Book Review: This Mournable Body
This Mournable Body, a novel by Tsitsi Dangarembga, completes a trilogy consisting of the novel Nervous Conditions followed by The Book of Not. Tsitsi Dangarembga started her education through studying/reading medicine and soon switched to psychology. From there, she read many books written by female African American writers and continued on to become a play writer herself. In her latest book, This Mournable Body, Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of the previous novels, Tambudzai, and carries the story through her life as a middle-aged woman. Dangarembga, being one of the first black female authors of Zimbabwe to write and publish a novel in English, explores the post-colonialism life of Zimbabwe through her main character Tambudzai. She embellishes on topics such as racism in education and many other aspects of life, sexism and misogyny, abuse, agism and even mental illness; most of these topics being something she herself has dealt with during her own life. Although the novel was incredibly interesting and a great read, I feel these important issues could have been better conveyed if she chose a different writing style.
Unlike Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not, Dangarembga decided to write This Mournable Body in second person. Throughout the novel, Tambu constantly feels disconnected and alienated, feeling that she is failing in every aspect of life. She decides to leave the hostel where she resides at the beginning of the novel to live more comfortably with a widow. In order to obtain this living space, she lies to the widow about having a job to pay rent. Tambu is smart in her wording to not get caught in this lie. This is really where the reader first starts to get the sense of Tambu as a character in a society where efforts are not always gifted in reward. She does not have the wealth or the status she thought she would have at this age considering her level of education. Writing the novel in the second person allows the reader to feel the separation from Tambu in the way that Tambu feels the separation from every person and aspect of her life. In this sense, I think Dangarembga did an amazing job utilizing the second person to portray this sense of separation. However, the usage of second person writing often clouded certain scenes that could have been incredibly important to shedding light to societal issues in Zimbabwe.
After widow Mai Manyanga faces an injury related to a property battle she is having with her sons, her niece Christine is sent to live with Tambu and the widow. Christine quickly catches on to Tambu’s lack of wealth and seems to catch her in a lie about stealing food from widow Manyanga. This puts the pressure on Tambu to find a job and start making her own money. After obtaining a job as a biology teacher, Tambu seems to undergo a series of mental episodes resulting in her abusing one of her female students. The way Dangarembga decides to write this scene is so vague that the reader can’t comprehend what actually happened until later chapters. She writes the attack:
Exhilarated by her fear, you return your attention to Elizabeth. Seconds later, your headmistress enters the classroom. She expects you to stop but you do not. The headmistress touches you gently on the shoulder. You throw the T square at the chalkboard. You twine your arms around your head. (95)
It is not until the next chapter that the reader learns what happened and even then, it is still difficult to piece together. This scene could have been beneficial in highlighting Tambu’s ongoing struggle with mental illness, societal abuse, or even the struggles of being a black, female teacher in Zimbabwe. Rather, this scene begins and ends so abruptly and vaguely that the reader doesn’t have a chance to really be impacted by it. This is not the first, nor the last scene that was deeply failed by Dangarembga’s writing choice.
Overall, this novel is incredibly engaging and a great nominee for the Booker Prize. I do believe that Tsitsi Dangarembga had the right thought in her change of writing style, but it may have been to her detriment in many potentially impactful scenes. The use of the second person was entirely effective in portraying the distance between the reader and Tambu, much like the distance Tambu feels from the rest of the world. However, I do feel that this novel had tons of potential in shedding light on many important issues in Zimbabwe – whether that be current or older issues – and the use of the second person writing style and the theme of separation made it difficult to portray those issues effectively to the reader.
