Monkey Beach

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Pages 1-40

Part 1, Pages 40-82

Part 1, Pages 82-138

Part 2, Pages 139-179

Part 2, Pages 179-232

Part 2, Pages 232-294

Part 3, Pages 295-336

Parts 3-4, Pages 336-374

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Part 1, Pages 1-40Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Love Like the Ocean”

Part 1, Pages 1-19 Summary

Nineteen-year-old Lisa (Lisamarie Michelle) Hill is concerned because her younger brother Jimmy has gone missing while on a fishing expedition. For two days, there has been no contact from Jimmy’s boat. Lisa and her family live in the village of Kitamaat in British Columbia, Canada, and are part of the Indigenous group called the Haisla. Lisa discusses the location of Kitamaat, explaining that “it really should be called Haisla” (5).

Lisa hears crows speaking in the Haisla language, stating the phrase La’es, meaning, “Go down to the bottom of the ocean” (1). Lisa’s parents, Gladys and Al, listen to the radio, hoping to hear news of Jimmy. Lisa’s mind wanders to childhood memories. She remembers a story her father told about a sasquatch or B’gwus, the “wild man of the woods” (7). According to her father, the sasquatch surprised a pair of hunters, and one was killed. After hearing the story, Jimmy wants to get pictures of the B’gwus and make money by selling them to a tabloid newspaper. He convinces his father to take the family to Monkey Beach, where the sasquatch story took place. Lisa’s Uncle Geordie and Aunt Edith join them.

The family has fun playing on the beach and catching crabs. Jimmy wanders off to find the sasquatch. Lisa follows him and believes she sees a sasquatch. Her thoughts go back to the present and she begins to wonder if Jimmy is dead. She thinks back on a time she found a dead dog in a ditch, and about ways that the spirits of the dead communicate with the living.

Part 1, Pages 19-40 Summary

Lisa recalls having dreams or visions of a “little man,” who she describes as a “red-haired man sitting cross-legged on the top of my dresser” (21). She is troubled by these visions, but afraid to tell her father about them. Her mother tells her they are simply bad dreams. Lisa also recalls a strange man appearing at their door on her mother’s birthday, surprising her parents. He turns out to be Lisa’s Uncle Mick, Al’s brother. The family is shocked to see Mick because “[t]hey said you were shot and the FBI took you away” (25). Mick brushes off the suggestion, saying that he was just “hiding out in the boonies” (26). Lisa is initially wary of Mick but learns that she was given the middle name Michelle in honor of Mick (Michael) and the first name Lisamarie after rock ‘n’ roll star Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisamarie Presley because Mick is a huge Elvis fan.

Mick secretly deposits money in Al’s bank account. Al tries to return it, but Mick refuses. He decides to settle down in Kitamaat and gets a job at a logging camp. When Revenue Canada requests back taxes on the years he was missing, Mick protests that the government takes from Indigenous people after already having stolen their land. While Lisa and her mother help Mick set up his apartment, they recall a tidal wave that struck their area, remembering how the adults were frantic but Lisa was excited.

Lisa mentions her father’s gardening skills. She remembers that the family attempted to raise chickens, but they were killed by hawks, foxes, dogs, and tourists. She snaps out of her reverie when her parents leave to fly to the area where Jimmy went fishing. Lisa remembers how Jimmy had told her that he was going fishing “[t]o make things right,” but at the time does not know what that means (39). She does not tell her parents what Jimmy told her.

Part 1, Pages 1-40 Analysis

Monkey Beach has the outward appearance of a mystery story, starting from the suspicious disappearance of Jimmy Hill. Yet from its first lines, the novel mixes supernatural elements into the narrative, creating an unexpected style that suits Lisa’s strange story. Monkey Beach opens with crows speaking to Lisa in Haisla, “La’es—Go down to the bottom of the ocean” (1). The novel also quickly introduces the sasquatch or B’gwus, Lisa’s visions of the little man, and other elements that indicate its supernatural perspective.

The first section of Monkey Beach spends significant time discussing Kitamaat and the geography of British Columbia. In addition, it devotes attention to explaining some features of Haisla culture and language. These details situate Lisa’s story very much within the context of the Haisla nation and the geography of Canada. The rootedness of the setting contrasts strongly to the themes of uncertainty, loss, and searching that are central to the plot. The disappearance of Jimmy is the most evident example of loss within the novel. Lisa’s visions of the little man are a sign of how she feels unmoored from the reality around her, and this theme is developed further as the novel proceeds. The seemingly miraculous reappearance of Mick, who had been presumed dead or imprisoned, is another example of how the world around Lisa is shaken. To Lisa, Jimmy’s disappearance and Mick’s reappearance suggest how the people around her move in and out of reality as mysteriously as the spirits she sees. Indeed, Mick, her grandmother Ma-ma-oo, and others later revisit her as spirits.

The structure of the novel, which alternates abruptly between past and present, mirrors the way the border between the dead and the living is fluid for Lisa. The first section of Monkey Beach establishes this structure, and the novel utilizes it throughout the narrative. The disappearance of Jimmy and Lisa’s concern for him provide a present-time narrative framework for the novel, but the explorations of Lisa’s past illuminate her conflicts and motivations. The past and present work together to tell Lisa’s whole story, much as she grows to accept the presence of the dead among the living.