Monkey Beach

The ending of Monkey Beach leaves many important questions unresolved. What do you think happens in this book, and why might Robinson choose to leave the interpretation up to readers instead of clearly answering the novel’s central questions?

• What happened to Jimmy? What evidence in the text causes you to think so?
• Does Lisa survive her experience at Monkey Beach? What evidence in the text causes you to think so?
• In what sense are Lisa’s interactions with the spirit world “real”? What evidence in the text causes you to think so?
• What are Robinson’s intentions in creating a novel so full of ambiguities? What evidence in the text supports your interpretation of her motives?

Teaching Suggestion: Because the purpose of this prompt is to explore both the ambiguities of the text and Robinson’s reasons for these ambiguities, students are likely to benefit from hearing one another’s perspectives. Even if you prefer to have students respond to the prompt individually, in writing, you might reserve time for some discussion either before or after responding in writing. If time is limited, you might divide the class into teams, assigning various teams to argue for and against specific propositions derived from the bulleted sub-questions: “Jimmy is dead,” or “Lisa has a mental illness; she is not spiritually gifted” for instance.