Signs of intelligence

Riding on a fast train through France, I read Helen Garner's novel Monkey Grip.

- Charlotte Grimshaw

Set in the mid-70s, it's the story of the relationship between a woman and her junkie boyfriend. It's fascinating to read now as a portrayal of the times.

The main character and her friends are firm in their ideological stance: it's all about free love; monogamy is an outdated concept; suburban conformity is terribly uncool.

Garner is an expert chronicler of ironies and subtleties. The women stick to their ideology, and they suffer from it. The free love makes them jealous; the junkie's behaviour is a nightmare. Sexual freedom seems aimless and occasionally destructive.

Garner's main character is a solo mother, and since parenting is a bourgeois construct, she doesn't do much of it. It's interesting to see child neglect portrayed as a social stance.