Sometimes people read books because they think the books will be Important, and even Improving. That is not why I decided to read Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, but you would be forgiven if you looked at the expressionist painting on the cover and came to that conclusion.
Chelsey recommended the book, and I’m so glad I listened. Nervous Conditions is about Tambu, a girl growing up in Rhodesia in the late sixties, just a few years before it will turn into Zimbabwe. The book is in first person, and the very first thing Tambu tells us is: “I was not sorry when my brother died.” It’s impossible to read that sentence and not want to know what happens next. Who is this girl? What was her brother like?
When Tambu gets the opportunity to move from her rural village to the mission school where her uncle is headmaster, her funny, perceptive narrative voice illuminates her dramatically changing circumstances. Her environments won’t be familiar to most Western readers, but her insights about the people around her will resonate immediately.
I do, actually, think this book is important, but not in the way that will make you fall asleep. It’s more likely, in fact, to wake you up.
Next step: to track down the sequel, The Book of Not, and also her films. And here’s an interview with Dangarembga in Per Contra: the International Journal of the Arts, Literature and Ideas.