Nervous Conditions
Published in 1988, Nervous Conditions is Tsitsi Dangarembga's first novel, and it is by any measure a very fine first novel. In fact, it wears the laurel and the burden of being the first novel in English by a woman from Zimbabwe. In addition to beautiful descriptions of the setting, the characters are drawn with bold yet nuanced strokes, and then set in rotating contrasts to each other. The narrator Tambu is contrasted with her slightly older brother Nhamo, and, when he dies, takes his place as the family's hope at the mission school. Tambu is then contrasted with her cousin Nyasha, who has just returned from England with her parents. Tambu is bent on obedience, education, and self-improvement, but Nyasha kept distracting her with larger questions. Tambu's father may be compared to Nyasha's father, only to make clear the apparent gulf between them. The former is lazy and weak whereas the latter was strong and authoritarian. Tambu's mother is also contrasted wi...