Honor

CW: sexual assault, communal riots, honor killing, burning, Islamophobia, religious extremism

Another definite 4.5 star read of the month.

I've actually never read any Thrity Umrigar book before because I know she's a popular literary fiction author and I wasn't just into the genre. But since the first time I read the premise of Honor sometime last year, I've really wanted to check it out. And when I got the audiobook from my library, I couldn't stop.

As it's been happening to me quite frequently these days, this was another one of my sleepless nights, so I just spent all night listening to the audio. It obviously helped that the narrator is Sneha Mathan who is my absolute top favorite and it's hard not to feel engrossed in a book when she is telling it. And the writing is equally captivating from the get go. The author is immensely talented at hooking the reader from the first page, not just with the shocking incidents and themes being explored in the plot, but also the compassion and empathy she exudes for her characters who are suffering so much. The pacing may feel a bit slow but the story actually takes place within a few days, and the feeling is only so because this book involves a lot of contemplation by the characters. The author also does a masterful job making the setting feel extremely real - I could feel the noise that you are bombarded with as soon as you land in an Indian airport like Mumbai, strolling through a huge marketplace like Colaba being stormed by people trying to sell their wares, cherishing the sunset near a beach, the disparity of life in rural villages.

We are told this story through the eyes of two women, who are almost on the opposite sides of the spectrum. Smitha is an Indian American who hasn't lived in India since she was a teenager, and has some bad memories from before she left which has colored her perception of the country and especially Mumbai. As she is unexpectedly given the job of following up on an honor killing case, she not only has to confront the purpose of her journalism - she finds it important to show the truth about injustices happening across the world but is also in a dilemma if it's just a way for her readers way back in America to feel better about themselves; but she also is conflicted about her feelings about India on the whole - a modern country whose metropolises rival any American city but the villages are still the epitome of caste and religious and gender discrimination. She is accompanied on this journey by Mohan, an IT guy who loves his country but is also confronted with the truth that there are pockets in his beloved India which don't feel like the country he loves. Their developing friendship, with hints of wariness in between felt very real and organic but the romance felt like it came too out of left field.

Meena on the other hand is a woman who has been burned and disfigured badly by her own brothers because she dared to get married to a Muslim man and have a child with him. Now her husband is dead from the burning, her mother in law blames her for losing her son, and she wants justice if only to prove to her daughter that she fought for her dead father. It's clear that she also blames herself for her beloved's death and doesn't really see much of a future for herself, but hopes that her daughter will get to live in a more egalitarian and secular India, just like how her Abdul imagined. It's very easy to feel pity for her because of her circumstances but she is so brave and compassionate and I only kept hoping she'll finally get some respite. Her story reminded me of the book The Newlyweds by Mansi Choksi (which I haven't finished reading) which tells the stories of four real life couples who also had to run away from home because of choosing inter caste and interfaith marriages and had to hide from their families.

In the end, I don't know how to feel about this book. It's brilliantly written, very engaging, rage inducing and thought provoking - I could especially feel a lot in common with Smitha because of being an immigrant in America myself and feeling conflicted about loving my homeland but seeing the deteriorating political reality over there and feeling helpless about it. Ofcourse this is not a book to enjoy - it's here to show us a mirror to the real world, where whatever progress we make, there are also many things going backwards. Do read it if you feel you can handle the subject matter. And if you enjoy the audiobook format, then Sneha's narration is a great way to experience this story.