July 4, 2026
Summer Reading: Monkey Beach
“The day promised to be a scorcher, but out on the ocean with the spray cooling my face and the wind drying it away, the heat was bearable. I wished summer would never end. I wished I could do this all year and never have to go back to school. I wished I could pick berries and go fishing with Ma-ma-oo and spend all my days wandering.” —Monkey Beach
For my first Summer Reading essay of the season—during a week in which all days were scorchers—I wrote about rereading Monkey Beach—such a fantastic novel. Paid subscribers can read it here!
This was a strange and compelling novel but somehow thinking about in concert with Eden’s later novels, it gathers both strength and coherence. She is the real thing, writing out of a deeply known world, which isn’t always ours, and she is very generous in its particulars.
Yes, EXACTLY.