This Mournable Body - The Library of the Uncommons

No cover — Tsitsi Dangarembga: This Mournable Body (2021, Faber & Faber, Limited)

384 pages

English language

Published Nov. 13, 2021 by Faber & Faber, Limited.

ISBN:: 978-0-571-35552-5

(1 review)

"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 …

"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."--Amazon.com.

5 editions

ahynes1 reviewed This mournable body by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Review of 'This mournable body' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

You start reading this book and find it is written in the second person, which you find disorienting. It becomes further disorienting as you learn of the struggles of the protagonist. Along the way, you meet characters that provide a sense of hope and normalcy, something you recognize, and long for in this story. It is a challenging story, and at times, you struggle to keep going In the end, you are glad the story is over and that you have made it to the end.

This is not a book to read lightly. It is a book to struggle with and it is well worth the struggle.