Rating: 
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: I first read this book a few year s ago now but keep on revisiting it. It is a wonderful piece of literature, briliantly evocative of childhood, belonging, and innumerable other timeless themes. I would encourage anyone to read this novel and am confident that it will be savoured
Rating:
Summary: This is the best book!
Review: I had to read this book for a book report in college. The report was supposed to be 5 pages. I turned in 10. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: informative loook at post-colonial Africa
Review: I learned some interesting things about Africa and indigineous vs. colonized society, and I felt like, after shutting the book, I had expanded my knowledge in an area I will never truly be able to understand. As far as story goes within the novel, I felt like I was getting a little too much "tell" instead of "show," and that it was almost set up in vignettes as opposed to a whole novel. The last paragraph made me feel like the novel wasn't ending, but merely closing a chapter. All in all, I would say read it, for it isn't a story one often hears, and it was very interesting, but read it more for expansion than story.
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Summary: A strong woman fighting against sexism and poverty
Review: I love this book. It's amazing, first of all, to get a glimpse of Zimbabwean culture with both its beauty and its ugliness. But what I loved about the book was the protagonist's struggle to advance herself and the questions she has after she has succeeded. This young woman, Tambu, recognizes the sexism in her culture very early on and feels her father and brother most acutely represent that insidious quality. One scene that touched me deeply was this: Tambu cannot continue going to school because there is only enough money to send her brother. Railing against this unfairness, she takes it upon herself to raise the money. Her father wants to forbid her from trying, and her brother sabotages her effort. Yet, Tambu still manages to succeed. Tambu and her family also struggle with poverty, and their only hope is Tambu's uncle, Babamukuru. Tambu and her entire family idolize Babamukuru, especially when he gives Tambu's brother a wonderful opportunity. Eventually, through bad circumstances, Tambu is given the same opportunity. She succeeds, but along the way, she questions how her success is changing her, making her less able to relate to her family. She also begins to see her uncle for who he is and understands the reason his household, which should be gloriously happy due to their blessings, is deeply troubled. Any woman who has climbed out of poverty and moved away from her family's dysfunction, only to find herself stuck between two worlds, should enjoy Tambu's story and relate to Tambu's questions.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly Riveting
Review: I read this book for the first time when I was in Zimbabwe for an upper level African Literature class and thought I would die! As a young African woman I can totally relate to everything that Nyasha went through and having relatives like Tambu I foud her character completely believable. I have heard from a person who knew the author and her dad that the book is based on her life...don't quote me on this. But in that case it is even more impressive. I totally disagree with people namely one who said the book was flat and inconsistent. Things like this actually do happen and people do actually live their lives like this and this is Tsitsi's take on these issues and hers alone. I don't know, I could go on and on. I have read this book 7 times and have gotten some of my really good friends to read it just so they understand me and my culture. I might suggest we read it for my book club.
Rating: 
Summary: Quick, fun, and thought-provoking, if a bit heavy-handed ..
Review: I started this book on the train to work this morning, and stayed up to finish it. The story is engaging, the main characters sympathetic. But what kept me reading was the deft folding-in of a hundred little details of Zimbabwean life and culture. It's a consciousness-raising novel, trumpeting its themes -- feminism, colonialism, and mental illness -- more loudly and more often than the modern reader expects. But it's not naive about those themes. Colonialism, as seen here, impoverishes and distorts traditional society; but traditional society so oppresses women that their only route to power and independence is through the colonial education system. As other reviewers have noted, this is a suitable book for teens, in that is neither obscene nor violent. More than that, it's authentic foreign literature with a heroine their age. -- Suzanne Demitrio, demitrio@hotmail.com
Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: I think the other reviewers have covered everything that needs to be said about this novel - and quite well I might add. After having the novel on my bookshelf for 2 years, I finally got a chance to read it over the Christmas holiday - I regret that I waited so long. I was so touched by this story. I wasn't sure if I would be able to relate to the characters at all, because their world is very different from my own. But I found myself identifying strongly with Nyasha (sorry if I mispelled her name) and by the end of the book I was crying for both her and myself. This book is about (in my opinion) oppression of the self and I think that this is a topic that is accesible to a lot of different people. I think that for young women it is especially salient. This is a quick read and well worth any time that you spend on it - I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Decent
Review: I would say that it is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, but I'll just give it 3. I liked the ending, which I found haunting and riveting. As for the rest of the book...sometimes it just moved slowly in a boring way - like an endless cloud or blanket. Even after finishing the book, I still felt like I didn't know Tambudzai as a character because it seems that she is always naive and confused, and following behind in the footsteps of someone else - in this case, Nyasha. Tsitsi Dangarembga has talent, no doubt, but there is room for improvement.
Rating:
Summary: powerful!
Review: I've always considered myself to be very understanding of women, especially women of the same stature and situation as the female characters of the book, but the book did expand my understanding of their condition. When I read the book I saw my mother who grew up in South Africa under situations similar to Tambu's. Although Tambu manages to rise from her condition with something on her hands, an education that is, most of these women get cought on the situation and they never escape it. I could relate to the book because I've seen how women are expected to conform to a male dominated community where they are not expected to question the men in their lives. As I've lived and am still living in modern South Africa for my whole 19 years I've seen and still see the Nyasha's that have to deal with the same men as in the book and still expected to be modern women. I found the book to be very true of the African women's situation and saw a reflection of somebody I know in Jeremiah. Here is a man who had to live in his brothers shadow for all his life. He is poor and lazy, and the only thing that he knows he has control over are the women in his life. I am not trying to sympathise with the character but his situation on the book should be understood. As a modern African man I've learnt to treat women as equals and although that may be there still exist a group of men who can't handle the truth. Tis book will help a lot of people in understanding how women, especially in rural communities, had to live and still live in Southern Africa. A powerful book and a great asset to African literature!
Rating:
Summary: living freely and consciously in a harsh environment
Review: Nervous Conditions, a novel by Tsitsi Dangarembga, describes the personal determination and fateful incidents that allow Tambu, a young Rhodesian girl, to educate herself. Tambu is a smart girl with an older brother. Her extended family sends her brother to the mission school in a neighboring town. For Tambu, however, the family finds there's not enough money to send her to the local school.
As soon as Tambu hears these words, she makes her plan. She'll plant, cultivate, and harvest a crop on an empty space of land nearby. Her father is not in favor of this idea. Her brother ridicules her efforts. Next fall, Tambu is back in school after having made a profit that her father tries his best to claim as his own.
Tambu's brother dies. Since the family does not have any other sons, Tambu is chosen to attend the mission. Tambu's uncle pays her fees. He plans for his niece to help her parents, the least successful branch of the family, after she attends school.
While living with her uncle, aunt, and fun-loving, intelligent, rebellious cousin Nyasha, Tambu learns that many struggles women face remain similar regardless of their class. Tambu also sees the added complications, obstacles, and occasional opportunities presented by the intertwined English and Rhodesian cultures.
Tambu sees her world clearly and succeeds step-by-step, leaving behind those parts of her family, herself, and her culture which she chooses not to take in. She takes the opportunites presented by the English culture without absorbing its harmful values. Tambu makes the world her own by honing her mind and her emotions so that she lives as consciously and freely as possible in a harsh environment.
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