Nervous Conditions 3 Ed

Rating:
Summary: paradox well presented.... still is a nervous condition
Review: Now I understand the pressures of the first generation European educated Africans faced.... The "Messiah complex", my father's generation(through Babamukuru's character) had on their shoulders and the detachment/reattachment my generation is experiencing from the whole post colonial era(through Nyasha's eyes)... the struggle to find a clear balance, surely does turn out to be a nervous condition..... Tambudzai brings that balance well into perspective and it is a good read through and through and still holds her dignity and pride with a good balance. After reading this you need to read "Zenzele", which provides a good contiuum of Tambudzai and her daughter's story... in a way.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Perhaps one of the best novel I've ever read. The characters are alive, the language is masterful and the plot is fast-paced and direct.

Rating:
Summary: The African Perspective
Review: Seeing no customer reveiws from Africa I feel obliged to give my point of veiw. My brother bought the book as part of his english course at university. I was really not interested in reading it as I had a bad experience with a similarly themed book - Down Second Avenue by Ezekiel Mphahlele. I found DSA to be overly inflamitory in an already uneasy political climate. Were DSA centered on the problems of the country as a whole and felt rather rushed; NC was more free flowing and people orientated ahich made it a much beter book in my oppinion. Tsitsi Dangarembga brings people of all nations together in this touching and deeply powerful portrayal of the offhand treatment of woman in not only Rhodesia but the world today.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing to be Nervous about!
Review: The novel Nervous Conditions is a challenging but inspiring journey that describes the 'struggle' Tambudzai, a black female, in a male-dominering culture. It is set in Zimbabwe, Africa and the descriptions are vivid. This is more than a story told by a girl, it is a tale that takes the reader into the minds and souls of a number of very interesting, but contrasting characters. Every non-african will aquire insight into the black culture, which proofs to be very interesting.

Rating:
Summary: sexes, times and hardships
Review: The story about a young woman hungry for an education, though odds attempt to halt her. As Tambu grew up her family was faced with the reality of having two children wanting an eductation but only having the money for one to go. As the times permitted Tambu's brother was sent to school. Tambu then faced the incredible task of funding her own education by means of growing crops. Tackling issues such as sexual repression, the roles of the sexes in society and phycological disection, this period of the story alone would give anybody interested in cultural motives for sex roles a pregnant amount to bite into. Also dealing with issues of British Imperialism and the British spheres of influence with a different culture. This offers yet another aspect of the book for people interested in phycological angles of reading something to sink their teeth into. It is especially interesting since Tambu is a young girl, still developing her ideals, morals, ethics and goals for life. All in all this book was above a beyong a good book for any types of readers.

Rating:
Summary: The Burden of Being
Review: The troubles and turmoil of life often present us with guiding burdens, mountains that not only seem but are truly impossible to climb, and boundaries put in place to check even the strongest of wills. These mountains, boulders, and impassable rivers serve as a standard, a ceiling and a foundation; created by the society in which we take our very breath. So when we find ourselves stuck in the very system that we create, who can we blame? Who can we turn to for rescuing? These are the very questions that narrator Tambudzai learns to ask in Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel NERVOUS CONDITIONS.

Throughout her young adult life, Tambudzai witnesses many cultural tendencies of her people and struggles internally with what she is being taught versus what she observes and believes to be right. Aside from her Rhodesian homeland being colonized by the British, she also wrestles with getting an education in a country where an education is seen as wasted on women. The role of men over women in this very patriarchal society serves as the backbone of NERVOUS CONDITIONS and operates as a means to compare different women's struggle to survive that cast-iron system. Through Tambudzai's eyes, readers see how her cousin Nyasha rebels against her father - the family leader, proclaimed prince, and headmaster of the school at the Mission. Readers see the difference between Tambudzai's subservient mother and her mother's defiant sister. We also see how this society treats a woman just as educated as her husband. Following Tambudzai as she progresses towards higher learning and gains a deeper understanding of the world that surrounds her, literary audiences discover just how suffocating it is to deal with the burdens of simply surviving.

Many themes course through NERVOUS CONDITIONS making it an excellent novel for discussion and evaluation. Aside from the obvious men/women theme, a few other issues in the novel are the dangers and benefits of colonization, the necessity of education, and Christianity vs. traditional African religions. I also liked the importance of food and the role it played throughout the novel, especially at the end with Nyasha's rebellion. Exceptionally written, Dangarembga's novel, although about the learning period during a young teenager's life, is not child's play. This is a very adult novel filled with mature situations and intellectual food for meditation. The characters are well developed and the author takes time to draw scenes for her audience. You can see the poverty when she shows it to you just as well as you can see the surplus when it exists. Never have I read a novel that so intensely and effectively relays the burdens some people bear up under to simply be.

Reviewed by Natasha T.
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers


Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this read!!
Review: This book by TsiTsi Dangarembga is a powerful book. You will find yourself hating and loving characters as they travel through their life in Zimbabwe. This book takes place in the 1960's were we can see the results of colonization. We see the changes that occurred among the poor people in Rhodesia and how they had to cope with changes in their culture, family life and the education, which their people lacked. We see how powerful religion was and how people can become puppets and lose sight of their culture and family values. Your emotions will pull you to pieces as you take this trip with Tambu (the main character of the book) as she struggles with her rural life and how she "awakens" as she gets older to the times that are changing around her. You see her grow not only as a child to an adolescent but you also see her grow intellectually to see how her culture is changing. You see her and her cousin Nyasha struggle with their identities as they wonder if they belong with the changing times that have educated them or with the people that they grew up with. You start to have sympathy for them as you realize they have no real place anymore. This book will show you the good things that come out of colonialism and the horrible things that can occur when you play with people's lives. This book will show you how powerful racism is and how people who don't conform are left out in the cold (literally). If you read this book I promise you will not regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this read!!
Review: This book by TsiTsi Dangarembga is a powerful book. You will find yourself hating and loving characters as they travel through their life in Zimbabwe. This book takes place in the 1960's were we can see the results of colonization. We see the changes that occurred among the poor people in Rhodesia and how they had to cope with changes in their culture, family life and the education, which their people lacked. We see how powerful religion was and how people can become puppets and lose sight of their culture and family values. Your emotions will pull you to pieces as you take this trip with Tambu (the main character of the book) as she struggles with her rural life and how she "awakens" as she gets older to the times that are changing around her. You see her grow not only as a child to an adolescent but you also see her grow intellectually to see how her culture is changing. You see her and her cousin Nyasha struggle with their identities as they wonder if they belong with the changing times that have educated them or with the people that they grew up with. You start to have sympathy for them as you realize they have no real place anymore. This book will show you the good things that come out of colonialism and the horrible things that can occur when you play with people's lives. This book will show you how powerful racism is and how people who don't conform are left out in the cold (literally). If you read this book I promise you will not regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Vivid Representation
Review: This book presents the expereince or rather dilemma that many African families have had to endure since colonisation. It indirectly asks whether or not children who are seeking an education are selling their cultures out, to become more like their colonisers. And when they adopt this new culture why they no longer associate with their own. It shows from babamukuru's generation up until the present won, the problems that a family had to endure. As mentioned before it most especially questions the validity of maintaining a way of life. It could also be regarded as a parallel to what was ocuring in Zimbabwe at the time. In essence it presents the question of the colonised mind... Good read all in all.

Rating:
Summary: "Nervous Conditions" a Valuable Read
Review: This was a fascinating work of post-colonial literature. The wide range of emotions and issues that embattle the cast of characters give the reader a penetrationg insight into the condition of this honeycombed society holding onto the darker angels of its patristic past. Wether man over women, white over black, strong over weak,scholar over peasant, the novel offers us a compelling thought: why not shed these forces of evil and repression and build a society centered on altruistic love and tolerance.