Final Reading TBB

I really appreciated the ending of this novel. It solidified the idea of the man of science and man of faith dichotomy. The ending proved that the two can and do exist in a person, in this case Kayo. Towards the end of the book, he starts to abandon the idea of science, whereas in the beginning science was practically all he had. Science was his income, his time, and it encompassed his entire brain. He consciously abandons science altogether when he, symbolically, walks away into the forest. This also expresses the relationship that is discovered between the man of faith and man of science dichotomy versus the city versus forest one. Though they are not exactly the same, they share some similarities. In this particular novel, the cliché of science and city going together as well as faith and forest is evident, but this is more stereotypical in my opinion. I believe that there can be a faith dependent man in a city, just as easily as there can be a science oriented man in the forest. Also, the great thing about this ending is that you don't know where the characters end up. It is extremely possible that Kayo maintains his scientific aura about him even through immersion in the village culture, just as it is possible that a character like Donkor becomes more resistant the scientific, "obvious," and sensible answer even while working for the city police.
The idea of science against faith is definitely a very popular one. Many people refuse to agree that both may coexist, I however believe that they do. I have grown up Christian so I have obviously gotten the whole "God's creation is a myth, there is always the big bang theory" etc, etc. I simply respond that something had to cause the Big Bang to happen, as the chances are very low that this would happen per chance.

TBB p36-80

Throughout these pages, Kayo's persistence in his ways intrigued me. What I mean by that is how he refused to veer outside of his scheduled mix of Anglican and Ghanian routine. He knew what he was doing at all times, without truly having to stop and think. He showed he ability of swapping from an English investigator to a Ghanian friend (as he approached one of the elders of the village, addressing him properly). His decisiveness even made it seem that he was somewhat omniscient, knowing his next step before he even executed his current one. If the reader did not have some access to his internal thought, the impression would be that it was almost too easy or that he was faking his way through.
Oduro's advice to Kayo was also puzzling to me when he said "'Kwadwo, a living thing is always moving; if you look close enough, you can see, sebi, the blood moving beneath the skin. So, if you make an effort, and learn how much of that movement makes up a man's stillness, every other movement will tell you something about him.' Oduro smiled and looked Kayo straight in the eye." The mood of this passage emits a sort of behind the scenes interaction between Oduro and Kayo, giving off the impression that Oduro has a secret of sorts that he may be trying to convey to Kayo. My thought is that Oduro knows a lot more about the mystery than he cares to reveal to anybody that is not Ghanian, such as the police officers upon the encounter with "the mystery." At this point, though, it s unclear and could just be a bit of over analysis.

TBB 1-35 characters

Kayo's character is a very intriguing one. He seems to be very aware of everything around him, for example when he is talking on the phone to Mintah, he notices when Mintah's chair shifts that it is a "wooden chair in a hollow room" (21). This is a quality that is necessary for anybody in the forensics department, his ideal job. I may even go so far as to say he has OCD, as I believe most forensic scientists have to some degree (take the shows Monk or Psych for example). When on the phone with Mintah, he is constantly writing, even things that should be easy to remember (like "police"), which seems like an obsessive compulsive trait to me. These traits cause me to believe that he has some form OCD at the very least, especially when he reveals that he is unsatisfied with the possibly wrongly accused cause of his grandfather's death. The fact that he is still hung up on that reveals a lot about his character.**
He seems to work at his current job with his parents' thought in mind. They seem satisfied with his current career, but he does not. His father even says "there is no greater joy for a man than to sit and eat with his son as a man" (34). His father is evidently proud, but possibly only because Kayo keeps his worries to himself. It is apparent when he thinks to himself that "he didn't want to burden his father with the knowledge that all was not well with him" (34). He keeps any bad news to himself, and therefore his father thinks that all is well and that his son is a successful scientist.
So far, Kayo is a very much so a family oriented man. The reason he wants to go into forensics is to, in a sense, avenge his grandfather's mysterious death. Yet, his current job keeps his parents happy. This debate within him is to either risk it all to do what he loves and has always wanted to do, or to keep his parents happy and proud of him. I am interested to see how this plays out through the book, and whether he will choose the happiness of himself or his parents.
**Throughout chapter two (especially in the beginning) more OCD traits seems to emerge and become more predominant to the story

End of Nervous Conditions

This reading was definitely the most heavily annotated sections of the novel. Line after line shocked or intrigued me. I was surprised at the amount of unanswered questions I was left with at the end.
What exactly happened with Maiguru when she left? She came back an entirely different person. Was this because of something that happened while she was gone, or did Babamukuru talk some "sense" into her when he went to retrieve her? Is this new found personality fake, like a cover up of how she really feels? It does not seem realistic that she could become an entirely different person in just a couple of days. This makes me think that it is artificial, just a show to put on, possibly for the health of Nyasha.
Is Maiguru's return disheartening to Nyasha? As Maiguru was leaving, Nyasha said "now she's broken out, I know it's possible, I can wait." This leads me to believe that Maiguru's return was actually unhealthy for Nyasha because it only reinforced those walls that she feels trapped by. That idea of no escape could have been what pushed her further into anorexia or bulimia.
I thought it was interesting that on one page, Tambu spoke of how she could not even dream of forgetting where she came from, her family, and friends, even if she wanted to. Then not three pages later, she has suddenly run out of time so that there "was none left in which to miss Nyasha, or my uncle and aunt; and if I had ever really missed my home, I had long since stopped doing that during my stay with Babamukuru."
Does Tambu not realize at all that Nyasha is crying for help, or does she just choose to ignore it? She receives many long letters from her frequently, one even speaking of her "diet to 'discipline [her] body and occupy [her] mind." I can't imagine that she could have received all of these letters without having the slightest idea of something going wrong. And she didn't even write back, so the letters stopped. I think that the point that the letters stopped was kind of the point of no return. Nyashsa had then lost the last friend that she could turn to, succumbing to her illness.