Synopses & Reviews
Monkey Beach combines both joy and tragedy in a harrowing yet restrained story of grief and survival, and of a family on the edge of heartbreak. In the first English-language novel to be published by a Haisla writer, Eden Robinson offers a rich celebration of life in the Native settlement of Kitamaat, on the coast of British Columbia.
The story grips the reader from the beginning. It is the morning after the narrator’s brother has gone missing at sea; the mood is tense in the family house, as speculations remain unspoken. Jimmy is a prospective Olympic swimmer, seventeen years old and on the edge of proposing to his beautiful girlfriend Karaoke. As his elder sister, Lisa, faces possible disaster, she chain-smokes and drifts into thoughts of their lives so far. She recalls the time when she and Jimmy saw the sasquatch, or b’gwus – and this sighting introduces the novel's fascinating undercurrent of characters from the spirit world. These ghostly presences may strike the reader as mysterious or frightening, but they provide Lisa with guidance through a difficult coming of age.
In and out of the emergency room as a child, Lisa is a fighter. Her smart mouth and temper constantly threaten to land her in serious trouble. Those who have the most influence on her are her stubbornly traditional, machete-wielding grandmother, and her wild, passionate, political Uncle Mick, who teaches her to make moose calls. When they empty fishing nets together, she pretends she doesn’t feel the jellyfish stinging her young hands – she’s Uncle Mick’s “little warrior.”
We watch Lisa leave her teenage years behind as she waits for news of her younger brother. She reflects on the many rich episodes of their lives – so many of which take place around the water, reminding us of the news she fears, and revealing the menacing power of nature. But Lisa has a special recourse – a “gift” that enables her to see and hear spirits, and ask for their help.
Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson’s first novel, was nominated for Canada’s two largest literary prizes: the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award. The book was also published in Great Britain, the United States and Germany, and was a Canadian bestseller for many weeks. Monkey Beach is beautifully written, in prose that is simple and subtle, bold and vivid, and pervaded by humour.
Robinson fills her novel with details of Haisla culture and the rich wildlife surrounding Kitamaat. She uses traditional elements of storytelling – such as dreams, and people’s ties to nature – but also demystifies Native beliefs, simultaneously peeling away and intensifying the mystery surrounding spirits. Ancient rituals are shown as part of the reality of a modern Native community, along with Kraft Dinner and TV soaps and the legacy of residential schools. Robinson’s previous book of stories, Traplines, was remarked upon for being brutally honest, featuring rapists and drunks and drug dealers, psychopaths and sadists – proving to The New York Times that “Canadians are as weird and violent as anyone else.” Monkey Beach is just as honest, but only hints at the darker elements. In the words of the author, “None of the characters are bad. They’re just reacting like anyone else to situations of loss and death.”
Synopsis
From the winner of the Winifred Holtby Prize: a rich and haunting story of a family on the edge of heartbreak. Monkey Beach is a breathtaking novel - and the first ever published by a Haisla writer.
Jimmy Hill is a 17-year-old swimmer and Olympic hopeful with everything going for him: talent, charm, and devastating good looks. Much sought out by local boy-chasers, Jimmy dates a different girl virtually each week until he falls in love with Karaoke, the tough-as-nails village beauty. And then comes the horrifying phone call: Jimmy has vanished at sea.
Left behind is Lisamarie, Jimmy's wayward older sister who has carved out a delicate peace with her family at last, including the brother she too often casually wished would disappear. Through her we meet the unforgettable Hills: her loving parents, struggling to marry their Haisla heritage with Western ways; her uncle Mick, Native-rights activist and Elvis fan; her self-reliant grandmother Ma-ma-oo, guardian of tradition. But Lisamarie has other advisors less tangible or trustworthy: ghosts, Sasquatches, and animal spirits that weave their lessons through the book.
Monkey Beach is a spellbinding voyage - one that gives full scope to Robinson's renowned ability to make bedfellows of comedy and the dark underside of life. Informed as much by its lush, living wilderness as by its colourful characters, Monkey Beach is a startling coming-of-age story, and a multilayered tale of family grief and redemption.
Synopsis
"
Monkey Beach creates a vivid contemporary landscape that draws the reader deep into a traditional world, a hidden universe of premonition, pain and power." --Thomas King
Tragedy strikes a Native community when the Hill family's handsome seventeen-year-old son, Jimmy, mysteriously vanishes at sea. Left behind to cope during the search-and-rescue effort is his sister, Lisamarie, a wayward teenager with a dark secret. She sets off alone in search of Jimmy through the Douglas Channel and heads for Monkey Beach--a shore famed for its sasquatch sightings. Infused by turns with darkness and humour, Monkey Beach is a spellbinding voyage into the long, cool shadows of B.C.'s Coast Mountains, blending teen culture, Haisla lore, nature spirits and human tenderness into a multi-layered story of loss and redemption.
Synopsis
Monkey Beach combines both joy and tragedy in a harrowing yet restrained story of grief and survival, and of a family on the edge of heartbreak. In the first English-language novel to be published by a Haisla writer, Eden Robinson offers a rich celebration of life in the Native settlement of Kitamaat, on the coast of British Columbia.
The story grips the reader from the beginning. It is the morning after the narrators brother has gone missing at sea; the mood is tense in the family house, as speculations remain unspoken. Jimmy is a prospective Olympic swimmer, seventeen years old and on the edge of proposing to his beautiful girlfriend Karaoke. As his elder sister, Lisa, faces possible disaster, she chain-smokes and drifts into thoughts of their lives so far. She recalls the time when she and Jimmy saw the sasquatch, or bgwus - and this sighting introduces the novel's fascinating undercurrent of characters from the spirit world. These ghostly presences may strike the reader as mysterious or frightening, but they provide Lisa with guidance through a difficult coming of age.
In and out of the emergency room as a child, Lisa is a fighter. Her smart mouth and temper constantly threaten to land her in serious trouble. Those who have the most influence on her are her stubbornly traditional, machete-wielding grandmother, and her wild, passionate, political Uncle Mick, who teaches her to make moose calls. When they empty fishing nets together, she pretends she doesnt feel the jellyfish stinging her young hands - shes Uncle Micks “little warrior.”
We watch Lisa leave her teenage years behind as she waits for news of her younger brother. She reflects on the many rich episodes of their lives - so many of which take place around the water, reminding us of the news she fears, and revealing the menacing power of nature. But Lisa has a special recourse - a “gift” that enables her to see and hear spirits, and ask for their help.
Monkey Beach, Eden Robinsons first novel, was nominated for Canadas two largest literary prizes: the Giller Prize and the Governor Generals Literary Award. The book was also published in Great Britain, the United States and Germany, and was a Canadian bestseller for many weeks. Monkey Beach is beautifully written, in prose that is simple and subtle, bold and vivid, and pervaded by humour.
Robinson fills her novel with details of Haisla culture and the rich wildlife surrounding Kitamaat. She uses traditional elements of storytelling - such as dreams, and peoples ties to nature - but also demystifies Native beliefs, simultaneously peeling away and intensifying the mystery surrounding spirits. Ancient rituals are shown as part of the reality of a modern Native community, along with Kraft Dinner and TV soaps and the legacy of residential schools. Robinsons previous book of stories, Traplines, was remarked upon for being brutally honest, featuring rapists and drunks and drug dealers, psychopaths and sadists - proving to The New York Times that “Canadians are as weird and violent as anyone else.” Monkey Beach is just as honest, but only hints at the darker elements. In the words of the author, “None of the characters are bad. Theyre just reacting like anyone else to situations of loss and death.”
About the Author
“I was born on the same day as Edgar Allan Poe and Dolly Parton: January 19. I am absolutely certain that this affects my writing in some way.”
One of Eden Robinsons biggest literary influences has been Stephen King, whose books she read compulsively between the ages of ten and fourteen, when she started writing her own stories. “I was a bookworm, right from the beginning. When I got bored of classes, Id skip them and go to the library.” Later, studying creative writing at the University of Victoria, Eden says she flunked in fiction and blossomed in poetry. “My first-year poetry professor was Robin Skelton. He was a bit late for class and showed up wearing a pentagram ring. I thought — hey, cool.”
As a young writer, Eden Robinson shares some literary territory with the likes of Michelle Berry, Michael Turner, Evelyn Lau and Andrew Pyper, none of whom shirks from portraying the bleaker sides of growing up in the seventies and eighties. As a Native Canadian writer, Robinson joins the ranks of novelists Thomas King, Tomson Highway, Richard Wagamese and Lee Maracle, non-fiction author and poet Gregory Scofield, and playwrights Daniel David Moses and Drew Hayden Taylor in describing Native traditions and modern realities with beautiful, honest language and biting black humour.
Robinson grew up with her older brother and younger sister (CBC-TV anchor Carla Robinson) in Haisla territory near Kitamaat Village, surrounded by the forests and mountains of the central coast of British Columbia. They were children of a mixed marriage — her Haisla father met her Heiltsuk mother during a stop in Bella Bella in his fishing days. Kitamaat, a Tsimshian word meaning “people of the falling snow,” (and not to be confused with nearby Kitimat town), is home to seven hundred members of the Haisla nation, with another eight hundred or so living off-reserve.
After earning her B.A., Eden Robinson moved to Vancouver to look for work that would allow her to spend time writing. A late-night writer, she ended up taking “a lot of McJobs” — janitor, mail clerk, napkin ironer. She decided to enter the masters program at the University of British Columbia after having a short story published in its literary magazine PRISM international. Traplines was the young woman's first book, a collection of dark and brutal stories that feature a deadpan, gritty humour. While Eden was finishing work on the book, her paternal grandmother died; Eden feels the knowledge of real grief affected her writing. The book was published in 1996 and won the UKs Winifred Holtby prize.
Eden holed herself up in her Vancouver apartment to write Monkey Beach. Though she had written a novella before (Traplines is composed of just four stories, one over 100 pages long), Eden had to work hard at the structuring of her first novel. The result is compelling and complex; The Washington Post called it “artfully constructed,” the National Post deemed it “intricately patterned.” Critics in the US, the UK and Canada were unanimous in their appreciation of the book.
Eden Robinson has become one of Canadas first female Native writers to gain international attention, making her an important role model. Monkey Beach evinces a love of her culture — Robinson maintains that if you dont grow up on Oolichan grease, youre not going to learn to love it, never mind make it; and if you grow up on supermarket vegetables, youre not going to learn when and where to find salmonberry shoots. She has used her celebrity to draw attention in Time magazine to the Canadian governments chipping away at Native health care, and to the lack of subsidized housing for urban Natives. This limited housing leads to overcrowding on reserves, where there is little access to jobs. Robinson argues that Natives forfeited rights and land for just these types of government services. Eden Robinson has been a Writer-in-Residence at the Whitehorse Public Library, and will be working with the Writers in Electronic Residence program, which links schools across the country with professional writers. She enjoys travelling, and supported herself with travel writing in Europe before the publication of Monkey Beach.
Author Q&A
1) Can you tell us how you became a writer?I was an avid reader long before I considered becoming a writer. When I was young, I wanted to be an astronaut, so I was focused on the sciences and math until NASA started using shuttles. I wanted to go up in a rocket because they seemed more romantic than shuttles, and so I gave up on the idea of being an astronaut. I spent my grade ten year debating my future career — pastry chef, stewardess, biologist — before some of my English teachers encouraged me to explore writing.
2) What inspired you to write this particular book? Is there a story about the writing of this novel that begs to be told?
Monkey Beach was originally a short story. I brought it into a workshop, and they pointed out that it was a string of interesting anecdotes about drowning, but not an actual short story. It didn’t even have a main character at that point. My mother had told me stories about fishing accidents when I was a child, and I’d been trying to recapture that feeling of dread and wonder you get when you’re working on the ocean. I expanded the story until it became a novella, at which point my agent said it was going to be a novel. I didn’t believe her until I hit page 200 and there still wasn’t an end in sight.
3) What is that you’re exploring in this book?
The redemptive power of love. All the characters are dealing with love or the lack of it.
4) Who is your favourite character in this book, and why?
I have a soft spot for Uncle Mick. All the sections with him in it came easy because he’s such an energetic, nutty character.
5) Are there any tips you would give a book club to better navigate their discussion of your book?
At home, we get together after dinner and have coffee. One person starts telling stories, and then people chime in, add details, debate details, tell related stories and then wind back to the person who was telling the first story. Coffee went as long as the story needed to be told. I wanted Monkey Beach to have that kind of structure: so it’s more or less linear, with different characters chiming in.
6) Do you have a favourite story to tell about being interviewed about your book?
One interviewer kept calling me by my main character’s name, Lisa. She asked me how it felt when my brother was reported missing, and I burst out laughing. She looked shocked and I had to explain that I wasn’t Lisa, and my own brother wasn’t missing. In fact, he was waiting for me at a nearby café where we were going to get together and plan my website. She kept calling me Lisa right to the end, and then afterwards, gave me the business card of a grief councilor.
7) What question are you never asked in interviews but wish you were?
Did you have a favourite pet? Yes, my canary Elvis, who didn’t sing. When I let her out of her cage to fly around my apartment, she would land on my computer when she got tired and watch me write. She died the day Monkey Beach was finished, and I was elated and devastated at the same time. It was kind of embarrassing to miss something so small so much, but she was there through all the tough parts of the book, watching over me.
8) Has a review or profile ever changed your perspective on your work?
One reviewer detailed — page by page — how many times people in my book smoked, and then gave Monkey Beach a bad review because he thought my main character was an unhealthy influence on today’s native youth. Before that, I’d agonized over every review, good or bad. Now I can take them with a grain of salt and extract the things that are useful to me and ignore the things that aren’t.
9) Which authors have been most influential to your own writing?
I blame Stephen King for my love of horror, but it was probably Edgar Allen Poe who kicked that off. My grade four teacher had two passions: The Sound of Music and Poe. He’d dance through the class singing Edelweiss, and then we’d read “The Pit and the Pendulum” or “The Telltale Heart.” Poe was born on the same day as me, January 19, along with Dolly Parton. I’m sure that influences my writing in some way.
10) If you weren't writing, what would you want to be doing for a living? What are some of your other passions in life?
If I wasn’t writing, I’d probably own a stationary store. I love being around paper and pens and organizing gadgets. When I was living in Vancouver, a Staples store opened next door to my apartment building and I knew it was getting bad when the clerks started greeting me by name. I knew it was really bad when I started maxing out my credit cards.
11) If you could have written one book in history, what book would that be?
Pride and Prejudice. It’s my comfort book. Whenever things go bad, I turn to Austen. I had to stop reading her for a while when I was writing Monkey Beach because one of my characters was turning into Darcy.