

Loading... Nervous Conditions (1988)by Tsitsi Dangarembga
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» 20 more 20th Century Literature (282) Black Authors (41) Short and Sweet (83) Female Author (356) Readable Classics (75) 1,001 BYMRBYD Concensus (226) Africa (13) Books Read in 2007 (57) Reading Globally (59) 1980s (255) Read These Too (200) First Novels (230) My TBR (184) Best of World Literature (105) No current Talk conversations about this book. Why hasn't everyone read this book? Why isn't it taught in every high school English/social studies class when we teach colonialism? Why doesn't my enormous public library system have the sequel? ( ![]() I read this book avidly. Dangaremba writing is precise and engaging. The plot is compelling. Her characters are so vivid and individual. It is one of the best novels I've read in a long time. Somehow she seamlessly sews together a coming of age story in all its universality with a story that also elaborates on the condition of indigenous people's living under colonialism. Right now, when these issues of justice and oppression are rising again to public attention, it felt particularly enlightening. Back in the 1960s, when Zimbabwe was still called Rhodesia, a girl dreamed of a better life than ceaseless manual labor she sees her mother doing. She gets a few years in school, thanks to her uncle, a man with a degree who studied in the UK and who now supports an extended family. Her older brother is the one who gets to continue with school, until a tragedy gives her an opportunity she is determined to make work for her. This is the first book in a trilogy by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga and I'll certainly be continuing my journey with Tambu as she fights for the opportunities an education might bring her. This was a well-crafted book that did not feel like a debut. Dangarembga plays off of the difference between Tambu and her cousin, a girl her age who went with her family to England and grew up there, only to be brought back as a teenager and expected to fit back into a deeply patriarchal and hierarchical society, which she finds impossible to do. The novel gives a glimpse of what life was like then for an ordinary Rhodesian, the enormous gap between the Black population and the colonists, and the enormous resiliency and tenacity of one girl. 8. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga introduction: Kwame Anthony Appiah (2004) published: 1988 format: 217-page paperback acquired: December read: Feb 14-28 time reading: 9 hr 17 min, 2.6 min/page rating: 4½ locations: 1960’s Zimbabwe about the author: born 1959 in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) I read this as part of my effort to read the 2020 BookerLong List, which includes [This Mournable Body]. That novel is part of a trilogy that includes this, [Nervous Conditions] (1988), and [The Book of Not] (2006). I plan to read the trilogy. [Nervous Conditions] is considered one of the most important African books, with a theme on the limits of women in Africa. I was expecting dark disturbing stuff, and this was reinforced by the first line. The book opens, “I was not sorry when my brother died.” But "disturbing" is not the first thing on a readers mind while reading. More like "fascinating". This novel captures a childhood world in 1960's rural Zimbabwe, where life depends on crops and a local river provides key necessities. And then it shows this child's view of education in a Protestant mission in a city. The novel rings with cultural clashes—rural vs urban, uneducated vs educated, and, especially, cultural customs and westernization. And it looks at the variations of privilege, sexism, and racism and the unexpected stresses these bring up. This was a terrific read. Recommended. 2021 https://www.librarything.com/topic/328037#7443819 Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga is considered fictional but in fact is based on the author’s own life growing up in the then-called Rhodesia, Originally published in 1988, the book concentrates on the challenges faced by women in a country where they are far from equal to their male counterparts. The main character, Tambu, is an intelligent young girl growing up on a rural homestead but is only given an opportunity for higher education after the death of her older brother. The first third of the book shows how her brother, as the only male child in her immediate family, received the most attention and privileges. As he is sent to missionary school, he learns to embrace western culture and shuns their own ways. When Tambu is given the same opportunity, her mother fears that she will lose her daughter in the same manner and indeed, Tambu does grow and change as she is educated and experiences the wider world. Tambu’s life is guided and controlled by the head of her extended family, her uncle, Babamukuru. As she goes to live with him and his family, she learns to see through the front that he projects to the actual man he is, flaws and all. During Tambu’s growing years, her country’s change is on the horizon and although not much is mentioned in the book about political and social upheavals, we are given a front seat to observe how African women were slowly absorbing the transformations that were occurring. Nervous Conditions was an absorbing and interesting book showing from a woman’s perspective, Rhodesia under Colonial rule and how education could lift one from a primitive lifestyle of poverty and give them a greater understanding of their place in society.
Tambudzai's opportunity for education comes only after the death of her brother. Moving to the mission school, her critical faculties develop rapidly, and become focused not just on her studies but also on the men and women of her family. No library descriptions found.
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