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More About the Author
Product Description
Doris Lessing
Many good novels written by men have come out of Africa, but few by black women. This is the novel we have been waiting for...I am sure it will be a classic.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Tambudzai dreams of education, but her hopes only materialise after her brother's death, when she goes to live with her uncle. At his mission school, her critical faculties develop rapidly, bringing her face to face with a new set of conflicts involving her uncle, his education and his family. Tsitsi Dangarembga's quietly devastating first novel offers a portrait of Zimbabwe, where enlightenment brings its own profound dilemmas.
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First Sentence
I was not sorry when my brother died. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I was not sorry when my brother died. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book opened a window for me into the lives of black African women who manage to gain an education especially at a time in Southern Rhodesia when to be black was to be bottom of the heap and to be female as well was even less advantageous.
The book tells a story of how an African girl surmounts the apparently insurmountable in a patriarchal society to gain an education. The influences of the other significant women in her life, supportive or otherwise and the ultimate affect of that education on her relationships within an African society.
I went to school with the author although she was a year ahead of me. I was a 'European' colonial from Zambia. Tsitsi stood out at school for her brains and her posh English accent which in Southern Rhodesia at that time was a considered a matter worth commenting on. Given the politics at the time - the early seventies during UDI - within the country as well as within the school I was keen to read her book when I heard she had written one. I was not disappointed. The book offered some thought provoking insights into a world that was closed to us white girls despite the multi-racial nature of the school.
I can highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in women's issues and racial issues.
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I thought this was a brave, original novel, with a clear-sighted, at times fierce, view of the world.
The novel gives the reader a chance to get under the skin of a Zimbabwean woman at the cusp of maturity, on the brink of making her way in the world - against the odds. Given that I'd never been to southern Africa or studied the socio-political history of the period (the 1960s and '70s), it came as a surprise to be so transported into another mindset and way of life.
Tambudzai's relationships with her family, especially her more Westernised cousin, were fascinating.
It's a very intriguing novel, which I'd recommend to anyone. As well as being a compelling read, it really gives you the chance to learn about - and experience vicariously - another time and place.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Nervous conditions" is a book about colonialism and the alienating influence it has on people who lose touch with their roots. It is a dilemma for African children who are seeking education who often find that in adopting the new culture of the colonizers, they often can no longer associate with the traditional ways of their own people. This superbly written book will touch any reader to the core. The writer clearly dissected the negative effects of colonialism and the settler-politics that caused so much strife in Zimbabwe, creating two tragedies in the persons of Ian Smith and Robert Mugabe. This very powerful and touching novel is not only revealing but also opens our minds to more questions, the most powerful of which is the problem of the "colonized mind', a diseases that is still plaguing Africa until today.Another good recommendation is DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE OLD MAN AND THE MEDAL
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Oh Africa!
I liked this book, quite rightly from start to finish I think. A likeable novel. I have myself lived 5 years in Southern Africa, and though I did not live in such frugal... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Roét
great African novel
I really recommend this book, especially for those interested in the development of Africa from grass roots and the struggle of the vulnerable to improve their situation - against... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Irena
Compelling account about the lives of black women in Southern Rhodesia
This is the first novel written by Tsitsi Dangarembga and it won The Commonwealth Writers' Prize. According to wikipedia it was the first novel written in English by a black... Read more
Published 17 months ago by H. M. Holt
Nervous Conditions
I was impressed with the description of every even though sometimes the author can go on and on. I would recommend this book to anyone and even though its been a year since i read... Read more
Published on 7 April 2010 by Naafina
Superb exploration of culture clashes in Africa
This book is superb. It tells the story of Tambudzai, a Zimbabwean girl from a poor rural family whose determination and some luck enable her to 'better herself' with an education... Read more
Published on 19 July 2009 by BookWorm
Big subjects on a tiny stage
The feminist and colonial themes that underpin this novel have their colours tied to the mast. At times, the characters words sound like speeches, delivered from a platform. Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2008 by daisyrock
An unseen window to the world of African women
Set in colonial Rhodesia, Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel chronicles the beginning of Tambudzai's new life after her brother's untimely death leaves the way open for her to acquire an... Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2008 by Sofia
Love this book!
I absolutely love this book! From the first line you know this is going to be an engaging story - "I was not sorry when my brother died". Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2007 by Netty
no "women-only"...
...because who of us doesn't live a nervous condition? Its deep involvment with the meaningful place-and-time of the setting notwithstanding, this novel has all the powerful... Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2000
I hate this book
This book was poorly writen, lacks any type of hook and is one of the slowest reads i have ever encountered. Read more
Published on 26 April 2000
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