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The Nature Notebooks
Three Vermont women enroll in a nature writing class, only to find themselves drawn into a plot to commit an act of destruction in the name of the environment.
Though Lauren Blackwood, Marianna Finch, and Rachel Katz each claim an interest in "nature," the notebooks they keep for their class reveal their very different attitudes about the natural world. For Lauren, a farmer and breeder of llamas, nature is a powerful if unpredictable partner; for Marianna, a real estate agent, it is an aesthetic experience; and for Rachel, an extreme sports enthusiast, it is a cause and a commitment.
In a narrative tour de force, the story unfolds in the form of entries from these nature notebooks. In separate accounts, each woman describes the events leading up to an act of sabotage on Mount Mansfield. Each version reveals new perspectives, new layers of deception, and new insights into the mysterious, charismatic Kyle Hess, a well-known nature writer and activist from California whose role in this act of eco-terrorism is gradually revealed.
Though Lauren Blackwood, Marianna Finch, and Rachel Katz each claim an interest in "nature," the notebooks they keep for their class reveal their very different attitudes about the natural world. For Lauren, a farmer and breeder of llamas, nature is a powerful if unpredictable partner; for Marianna, a real estate agent, it is an aesthetic experience; and for Rachel, an extreme sports enthusiast, it is a cause and a commitment.
In a narrative tour de force, the story unfolds in the form of entries from these nature notebooks. In separate accounts, each woman describes the events leading up to an act of sabotage on Mount Mansfield. Each version reveals new perspectives, new layers of deception, and new insights into the mysterious, charismatic Kyle Hess, a well-known nature writer and activist from California whose role in this act of eco-terrorism is gradually revealed.
225 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
3 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 9, 2021
I spent three hours googling keywords for this goddamn book before I had to call my mom and have her tear the house apart to find it-- JUST so I could leave one star on its shitty grave, 10 years after the fact
We had to read this for class and I'm fairly sure the teacher didn't bother to read it which makes her way smarter than me
We had to read this for class and I'm fairly sure the teacher didn't bother to read it which makes her way smarter than me
February 7, 2011
With this novel, which has been sitting on my shelf for several years, I've completed a quartet of books my daughter read in a January term class at Middlebury College, where Mitchell teaches, as do the authors of the other novels -- Sweet Water, Inspired Sleep and The Book of Hard Things, which all earned three stars. This book earned only two from me because of problems with form, voice, and character, and although I didn't really like it, I can't imagine ever giving a single star -- if I disliked a book that much, I wouldn't finish it.
The form of Mitchell's novel is excerpts covering the same five-week period from the notebooks of three women enrolled in a nature-writing workshop in Burlington, VT, that are bookended by a foreword and afterword written by the workshop leader. There are two big challenges for a writer employing this format. First, journals violate a basic rule of successful fiction -- they tell rather than show. In the hands of a gifted storyteller, telling works, but the writers of these notebooks aren't gifted storytellers. Second, journals are written by I-I-I about me-me-me, and if one is hard to take, three back-to-back can be deadly. Mitchell's novel did not overcome the challenges posed by his chosen form.
The voices of the four women in the novel didn't ring true to me. Simply put: I didn't buy them as women. It wasn't that Mitchell as a man failed to evoke these women accurately and well. Despite multiple sexual encounters, the three diarists all seemed strangely neuter to me. Not once did I have an ah-ha moment where I thought, I've felt like that.
Finally, the characters of the novel -- four women and the lover they share -- failed to grab me emotionally. In fact, I pretty much actively disliked all five. The problem begins with the man -- a California eco-activist on the run from retribution after his action left other activists holding the bag -- in jail or prison. In Vermont he looks up an old lover, who introduces him to the members of her nature-writing workshop, three of whom he targets as accomplices in his next act of dangerous and destructive monkey-wrenching. His method of persuasion? He seduces the women, persuading each that they're in love with him and part of a couple. So he's a jerk and so is his former lover who betrays her students. And stupid is the best term for the three seduced women. Who is there to like in this story? No one. And in a novel, that is ALWAYS a problem.
The form of Mitchell's novel is excerpts covering the same five-week period from the notebooks of three women enrolled in a nature-writing workshop in Burlington, VT, that are bookended by a foreword and afterword written by the workshop leader. There are two big challenges for a writer employing this format. First, journals violate a basic rule of successful fiction -- they tell rather than show. In the hands of a gifted storyteller, telling works, but the writers of these notebooks aren't gifted storytellers. Second, journals are written by I-I-I about me-me-me, and if one is hard to take, three back-to-back can be deadly. Mitchell's novel did not overcome the challenges posed by his chosen form.
The voices of the four women in the novel didn't ring true to me. Simply put: I didn't buy them as women. It wasn't that Mitchell as a man failed to evoke these women accurately and well. Despite multiple sexual encounters, the three diarists all seemed strangely neuter to me. Not once did I have an ah-ha moment where I thought, I've felt like that.
Finally, the characters of the novel -- four women and the lover they share -- failed to grab me emotionally. In fact, I pretty much actively disliked all five. The problem begins with the man -- a California eco-activist on the run from retribution after his action left other activists holding the bag -- in jail or prison. In Vermont he looks up an old lover, who introduces him to the members of her nature-writing workshop, three of whom he targets as accomplices in his next act of dangerous and destructive monkey-wrenching. His method of persuasion? He seduces the women, persuading each that they're in love with him and part of a couple. So he's a jerk and so is his former lover who betrays her students. And stupid is the best term for the three seduced women. Who is there to like in this story? No one. And in a novel, that is ALWAYS a problem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2015
Great read, although best done a quickly as possible to maintain continuity. The author writes from 3 different viewpoints chronologically, so if time has lapsed it's easy to forget previous accounts.
A fascinating fact for me was how the author wrote the book. He wrote "in character" one at a time, composed a daily journal entry until finished. After a 2 week break, he'd assume the next personna.
A fascinating fact for me was how the author wrote the book. He wrote "in character" one at a time, composed a daily journal entry until finished. After a 2 week break, he'd assume the next personna.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews