Dear Lit Loves,
Wow. This month my local book club selected a book I thought would be a quick and easy read, but it honestly was one of the most truthful, but painful books I have ever read. The book is titled Honor by Thrity Umrigar and though it is a novel, it almost reads like a memoir due to its realistic portrayal of religions and culture wars. Thrity Umrigar is a Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University and she has written eight novels. The book centers around a foreign correspondent, Smita, who works for a U.S. newspaper. Smita is called away from vacation by a colleague and friend. Smita believes her colleague needs assistance during a surgery, but, no, her colleague needs her to finish writing the final articles on a case in India involving a young woman named Meena who is being punished by her Hindu brothers for marrying a Muslim man and bringing dishonor on their family and their village.
Initially, I knew there had to be more to the foreign correspondent's background because though it appears she lives in New York and is an American citizen, while in India she is continually having flashbacks to a period in her life when she and her family lived in the metropolitan city of Mumbai. Smita also has some reservations about tackling coverage of a story involving a young woman named Meena who is the victim of hate crimes by her brothers. Meena is part of a rural village, lives in poverty, and along with her sister Radha, worked in a factory essentially to support themselves and their two brothers. When Meena decides to leave the family and marry a Muslim man named Abdul who believes they can be the example of a new India where people marry not because of their religion but because of who they choose to love, all hell breaks loose.
I should issue a warning that what happens with Meena and her brothers is brutally violent. There were times I had to put this book down deliberately and come back to it at a later time. Though the trauma is realistic given Meena's circumstances, it was still difficult to read what her brothers did to reclaim their family "honor". And in no way whatsoever do I condone what happens to Meena in this book. Honestly, I found it revolting. Meena's brothers are never found guilty of their actions because the justice system where they live is highly compromised by bribery. Smita, the foreign correspondent, who is covering the story, finds herself in the middle of the conflict and trying to bring Meena's case to a larger audience. We also discover that Smita was a victim of religious/culture animosity when growing up as she once lived in Mumbai until her father found a way to move the family to The United States and find freedom while he began teaching religion at a university in Ohio.
I do not wish to give away the complete story. Smita and her protector and translator, Mohan, find themselves in a highly combative situation upon trying to save Meena from the wrath of her brothers who are found not guilty for what they did to both Meena and her husband, Abdul. Meena also asks Smita at the climax of the conflict to take her child, Abru, to the States so she can live freely and without the persecution both Meena and Abdul have endured. Obviously, this leads to its own crisis whereby Smita must decide how she will help Abru survive when she has no living parents and a mother-in-law who wants nothing to do with her.
Smita's decision on how to do what is best for Abru is the gem of this story. You have a female correspondent who has suffered trauma and persecution in India because of her father's writings and also because of the family's religion at a critical time in her life around the age of twelve or thirteen. She is struggling with whether to leave Abru with Mohan who has connections in India and has lived there his whole life. At the same time, Smita worries how she would care for Abru as a single woman who travels for work and is based in New York. The ending of the book leaves the reader with hope and uncertainty, but that is how so much of life is these days. And maybe that is what we are to take away from this book. Life itself is filled with vast hopes and extreme uncertainties such that the best way to live and love is in the present while striving to live as honorably as we can.
This is most definitely a five star book. I would alert readers to the more violent parts of the book, but the story is a realistic portrayal of what some Hindu and Muslim women have experienced as a result of the clash between religions, cultures, and family honor.
Until My Next Review,
Grace (Amy)
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