Name: This Mournable Body
ISBN: 9780571355518

Tsitsi Dangarembga

Anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job, Tambudzai moves to a widow's boarding house and eventually finds work as a biology teacher. But at every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself she is faced with a fresh humiliation, until the painful contrast between the future she imagined and her daily reality ultimately drives her to a breaking point. As a last resort, Tambudzai takes an ecotourism job that forces her to return to her parents' impoverished homestead. An act of betrayal reveals just how toxic the combination of colonialism and capitalism can be. -- adapted from Amazon.com info.

This Mournable Body

A searing novel about the obstacles facing women in Zimbabwe, by one of the country’s most notable authors Anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job, Tambudzai finds herself living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare. For reasons that include her grim financial prospects and her age, she moves to a widow’s boarding house and eventually finds work as a biology teacher. But at every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself, she is faced with a fresh humiliation, until the painful contrast between the future she imagined and her daily reality ultimately drives her to a breaking point. In This Mournable Body, Tsitsi Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, to examine how the hope and potential of a young girl and a fledgling nation can sour over time and become a bitter and floundering struggle for survival. As a last resort, Tambudzai takes an ecotourism job that forces her to return to her parents’ impoverished homestead. It is this homecoming, in Dangarembga’s tense and psychologically charged novel, that culminates in an act of betrayal, revealing just how toxic the combination of colonialism and capitalism can be.

A Novel

As a big fan of Tsitsi Dangarembga and her enigmatic character Tambu from Nervous Conditions, This Mournable Body was a tough read. The storyline was engaging and it was great to be reacquainted with an adult Tambu after many years, however the writing style (second person POV) made it a challenge to fully absorb the novel. Nonetheless, as a young African woman, I resonate deeply with the themes of (neo)colonialism, race and class dynamism and the struggles of being young, gifted and African in a country that does not love you back. 

This Mournable Body

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