Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi´s writing is a reminder of the ambiguity and materiality of words. Savage Tongues, more than Call Me Zebra, is an exploration of mostly what is left untouched by words: trauma, the pain we inflict to one another.
It unfolds as a happening, which takes different turns and directions. There are bodies and their material connection with flesh, spaces and other bodies. There are bodies forcing other bodies to conform. There are political and geopolitical encounters through the bodies, memories and traumas left into the flesh. Only don´t expect a story with introduction, development and end.
Two decades after being physically and sexually abused by her older cousin Omar, while on vacation in the sunny Marbella, Iranian-American writer Arezu is back to retrace the traces of the abuse. She is accompanied by Ellie, an ex-Orthodox Jew, her best friend. They are born in a ´deranged whirlpool of geopolitical conflict´ - this may be my favorite expression of the year - thus exposed to many mini-traumas that comes with history and personal political and social encounters. There is a net that cannot be escaped, but talking about it, connecting through words and friendship may escape the narrative.
There is so much to think about after reading this book. It´s like a window open to a different code, which reads feelings and deciphers deep roots of our language(s): language of pain, of trauma, of historical neglect.
Rating: 4 stars
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