Lisa’s brother, Jimmy, has gone missing. The fishing boat on which he was serving as a deckhand has sunk and its whereabouts are unknown. The book begins with the family preparing to go look for him, and it weaves its way back and forth from the past to the present as Lisa explores her childhood and teenage memories. The story is set in Kitamaat, not to be confused with Kitimat, and Lisa and her family are Haisla. This book is a rich introduction to Haisla culture, particularly the language and the food, and all of the characters leap off the page. I especially loved Ma-ma-oo and her independence, and the relationship between Lisa’s parents and how they related to their children. This was an excellent book, and I definitely recommend it if you’re looking to try Eden Robinson’s work but don’t want to commit to a trilogy. ( )

A third of the way through Monkey Beach, I felt like I forgot how to read. You know when you get anxious and start to question whether you know how to breathe? It was like that, but cultural.

As of this writing, I know that this is because Eden Robinson’s writing is excellent. She reels us in on the first page with Lisamarie’s description of the interminable waiting for news of her missing brother, Jimmy. The story itself takes place in the present, and she uses digression into the past to stitch together the numerous story lines that brought her home to Kitimat, BC, and put her brother on a fishing boat off the coast. She has this way of talking about both beautiful and horrible things without ever explicitly describing them with words.

I think it is that ability that made me question whether I understood the book. The early part of the novel are stories from Lisa’s childhood, which brought to mind growing up in the 80s with my cousin, whose mom was Tsimshian. Her dad (my uncle), like me, was white. I was told that they couldn’t get married because my aunt would lose her Indian status. That was just the beginning of the ways that my cousin’s and my lives were inherently different. So, as I read, I was simultaneously aware of knowing my cousin, but not knowing her life; getting the words, but not getting the book.

In my frustration, I wanted to reduce it to an excessively expository narrative with a disordered storyline that didn’t always move the plot forward. But I had this feeling that Robinson was being intentional with her style. Why though?

By the end, I was no closer to the answer. I did not know what Eden Robinson meant by this book. I mentioned my frustration to a friend and she pointed to me to this lecture (https://archive.org/details/podcast_big-ideas-audio_nick-mount-on-eden-robinsons_1000339542491) by U of T professor Nick Mount that made me realize that the Monkey Beach may be written in English, but it isn’t English literature. It seems so obvious now, but the story is bound up in the Haisla cultural traditions and the history of Indigenous oppression in Canada. Therefor, it’s analysis must include these perspectives. Mount says:

“[Lisa] is giving us her story out of order and in pieces because that is the state in which her history has been left by the residential school system [. . .] By making the plot difficult to follow, by making the lessons difficult to read, what Robinson is doing is making the reader undergo the same experience that the Native has had to go through of reconstructing the past from fragments.”

And that is how, in 57 minutes, I went from not getting it to partway through Robinson’s book of short stories called Traplines. I recommend them both. 5/5 stars. ( )

Umm, this was a strange one, interesting enough to keep me reading.

Basically, it is a circular story of a Haisla girl coming of age, intertwined with a passing of age.

You'll find in it what I thought well executed youthful angst, rebelliousness, impetuousness, and naïveness, portrayed with imagination bordering on bizarre because life can be perplexingly boring.

Any more than that I'll leave you to ponder in reading the book. ( )

Loved the pace and the timeline shifts. A good example of 'show not tell' and a complex natural and human environment. Very poignant. And not quite resolved in a very satisfying way. I had never heard of it before I picked it off the shelf for it's intriguing cover but I'm not surprised at all that it has been a set text for other reviewers. ( )

Absolutely fabulous book! I struggled a bit with appreciating the ending despite normally feeling good about things being left ambiguous. I guess I was more invested in the characters than I normally am (which speaks to the character development). Would read again in a heartbeat. ( )

Monkey Beach is a poignant read that sheds light on the lives of Indigenous people living in a remote part of the British Columbia coast. On one hand, the book shares fascinating insights into Haisla lore and culture on their traditional territory, and on the other, the harsh reality of the impact that colonization has had on Indigenous people like Lisa’s family. As a teen in 1980s Kitamaat Village, Lisa has to make sense of a world where Oolichan grease and shape-shifters coexist with Alcan and the Overwaitea, and where her gift for sensing something bad is about to happen does not make her losses any less devastating.

I lost track of the different timelines at the end of the story and despite rereading it, I’m still not sure if she ended up in (the title of chapter four) or was just visiting. After speaking with the author, I learned that that is the way she intended it.

Search Google Maps for “Bishops Bay -Monkey Beach Conservancy” to get an idea of the remoteness of this place and picture Lisa walking through this forest with her grandmother, or boating there alone all the way from Kitamaat Village. Kitamaat Village, was the home of the Elizabeth Long Residential School, which operated until 1940. ( )

Beautifully descriptive, definitely thought-provoking. ( )

Almost unbearably sad with unforgettable characters. Got a bit too gothic for me by the end but I was totally enthralled by the narrative voice. ( )

"Weegit the raven has mellowed in his old age. He's still a confirmed bachelor, but he's not the womanizer he once was. Plying the stock market - instead of spending his time being a trickster - has paid off and he has a comfortable condo downtown. He plays up the angle about creating the world and humans, conveniently forgetting that he did it out of boredom. Yes, he admits, he did steal the sun and the moon, but he insists he did it to bring light to humankind even though he did it so it would be easier for him to find food. After some spin control on the crazy pranks of his youth, he's become respectable."

Now this was a realistic coming of age novel with a twist. What a ride!

The story is set in Kitamaat, north of Vancouver, and follows young Lisamarie growing up in the Haisla community. Lisamarie is different - she's pretty tough, taking no nonsense from anyone, but she also has a very sensitive side which allows her to fully experience the beliefs of her people - from the close ties with the natural surroundings to the manifestations of the supernatural.

It is difficult to describe this book. It's a mystery really. It is not a book about the supernatural as such, but Robinson does spin this web that links myth and reality and that makes it very easy to suspend disbelief and slide from one world of facts into the world of folklore.

Absolutely loved it! ( )

Originally posted at http://olduvaireads.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/diversiverse-and-rip-ix-read-monkey...


"I want to stay here on Monkey Beach. Some places are full of power, you can feel it, like a warmth, a tingle. No sasquatches are wandering around the beach today, chased by ambitious, camera-happy boys. Just an otter lounging in the kelp bobbing in the surf and the things in the trees, which may or may not be my imagination."



Jimmy Hill is lost at sea, the fishing boat he was on has lost contact and things are not looking good. Lisamarie, his older sister, waits for information as the search and rescue operation begins. And she begins to reflect on her life in Kitamaat, in this small Haisla Canadian Indian community that she’s grown up in with her family, relatives, friends, sasquatches and ghosts. The narrative moves from present to past and back again, as Lisa chalks up her own (ship)wrecked life. One of alcohol and drugs, of bullies and gangs at school, of tragedies and lost loved ones. And always, forever present, the spirits, the ghosts, the premonitions that surround her, are a part of her life, make her who she is.

It just so happened that Open Road sent me an email offering an e-book version of Monkey Beach for review. I don’t receive many of these types of emails so I’ll just chalk it up to fate! I was meant to read this book and write about it for Diversiverse!

Because what a book it is. And so deserving of being read by more people, whether for Diversiverse or RIP or otherwise.

Monkey Beach was, for me, one of the more, well, diverse reads in these past few weeks of Diversiverse reading.

The Haisla culture, the life in this village north of Vancouver. It’s myths and customs, food and traditions. All completely new to me.

Then there’s that very stark difference between my current suburban American life and my Singaporean childhood, teenhood and adulthood (very urban, very populated, fast-paced, where even in the middle of the night there is noise from somewhere. Singapore is far from quiet) and life in Kitamaat, where boat trips are common, where her family goes camping or fishing or foraging in the woods for berries.

"Oolichan grease is a delicacy that you have to grow up eating to love. Silvery, slender oolichans are about as long as your hand and a little thicker than your thumb. They are part of the smelt family and are one of the tastiest fish on the planet. Cooking oolichans can be as simple as broiling them in the oven until they’re singed— which is heavenly but very smelly, and hard on your ears if you have a noisy smoke alarm— or as touchy and complicated as rendering oil from them to make a concoction called grease. Oolichans can also be dried, smoked, sun-dried, salted, boiled, canned, frozen, but they are tastiest fresh. The best way to eat fresh oolichans is to run them through with a stick and roast them over an open fire like wieners, then eat them while they’re sizzling hot and dripping down your fingers."



"I loved going to Monkey Beach, because you couldn’t take a step without crushing seashells, the crunch of your steps loud and satisfying. The water was so pure that you could see straight down to the bottom. You could watch crabs skittering sideways over discarded clam and cockleshells, and shiners flicking back and forth. Kelp the colour of brown beer bottles rose from the bottom, tall and thin with bulbs on top, each bulb with long strands growing out of it, as flat as noodles, waving in the tide."



Lisa’s relationship with her family is also a big part of the book. Her beloved Uncle Mick, a Native rights activist, the kind of uncle who lets out a moose call to attract their attention at a party. Her cantankerous and rather hilarious grandmother Ma-ma-oo who teaches her about Haisla ways, whose thrifty ways meant her curtains were so threadbare, her TV picked up CB signals, but her fishing nets were always immaculate.

It is also a story that speaks of a love for place and culture, as Robinson has set it in the village of Kitamaat where she was born. And while remote, this little community cannot ignore the encroachment of the rest of the world and its influences.

"The tide rocks the kelp beds, the long dark leaves trail gently in the cloudy green water. I hear squeaking and chirping. Dark bodies twirl in the water, pause, still for a moment as I’m examined. I dip my hands in the water and the sea otters dart away, then back, timid as fish. Well, I’m here, I think. At Monkey Beach."

And with its restless spirits, its ghostly premonitions, the visions of Sasquatches, Lisa’s life hovers between two worlds.

“I heard something crunching on the hardened snow. In the distance, I could hear whistles. Something was coming towards me. I kept watching the sky. No one’s here, I told myself. I’m not letting my imagination get away from me. I am alone, and I don’t see anything but the auroras, low on the horzion, undulating to their own music.”

Monkey Beach is that gem of a book that sweeps you off your comfy reading chair and into the embrace of a different place altogether – the salty sea breeze caresses your hair and the greasy scent of oolichans sizzling on the campfire lures you in. And all the time, those restless spirits murmur and whisper. ( )

I could not resist the narrative voice of this earthy, augury filled, family rich story set in the First Nations Haisla community of western Canada. Nineteen year old Lisamarie is generally fearless and never takes guff from anyone--she’ll launch herself at a gang of bullies without hesitation and her uncle affectionately calls her monster--but the nighttime visits she receives from a small, wild, red haired man terrify her because they always precede a death or tragedy. It’s a visionary “gift” she discovers runs in her family, though no one talks much about anymore so she’s mostly on her own with it.

When her younger brother Jimmy is lost at sea Lisamarie embarks on a solo speedboat trip up the Pacific coast driven by guilt, fear and grief, determined to find him or his body. Her vivid memories and visions along the way take the story all the way back to her early childhood and into the land of the dead.

The ending? It’s somewhat hallucinatory, not something I could confidently articulate, but I was swept along anyway. With writing that’s beautiful and raw, this book is a colorful, sometimes dizzying odyssey, filled with ghosts, poverty, kinship ties, Haisla culture, Sasquatch monkey men, and the grit and wonder of the natural world. ( )

there was much about this novel that was appealing, particularly the aspects of native culture, and the settings. lisa's relationship with ma-ma-oo was my favourite piece of the book, and the knowledge lisa gained from her grandmother was so interesting to me. robinson deals with some very difficult themes within native culture. given the current unacceptable and heartbreaking situation in canada concerning the murdered and missing indigenous women, this is a very timely read.

unfortunately, there's a 'but' coming... but i just didn't feel like this book pulled everything it was trying to do together well enough. some of the characters were very thinly developed and some situations seemed without purpose. by the end of the book, i just felt disappointed, as though the book didn't quite reach the potential.

i do think this is an important book for the canadian canon, and there were definitely parts i thought were quite strong. i just didn't feel the overall quality of the writing was mind-blowing, and it was inconsistent. i am sorry! i really wanted to love the book.

(as an aside -- i am wondering how my reading impacted my feelings of the novel? i read this as part of a group read, and stuck to the reading schedule, which is hard for me to do. normally i would read a book of this length in a couple of days. in keeping to the group read, i read it over 3 weeks. i do feel my experience with the book may have been stronger if i had not drawn it out so long, with long pauses between reading session.) ( )

Monkey Beach has been described as a psychological thriller with supernatural elements, and that is close to the truth. But it is primarily the coming-of-age story of a girl struggling to come to terms with the troubled and troubling world in which she lives. Lisamarie Hill, nineteen, has settled into an uneasy truce with her family in Kitamaat, B.C., after residing for several booze-soaked months in Vancouver. Lisamarie's family is a part of the Haisla community of northern coastal British Columbia, and much of the story depicts the struggle of a people to maintain its traditions and beliefs beneath a steady onslaught of western influences. Lisamarie is on the cusp of the old and the new, her thinking equally influenced by her elderly grandmother, who maintains and preserves these traditions, and by a modern world filled with progressive attitudes in which she is immersed on a daily basis. The catalyst for the story is the disappearance of her brother Jimmy's fishing boat. Lisamarie's parents leave her at home and travel to the community where the boat was last seen, hoping to be there when their son is rescued. The bulk of the story is told in flashback and covers Lisamarie's childhood: her up and down relationship with Jimmy (a swimmer and Olympic hopeful until a freak injury derails his career), her irreverent uncle Mick, her grandmother, her parents, various misadventures with friends, and the spirits and creatures that inhabit the native world. The novel is a magical journey for the western reader, but Eden Robinson's narrative is constructed in thoroughly modern fashion. Monkey Beach tells a tragic and funny story of someone trying to establish an identity in a world that is divided along ethnic lines. Simply put, it is a triumph of storytelling and deserving of its growing reputation as a modern classic of Canadian literature. ( )

This wasn't a bad book at all and would like to learn some more facts and read more of Eden's books. ( )

Dark and funny. This is a pretty perfect book. ( )

* NO SPOILERS WERE USED IN THE WRITING OF THIS REVIEW! *

Robinson's writing contains several pleasantly surprising ironies. First, she evokes a strong sense of Native American past and traditions through a lens of very modern language and culture on a contemporary Indian reservation,. Second, she creates characters who are three-dimensional, believable and memorable using primarily dialog (and practically no physical descriptions) . She saves the descriptive language for nature, which becomes almost like another character in the book; but unlike most authors Robinson's "nature talk" is crisp, fresh and real, like nature itself.

This book was a totally engrossing page-turner, but its tightly packed content began to unravel towards the end, and I was disappointed when Robinson left some intriguing leads undeveloped. In fact, after finally reaching the end I'm not quite sure about the actual outcome of this story. Still, it was a wonderful read, and I'm excited about discovering a very gifted author! ( )

Awesome novel. I've seen Eden Robinson speak and she's quite amazing. This book is an extrapolation of a story in her book 'Traplines.' I would suggest reading Traplines first, because both her novels (this one and Blood Sports) take off from short stories within Traplines. Monkey Beach is a very down-to-earth account of life in Kitimaat, BC, from a First Nations point of view. The mysticism that envelopes the characters, even though they feel the pull of modern, Euro-Canadian society, creates a context that is a bit other-worldly, although their actions and thoughts are raw and very human. A highly recommended read. ( )

Don't you dare paint over a rainbow by calling this a "post-modern" novel. It's a simple story about growing up native, and on the West Coast, and with ghosts; it's a story about unsettling truths and unsettled meanings, and yeah, in that sense I see your point, but please just let it live and breathe. Reading Monkey Beach, with all the ways I relate to it and all the ways I can't, made me feel lucky - dodged-a-bullet lucky - to grow up the way I did, between worlds - I was white, and got the privilege of not having to deal with history, at least as a kid; but I was from old BC stock, and not a richie rich, and so the family web and the smack of our salt chuck and the taste of our thimbleberries and salmonberries and three kinds of blueberries and smoked salmon hit me like a sounding board of the canoe ribs of my hollow wooden chest. ( )