Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - Nervous Conditions

It’s hard for me to rate this book because on the one hand, I really resonated with this story and the characters and as an African, it was a story told with a lot of heart and nuance and reflexivity. We get the benefit of Tambu’s older self editorially providing wisdom and reflection as she looks back at her younger self. And this is helpful in casting Tambu as a sympathetic character because with time and with age, there’s clearly been a lot of analyses of how she sees things. But despite her promising start in this story, I couldn’t help but feel that she wasn’t really the main character in her own narration.

The premise is that when Tambu loses her brother, who happens to be her nemesis, she inherits his opportunity to move in with their wealthy uncle to pursue her dream of an education and a better life for her family. But she finds that life isn’t as perfect as she believed in the household of her god-like uncle and aunt, and she finds that in the pursuit of her dreams, she may be losing her identity.

This was set up like it was going to be Tambu’s coming of age story, but it didn’t really deliver on that expectation. In the end, it was kind of a collection of incidents and events about family expectations, gender inequity and coloniality and the legacies of compromising oneself for the Western gaze in order to be successful enough to look after one’s family. Yet even though my expectation for a connected story about Tambu wasn’t met, and even though this was very “slice of life,” I think it articulated experiences that were very realistic and pertinent to a Zimbabwean and more broadly, African, experience. The character development was stellar, the scenes and reflections were on point, the scenarios and ways of thinking resonated. I could see the experiences of my own family, friends and neighbours in the grievances and hurts and expectations and hopes and responsibilities that lay in this book. I loved the complex family dynamics and the imperfect characters. If I’m removing one star, it’s because this did not feel entirely cohesive to me. I enjoyed the stories but I did feel it felt a little incomplete and “so what” at the end. It left me as a reader wondering what the author wanted to accomplish with this story which ended as abruptly as it started, kind of in the middle. The focus was very much on the themes and the characters demonstrating the themes, but there wasn’t really an overarching plot or a main story. I could enjoy the pieces of story and the slices of experience and these are themes I care about, so it worked for me. But I also felt like this wasn’t really anchored and it only worked for me because I liked older Tambu’s editorializing voice. The story wasn’t allowed to tell itself without older Tambu/the author’s voice inserting itself into my consciousness to make decisions on my feelings about the story for me. Indeed, my favourite character was the peripheral Aunty Lucia, whose boldness, wisdom, open sexuality and cunning made her engaging and powerful in a world where the women were subdued by nervous conditions. Specific to this edition, I thought it was a strange choice to include a spoiler-ridden introduction at the start of this book and I think that could spoil the book for people who are vehemently anti-spoiler.

My understanding is that this is the first book in a trilogy of books featuring Tambu which might explain why this felt so abrupt and somewhat incomplete. But I also felt like this didn’t end on a cliffhanger or with any express trigger to pick up the next book. That said, overall, I really liked the story and would like to see what older Tambu’s foreshadowing will lead to, so I plan to check out the other books in the series. I recommend.

Content Warnings

deedireads's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s debut novel published in 1988, is a modern African classic. It takes place during the British colonial rule of Rhodesia in the 1960s (which won its independence and became Zimbabwe in 1980). It’s written from the perspective of Tambudzai (“Tambu”), a fiercely independent and stubborn Shona girl who grew up on her father’s farming homestead before her uncle, who led the local mission school, offers her the chance at education. Over the following few years, she develops a close relationship with her headstrong cousin Nyasha, pursues her education like a bloodhound, and begins to understand more about herself and how the world works.

While the prose is a bit dense and the pace is a little slow — it definitely reads like a classic — I can absolutely see why this book is so acclaimed. Tambu is one of the most vivid narrators I’ve ever encountered, and her voice is unforgettable. She tells the story for herself, not for you, and that makes all the difference. This book is revelatory from a feminist perspective, especially given (but not only because of) the year it was published. Dangarembga’s presentation of patriarchy, colonialism, the duality of identity, tradition and duty, and more is absolutely excellent.

Trigger warnings:
Fatphobia and body hatred; Anorexia and bulemia

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