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From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

Nervous Conditions

Tsitsi Dangarembga

Start date: February 1, 2016

Finish date: February 28, 2016

Discussion: Around the World 2016

Why we're reading this: Winner of the ATW February poll for Southern Africa
[close] Winner of the ATW February poll for Southern Africa

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Around the World 2016

* December ATW "catch-all" month group discussion
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last updated Nov 24, 2016 04:33PM

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last updated Jun 30, 2016 10:54AM

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What Members Thought

Jan 29, 2016 El rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-centurylit-late, hear-me-roar-and-gender, library-borrow

This is one of those books I went into reading not knowing anything about it, other than Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean author. I've known about the book's existence for a while, have even picked it before; but I have to admit the title itself has always prevented me from reading it. There's not really a good reason for that. But you know how sometimes you're drawn to a certain shirt because the color appeals to your eyes? Or you're turned off by a certain song because there's a chord that really b This is one of those books I went into reading not knowing anything about it, other than Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean author. I've known about the book's existence for a while, have even picked it before; but I have to admit the title itself has always prevented me from reading it. There's not really a good reason for that. But you know how sometimes you're drawn to a certain shirt because the color appeals to your eyes? Or you're turned off by a certain song because there's a chord that really bugs the shit out of you? I have experiences like that with books - something about a title can really work for me and I'll read the shit out of it. Or alternatively a title can strike feel discordant.

This is one of those titles.

I think the word "nervous" in the title makes me... well, nervous. I can be a somewhat anxious person by nature, and more so over the last year or so, and while that's something I'm working on keeping under control, I try not to indulge in things that might make me extra nervous. Like reading a book with the word "nervous" in the title.

Laugh at me if you will, it's okay.

But now that I've read the book, I am so glad I did. The first couple chapters were a bit slow. They were engaging enough to make me want to keep reading, but I wasn't "feeling" the story yet. I feel now that was purposeful. Once I made it through the first couple of chapters, I realized that I, the reader, was growing alongside Tambu, the narrator of this story. This is Tambu's story written years later, reflecting on when she was first 9 years old at the end of the Sixties.

The first sentence packs a punch and I wanted to know more about that and those circumstances, but I have to admit that the resolution of that was anticlimactic and not terribly interesting after all. The real meat of the story is the rest of what happens - Tambu leaving her home and going to live with her uncle and his family in a mission, her relationship with them, with her cousin Nyasha with whom she shares a room at the mission, her relationship with herself and her family back home. It's all very well done and I feel the story-writing only gets stronger as the story progresses.

What I was surprised by was just how little Dangarembga shied away from discussing some really sensitive matters. A lot of stories along these lines (especially of the coming-of-age sort) can sort of sidestep the major issues, or refer to them in a terribly subtle way, letting the reader work things out for themselves. But here Dangarembga holds a mirror up to some serious issues and calls them out for what they are, especially race (and prejudice), colonialism, and feminism.

One of my favorite parts of the book involves a conversation Tambu has early on with her mother about the "burden" of being not only black but also a woman, and this theme carries on throughout the whole story. That early conversation deeply affects Tambu and I wonder now if her mother phrased things the way she did in order to spark a little fire under Tambu's ass so she would be inspired to create a different existence for herself than what was expected of her as an African girl.

The story is powerful, and short. I know there is a sequel though it seems to be even harder to get my paws on than this one was, which is hard to believe since out of all the libraries in Pittsburgh there is literally only one copy of this book. I'm surprised that this isn't required reading in school, particularly in my own education - I would have expected this would have ranked highly on required reading for me in college, but somehow it was not.

I want more people to read this book. ...more

27 likes · Like · see review

Feb 13, 2018 Viv JM rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2018, author-female, z2018-author-female, fiction-historical, z2018-read-harder-challenge, z2018-atw-random-travel-challenge, 1001-books-project

Nervous Conditions is a really excellent coming-of-age story set in 1960s Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). It is narrated by 14 year old Tambu who struggles with the conflict between life on her family's homestead versus her longing for an education. The novel is full of strong characters - the women especially - and takes an unflinching look at themes of gender, race, class and colonialism, without positing any easy answers.

I read this book for the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge task to "read a book ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Sep 09, 2013 Zadignose marked it as not-now

I know that the first sentence, "I was not sorry when my brother died," created a sensation, and demonstrates that this book is "unconventional' in the sense that it flies in the face of conventional local values. Nonetheless, a short sample of the book gave me the impression that it is quite "conventional" in a literary sense, delivering pretty much exactly what one expects of a novel, and perhaps particularly an "African novel," in terms of telling a family tale in a rural setting as the gradu ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2016 Sera rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, 1001-books, favorites, library, series

As I have stated numerous times before, I am a huge proponent of education. Dangarembga's book is primarily about one young girl's quest to become educated in 1960s Rhodesia post-colonization. Dangarembga does a nice job of telling this girl's story and contrasting it with the other women in her life. The book advocates education as the path to economic advancement, but it also shows the struggle of a country trying to maintain its identity when it has been subject to outside influences that are ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 06, 2021 Pamela rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: boxall-1001-read

Fascinating coming of age story set in 1960s Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia and under white minority rule). Tambudzai is 13 and living on a homestead with her family. From an early age, she is determined to win an education despite her family’s poverty, but it is her brother who is taken to study at the mission school. When the opportunity comes her way, Tambu must learn to balance the conflicting demands of her family and her desire for independence.

This is a powerful and engaging book, Tambu i ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

May 22, 2013 Wendy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, culture-clash, 500-women

As well as being a riveting read, I really loved the complexity this book brings to uncomfortable questions of colonialism, feminism, and what it means to be an educated woman in a patriarchal society. There's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" thread weaving through this coming-of-age story. Damned for leaving your poverty-stricken family on a homestead to become a more educated, while at the same time teetering on the brink of cutting ties with your culture and people--or yourself. A le ...more

2 likes · Like · see review