I’m glad I reread this, I liked it better this time. It’s not an easy book to read or to love, but I appreciated the decidedly offbeat humor much more this time, particularly early on:

I told him that my ill-fated ancestors and I had survived death through our intimate engagement with literature. Then, I thought to myself, engagement is too mild a word, so I replaced it with refuge. I said, “We, the ill-fated, have taken refuge in literature.” But this description also failed to communicate a sufficient level of intensity. With a hint of violence, I added: “Hear me! We have pitched our tattered tents in the dark forests of literature!”

Zebra is... a lot. She’s a lot! Obsessed, over the top, heedless of anyone else’s feelings, deeply wounded. The repetitive philosophizing that also wore me down the first time still was there this time, though I didn’t mind it quite so much now, and the pathos of Zebra struggling to accept that she needs love in a cruel universe of meaningless suffering, near the end of the book, was more affecting.

So, better!
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Slap me with a pickle, this is in the upcoming Tournament of Books. I’ll try it again.

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Oloomi writes with such an air of unreality. Her debut novel took place within the mind of a madman and this, her second, continues its repetitive, circling patterns. Not for me. ( )

To be honest, I found this difficult and sometimes grating. But that was all a part of it, and the more unlikeable our subject the more empathy I had for her. This is a heartbreaking exploration of how it is to process emotions through your intellect and to construct and deconstruct defenses against trauma. Well worth it, if only to consider how Zebra would be received as a person with more privilege and what that says about, about everything. I should write a more thoughtful review; instead, I'll read others.
( )

Zebra, after the deaths of her parents and life in war-torn Iran, is traumatized and compensates for her feelings of 'otherness' by developing a superiority complex. She's a comic creation and the reader won't find her entirely sympathetic in her dismissal of 99.9% of humanity. But I enjoyed her take on things and the humour in the book. It's not really one for the casual reader though, nor for those not overly fond of books, as she quotes liberally from world literature. I enjoyed Oloomi's very inventive writing style, in her description and use of image. Story lost a bit of impetus in second half though and became a bit repetitive. ( )

This was both impressive and slow. I liked what Van der Vliet Oloomi was trying to do here, I appreciated her work, it was funny, it was smart, but it was unfortunately for me challengingly boring.

Zebra is taught to memorize books from an early age, when she is born in a library in Iran. Zebra goes through a lot, that is mostly alluded to, when she has to walk to the border to get out of Iran with her dad -- this takes months --and then they drift through other places for many years, feeling less and less like themselves. Zebra's father dies early in the book and Zebra is largely already alienated from other people, so she goes on a Grand Tour of Exile, to retrace her steps she took around the world as a child, but also to pay homage to many of her favorite literary persons and walk their paths. Zebra puts intelligence above all, especially as she feels that "in the wake of the Islamic Republic of Iran... there had been a near total physical and psychic massacre of the country's leading thinkers, writers, intellectuals." (page 223) Zebra's intelligence is one of the last things that remain with her and one of the few things that can't be taken from her. So her intelligence is on an extreme level. I think the main problem people will have with the book: Zebra's attitude and voice. Zebra is a bit pretentious (someone she is close with even calls her pretentious towards the end of the book). I think if the writer made Zebra less irritating, people would be more willing to stick with the book. But this is Zebra. She is the result of her experiences. Everything a person endures shapes their character. There are many other irritating characters in other books that didn't survive warzones. I am willing to give a character more slack in their personality if they have been through things. I am much more willing to give Zebra a break than I am to the jerks in 'Fates and Furies' by Lauren Groff or the entitled kid in 'The Goldfinch' by Donna Tartt. I can see why Zebra might be annoying to some, but her voice is a unique one. Therefore, the writing is unique. To me, she is more interesting the way she is. Zebra is supposed to be a frustrating, difficult person. This isn't a book where the plot is at the forefront. I can see what the writer was trying to do here and I think she 1,000% nailed it. There are quite a few great lines in the book. It's interesting to me the writer tries to make this a funny book while the base is so heartbreaking. It's hard to laugh when you know what Zebra has been through. But possibly this is part of the point? In interviews, the writer says Zebra's story is an exaggeration of her own life. I don't know if it's because I'm close in age to the writer, or so many of the things that Zebra says hit home for me, but this book is certainly for me. Zebra might be a know-it-all but there are reasons for that explained in the book if you get far enough. In one moment, another character asks Zebra "how have you been?" and Zebra realizes no one has asked her this before. It's entirely heartbreaking but also says so much about how she became who she is. And I find examples like this throughout. Knowledge is her shield from a world she feels isn't on her side. This isn't a perfect book but I definitely can appreciate the humor, heart and the unique voice of Zebra and her insight. It seems my main point of this review is to defend and make excuses for Zebra, but I feel the book (and Zebra) deserve more of a chance if you can have patience with Zebra as I know that will be the main issue many have with the book. This reminds me of Flannery O'Connor' s eccentric characters (mostly Wise Blood): heartbreaking and hilarious at the same time. Also, Bartleby by Melville, Kafka, A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall, A Confederacy of Dunces, A Line Made By Walking.... possibly All the Birds, Singing. ( )