Svenska", ("the Swedish girl") but both her name and accent is more German than Swedish.
This was Edward Abbey's last book, and it was published after his death. It's likely that it wasn't quite finished at his death and that this explains some of its rough edges.
Cover text
In Edward Abbey's critically acclaimed bestseller, The Monkey Wrench Gang, George Washington Hayduke -- ex-Green Beret and "wilderness avenger, industrial development saboteur, night-time trouble-maker, barroom brawler, free-time lover" -- was last seen clinging to a cliff, under fire from both a helicopter and a posse. Now presumed dead by all who stalked him, whereabouts unknown to those who knew him best ... HAYDUKE LIVES! -- and he does it with the same fiery vengeance and inspired scheming that made him the hero of eco-warriors everywhere.
As the legendary phoenix rises from the ashes, so does Hayduke surface to rescue his beloved canyon country, threatened yet again by his environmental nemesis, Bishop Dudley Love, and a legion of uranium stripminers and industrial developers. The Bishop's Mormon followers warmly accept the destruction of Mother Earth, seeing it as a way to create jobs, thereby keeping their children from venturing to "California or Salt Lake City (one near as wicked and Godless a place as the other...)."
Now winding down their last few months of probation from their criminally adventurous, tractor-burning, bridge-blowing days as members of George's famed Monkey Wrench Gang are Seldom Seen Smith, A.K. (Doc) Sarvis, and Bonnie Abzug-Sarvis. Nervously watching the battle between developers and environmentalists unfold, wondering if out of some shadow or corner Hayduke might emerge, each is only mildly surprised -- but deeply fearful -- when he finally does appear. Seducing each out of his of her comfortable life, Hayduke reunites his gang this last time, and, along with the mysterious black-masked (sometimes sunglassed) horseman, they take on the establishment to topple GOLIATH, the world's largest mobile earth-moving machine, now carving its way through the desert.
In this, Edward Abbey's last work before his death, he resurrects the Monkey Wrench Gang against the glorious backdrop of the American Southwest that he defended and loved. With the code of the eco-warrior ringing in his ears, the reader is caught up in an explosion of militant hilarity, brought along for the ride as the gang maneuvers against the bad guys to stand up for what they stand on!
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Library of Congress Data
Abbey, Edward, 1927- Hayduke lives] : a novel / by Edward Abbey. 1st ed. Boston : Little, Brown, c1990. 308 p. ; 24 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: PS3551.B2 H39 1990 SUBJECTS: Environmentalists--Southwestern States--Fiction. DEWEY DEC: 813/.54 dc20 ISBN: 0316004111 : $18.95 ($22.95 Can.) LCCN: 89-39725 r93
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