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Anne Myers was a student nurse when she first read Helen Garner's Monkey Grip and saw her own city of Melbourne reflected back at her. Twenty years later, she re-read the novel and found her response to the character Javo had changed. After many years of nursing, her compassion had waned a little. She remains grateful, however, to Garner's novel for 'open[ing] up the city for me all those years ago'.
