{"product_id":"2026100009388-secondhand-monkey-grip-signed","title":"Monkey Grip (SIGNED)","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: First Edition\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Worn\/faded, no tears\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Signed\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: unclipped dj. Pages: light foxing on book block. Binding: remains tight; boards: square and clean. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the sun-drenched yet shadow-laden sharehouses of 1970s Melbourne, Monkey Grip chronicles the consuming, destructive love affair between Nora, a single mother navigating communal living, and Javo, a charismatic heroin addict whose pull on her is as inescapable as the title suggests. Helen Garner's debut novel — drawn from her own diaries — presents a raw, unflinching portrait of a counterculture world where freedom and dependency exist in brutal proximity, rendered in prose so immediate and sensory it reads less like fiction than lived memory.\n\nGarner's style is deceptively spare, stripping away romanticism to reveal the cyclical, almost ritualistic nature of compulsive love and addiction, themes that give the novel a universality far beyond its specific time and place. First published in 1977, Monkey Grip ignited controversy in Australia for its frank depictions of drug use and sexuality, yet went on to win the National Book Council Award and cement Garner's reputation as one of the most vital and honest voices in Australian literature. It remains a landmark of Australian fiction — a book that dares the reader to look away, and makes it impossible to do so.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49203102613723,"sku":"2026100009388-SECONDHAND","price":800.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/7f24b875-25bb-4347-b40e-6026217f1981.png?v=1788143723","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100009388-secondhand-monkey-grip-signed","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}