"Freed from the constraints of the necessary and the squalid that defined and delimited our activity at home, I invested a lot of robust energy in approximating to my idea of a young woman of the world. I was clean now, not only on special occasions but every day of the week. I was meeting, outside myself, many things that I had known existed in other worlds although the knowledge was vague; things that had made my mother wonder whether I was quite myself, or whether I was carrying some other presence in me.
It was good to be validated in this way. Most of it did not come from the lessons they taught at school but from Nyasha's various and extensive library. I read everything from Enid Blyton to the Bronte sisters, and responded to them all. Plunging into these books I knew I was being educated and I was filled with gratitude to the authors for introducing me to places where reason and inclination were not at odds. It was a centripetal time, with me at the center, everything gravitating towards me. It was a time of sublimation with me as the sublimate."
-"Nervous Conditions"
by Tsitsi Dangeremba
This is one of my favorite passages from the book so far. I've been engrossed in it for the last few days. I've had it since the end of Fall and most of the summer. One of my Professors lent it to me. Shame on me for picking it up from the head of my bed for the first time only last week. It's brilliant. I'm sort of wary of giving book reviews but if you're interested you can view the description of it here. I just really like the way the passage above attributes the education of someones being to having been opened up by books because in many ways I came of age with my face in books as well.
