Fitzroy North house linked to late '70s Helen Garner novel Monkey Grip listed for sale
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A Fitzroy North house that has links to within Helen Garner’s late 1970s novel Monkey Grip has been listed for December auction. Located opposite Edwardes Reserve parklands, the restored early 1900s residence contains elements of Victorian, Art Nouveau and Federation design features.
“Helen Garner wrote the iconic Australian novel Monkey Grip while abiding under this roof,” Nelson Alexander listing agent Arch Staver says in its marketing material.
“The original owner was a pattern maker and his fondness for artistic flourish is immediately evident.
“More recent occupation testifies to the creative atmosphere, with musicians and writers among the long-term residents,” Staver adds.
More than $2.85 million is tipped for its December 10 auction.
Garner’s seminal Australian novel Monkey Grip starts with the line, "In the old brown house on the corner, a mile from the middle of the city, we ate bacon every morning of our lives."
It’s been suggested it referred to a Victorian residence at 27 Falconer Street.
Garner was credited by Good Weekend writer David Laser as being the strongest post-1960s feminist voice in Australian writing following her account of communal living, drug use and single mothers caught in the chemical reactions of their own love affairs in inner-urban Melbourne.
Garner may be famous in Melbourne for her portrayal of Fitzroy, but her most recently reported home was in Flemington in the inner west.
