From the opening paragraph/chapter, I believed that The Book of Not was going to be more about Netasi, and her struggle than about Tambu at school. I am a little disappointed that we have not heard more about Netasi and her guerilla warfare, although I am only halfway through the novel so I am not sure when the end holds.
Even though Netasi is not in this novel as much as I expected, I am seeing the effect that the war is having on not only Tambu but the schools and other African girls at the school. Tambu says that one of the local boy's school has been shut down and that there have been white men hanging out around her school. It is also very obvious that the war has caused tension between Tambu and her other Shona roommates. They feel the pressure to live up to the expectations of their white peers, and impress those around them. The war is adding extra pressure because they do not know which side to identify with. Tambu is especially struggling with this because she wants to support her sister, but she also wants to help the troops. For example, she helps make gloves and hats for the men fighting, but her roommates disapprove. Tambu is in a very difficult position with trying to support her sister and fit into the English culture she is exposed to everyday.
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The Book of Not is not about Netsai, although it talks about her. Also only halfway through; However, I'm not surprised its not focused on Netsai, even after the first few pages. I think Netsai's character is important to be at a distance from Tambu, at least this far into the book. It allows for a certain distance between Tambu's different lives and you can see the struggle between the raw familial trauma and the desire to be validated at school. The scene we read over on wednesday in class from Tambu's latin class, in which they read about soldiers and Tambu has a PTSD moment in the class room thinking about how the Rhodesians are poisoning the mountain side and how her sister is caught up in the whole situation. Because its not actually a scene with Netsai, but instead about Tambu's traumatic stress
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, I thought we were going to hear more of Netsai. Upon reflection, however, we began Nervous Conditions thinking we were going to get some elaborate introduction to Nhamo, and Tambu says up front - "This is not about the death of my brother." So this book, in essence, is 'not about her sister.' I feel that Dangarembga does this on purpose, so that as readers, we learn to pay more attention to the people and situations in our periphery. It's her (maybe political, maybe not) way of expressing that conflict is not always localized and that for this reason, solutions are not always clear. She uses Netsai's character as a conscience for Tambu, and in this sense, maybe the author is suggesting that we are not ever truly ourselves when we have the impact of others, hence the internal struggles.
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