看到这本小说是源于作者的国籍，津巴布韦，很巧地与大学室友外号重合了。当时还远在英国读研的同学兴奋地向我们推荐，并邀请我们细细去看看小说中的小姑娘——Tambu

  The novel Nervous condition is a bildungsroman story written by Zimbabwe author Tsitsi Dangarembga. In this novel, she chooses Tambu as a narrator to tell the whole story which happens in her childhood. Seemingly, this novel mainly deals with Tambu's growing experience and her mental development, but in fact, the author aims to reflect women's dilemma under the double chains--colonial rule and patriarchy. Through what Tambu observes and experiences in her life, Dangarembga actually describes five women's struggling stories. In other words, the author portrays five women who all try hard to find their voices under a double yoke by means of Tambu's eyes. Therefore, just as Tambu says at the beginning of this novel,"my story is not after all about death, but about my escape and Lucia's; about my mother's and Maiguru's entrapment; and about Nyasha's rebellion." Dangarembga uses these five women as typical representatives of females who are suppressed by old traditions at that time. Although these five women tend to have different living conditions and life experiences, they still have something in common;that is they are all confronted with the plight during the process of fighting for their own voice.

     Under the tough social environment which is greatly influenced by patriarchy and colonization, those five women make different choices and have different reactions when they are exposed to the unfair oppression coming from domestic, western and indigenous traditions. According to their various behaviors and outcomes, those female characters can be divided into three categories: the "escaped women", the "entrapped women", and the "rebellious woman". And among these three categories, Lucia and Tambu belong to the "escaped women"; Tambu's mother and Maiguru belong to the "entrapped women"; while Nyasha can be regarded as a "rebellious woman".

     Talking about Tambu, she is a girl who is eager to be educated and refined by modern culture, but meanwhile, she also faces the danger of forgetting her own culture. Thanks to her sensibility and autocriticizm, when she realizes that she is on the edge of danger, she always questions her mind and makes herself return to the reality. During her childhood, she makes several important choices which to some degree, have significant impact on her development.