Rating: 
Summary: Insane Politics=Personal Insanity
Review: Reads like a novel/mystery/memoir. Ms. Brasfield is a storyteller of the first rank. Poignant, with a sense of place and description that joins the reader with the main character. You are taken to Durban, So Africa, wading through the truth, lies and confusion of the country and the mind of a mother who is mentally ill, or is she? Couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing first novel
Review: The first thing that struck me about this book is how real it is. The central character Kate takes on a journey, not just back to South Africa to find her mother but also back to her childhood to discover who she was and is now. Unravelling the twisted world of delusion and paranoia, she remains uncertain of many truths but comes to see herself more clearly. "What you see depends on who you are," says a character, and this novel is about that. The conflicting and colliding perceptions of the characters in the novel are so skilfully delineated the reader is drawn inexorably along with Kate on her discoveries. Her prickly exterior, her choices to flee rather than fight and her vulnerability make her a fascinating person the reader comes to care for.The novel is written in a spare and uncluttered style that is a triumph of controlled writing. Woven into the texture of the novel is humour and intelligence, sadness and the small everyday joys of being alive. Setting the novel essentially in an apartheid South Africa, the novelist has avoided the trap of strident politicism and managed to convey very clearly the way in which the whole country was in conflict within itself as the perceptions of the black and white protagonists of the time collided. The paranoia of the mother figure reflects something of the paranoia of a society which was aware of hidden activities below an apparently calm surface, deeds done and never admitted or discussed openly. This story absorbs and fascinates from the beginning. It is an astonishing first novel.
Rating:
Summary: NATURE LESSONS: Lessons well worth learning
Review: This beautifully written novel highlights the dilemma of a dysfuncional mother/child relationship and the havoc it creates in the development of the child. The perspective of the daughter grown and the daughter as an adult that Brasfield takes, elevates the story to far more than a good read. It is food for thought so intense that there isn't a page that the reader will not nod and say, "Yes. I've been there. I know just how she feels."
Brasfield poses the eternal question of how to judge a child's assessment of its mother and who can define what is abuse and what is rational behavior. She also points up the dilemma of judging mental desease in the context of the times. For example, the mother in Nature Lessons is living in South Africa where many of her paranoid delusions have basis in fact. Who is to say that she is not right? Who can really know if the government is not indeed spying on her and her family. This is a book you cannot put down and when you reach the last page, you will want to reopen it and start reading this poetic prose once more. The issues presented are those that no one can forget. We all are living them and battling their effects throughout our lives.
Rating:
Summary: NATURE LESSONS: Lessons well worth learning
Review: This beautifully written novel highlights the dilemma of a dysfuncional mother/child relationship and the havoc it creates in the development of the child. The perspective of the daughter grown and the daughter as an adult that Brasfield takes, elevates the story to far more than a good read. It is food for thought so intense that there isn't a page that the reader will not nod and say, "Yes. I've been there. I know just how she feels."
Brasfield poses the eternal question of how to judge a child's assessment of its mother and who can define what is abuse and what is rational behavior. She also points up the dilemma of judging mental desease in the context of the times. For example, the mother in Nature Lessons is living in South Africa where many of her paranoid delusions have basis in fact. Who is to say that she is not right? Who can really know if the government is not indeed spying on her and her family. This is a book you cannot put down and when you reach the last page, you will want to reopen it and start reading this poetic prose once more. The issues presented are those that no one can forget. We all are living them and battling their effects throughout our lives.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling and beautifully written
Review: This is a beautifully written and compelling story about a complex mother-daughter relationship. I could hardly put it down. I laughed, cried and related to Kate the girl and Kate the woman. The backdrop of South African history and the far-reaching effects of apartheid added further depth and meaning to the story. If Oprah was still doing her book club, my guess is Nature Lessons would be on her list. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read
Review: This is a great book. For those of you who loved Oprah's book club, this is much like her selections but not as grim. The story keeps you guessing, the characters are well drawn interesting people. The story is set mainly in South Africa and illustrates the effects of Aparteid on a society from a child's perspective.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read
Review: This is a great book. For those of you who loved Oprah's book club, this is much like her selections but not as grim. The story keeps you guessing, the characters are well drawn interesting people. The story is set mainly in South Africa and illustrates the effects of Aparteid on a society from a child's perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Review: WARNING-do not begin reading this book on a weeknight if you have to go to work in the morning. This should be posted on the cover of author Lynette Brasfield's chilling novel, Nature Lessons in bold red. On the evening I picked it up, at about ten o'clock, I intended reading at most a few pages before going to sleep. At two ayem, I was still reading...
And wide awake.
"Page-turner" is a term misapplied to lots of books. Many of the novels so described, while entertaining, can and are set down before the last page is reached. Not this one. There was no way I was capable of turning down the page corner and laying it aside, even for a moment. I took the book with me everywhere I went until I reached the last page.
There are novels and then there are Novels. The former are the ones that find their way to their owner's garage sales once the ending is known. The latter are the books one keeps and reads over and over.
Nature Lessons is on my bookshelf to stay and it is a book I will talk about feverishly to my friends as a book they simply must possess. Brasfield has reached a place many writers aspire to but few reach and we are infinitely richer because she did.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant and Compelling
Review: Whether you are looking for a book to curl up with on a cozy afternoon or to understand more as to how a country in turmoil can mimic the delusional perceptions of a person with mental illness, this book will make you want more from this extraordinary new author. Brasfield explores relationships and morals as her character comes of age with a backdrop of maternal schizophrenia and a country suffering through the apartheid era. It's the book for anyone who wants to understand more about the impact of maternal mental illness on a child or the inhumanity of apartheid on its victim. It's also the book for anyone who just wants a poignant and compelling read.
| 
