The Book of Not in Around the World in 80 Books

May 22, 2021 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: zchallenge-2021-readingwomen, a-reviewed, z-read-gelesen-2021, author-woman, author-ofcolour, world-zimbabwe

I enjoyed the author's first book in the trilogy a lot (Nervous Conditions, read last year). This one is more heavy-going and, content warning, contains scenes of violent massacre and, on page one, a bomb blast that tears a limb from a person's body. This is a shocking start to what is otherwise basically a boarding school story but it sets the tone for the terrible contradictions that permeate the main character's life.

Tambu the first-person narrator whom we met in Nervous Conditions has been a I enjoyed the author's first book in the trilogy a lot (Nervous Conditions, read last year). This one is more heavy-going and, content warning, contains scenes of violent massacre and, on page one, a bomb blast that tears a limb from a person's body. This is a shocking start to what is otherwise basically a boarding school story but it sets the tone for the terrible contradictions that permeate the main character's life.

Tambu the first-person narrator whom we met in Nervous Conditions has been admitted to the most prestigious girls' school in Zimbabwe. Like Scholastique Mukasonga's Our Lady of the Nile (Rwanda), this book explores colonialist racism and civil war through the perspective of a girls' school. The Enid Blyton intricacies of matrons, French teachers, studying for good marks, obeying rules about tidiness, school assemblies, bitchiness among girls, hierarchies at dining hall tables all have the undercurrent of the divide between "Europeans" (most of the school) and the "Africans" (six girls crammed into one dormitory). The constant manoeuvring required is brilliantly illustrated in the dilemma of the lunch queue: behind whom to stand? if it's a white girl, she may turn around and accidentally touch you. But the black girls don't necessarily bond either -- petty envies, catfights, accusations of being primitive because from another language group, accusations of pandering to the white girls -- and all of this against the background of constant terror: what are the "big siblings" doing? Engaging in terrorism? Setting bombs? The girls have witnessed violence but must not let on. Both the decorum of the Rhodesian school and their own etiquette of "unhu" prevents them from expressing any distress.

The book is an important rejoinder to the Hollywood ideology (found in most Bildungsromane, too) that you are the mistress of your own fate. Tumba, no matter how hard she studies, is hampered by her Africanness and by being associated with terrorists (fighters for independence) plus her mental health issues which are basically PTSD after having witnessed violence. (view spoiler)

The injustice continues into Tambu's working life. The book loses a little focus when it shifts away from the all-female environment of the school to the advertising agency that employs Tambu after her university years. This milieu is interesting in its own right and yet again, Tambu is discriminated against for her Africanness. All of this is understood and unspoken and, what is most poignant, internalised by the protagonist herself. Throughout her school years, she blames herself. It is the cleft stick of colonialism: to escape the poverty and what she perceives to be the backwardness of her village background, she must assimilate into European Rhodesian frameworks that are racist.

Brilliant is the portrayal of Tambu's uncle, continued from Nervous Conditions: a patriarchal despot who holds sway over his wife, daughter and niece, all of whom in their different ways live only to please him.

The book does not resolve any of this. (view spoiler) Tambu is no heroine and at times unlikeable.

This is a book that is totally woman-centred with a host of female characters and that is entirely free of any need to bring in a romantic interest -- a remarkable feat given that it covers ages 14 to mid-20s. Makes me realise how almost all coming-of-age novels require some sort of sexual awakening.

Why not more stars? Given all the strengths outlined above, this was slow going in parts. I was confused often as to who is who. It lacked some of the incisive lightness of Nervous Conditions, and was just so grim.

Read for the Reading Women Challenge 2021, Bonus Author: Tsitsi Dangarembga. Faber cover very stupid: eye-hurting pink and dumb ripped effect. The Nervous Conditions edition I have also has an ugly cover. ...more

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Apr 10, 2010 Andrea rated it liked it

Shelves: africa, zimbabwe

I liked this book a lot, but the ending doesn't provide closure. Too much set up for the next book. Still, it provides a clear picture of life during civil unrest, the difficulty particularly of being a teenager facing the issues of loyalty and identity. How does one cope with violence and confusion without becoming overwhelmed? The book's structure is weak but the writing is sound. ...more

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