Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Honor

Thank you to NetGalley, Thrity Umrigar and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Honour is an excruciating book to read, but only because it opens your eyes to the harsh reality other people are facing in different countries. I think this book should be taught in schools to make others aware of their privilege.

Indian American journalist Sima arrives back in India since the time her family were driven out and moved to America years before. She ends up following the story of Meena, a woman who was burnt, and her husband murdered. All because of his religion and her culture. Reporting on her story Sima becomes aware of how unfair the justice system can be, and unlocks similar memories to her childhood.It’s a heartbreaking story and is a one that will stay with me forever.

Content Warnings

heylaurita's review against another edition

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challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Yes, yes, YES! I read “Honor” to kick off AAPI Heritage month and was blown away!

Smita decides to end her vacation early when she receives a call from a good friend asking for help to cover a story in a small village in India. Smita arrives in India to learn of the gruesome and unjust happenings surrounding Meena, a young mother, guilty only of following her heart. During her time covering the story, Smita is forced to reconcile her past and current beliefs as an Indian American woman, who has had the privilege of living the American dream.

I loved how this story accurately and fairly examines *and critiques* the American way of life and juxtaposes it with that of traditional India. It was incredibly thought provoking and really made examine where I was coming from with my thought processes. For me, it was a very “ní de aquí, ní de allá,” (“neither from here, nor from there”) exploration and I adored everything about it. It’s everything any ethnic-American narrative should be. It’s an instant classic and I cannot recommend it enough.

Content Warnings

salon3ly's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

cw//discussions of casteism

Do not make the mistake that I made and hate Smita the way I did upon picking-up the book. I turned the first few pages of Honor and was immediately not hooked, ready to be faced with another pretentious Indian girl who suffered excessively from her privilege. I was wrong. Instead, I found a deeply fierce, compelling, and beautifully developed character.

This is Smita's book. Which means that even with portions of the character framed by Meena's words and stories, they are still overshadowed by Smita's tales and life. I think this is telling of the same caste-based violence and society that Meena had to face. Meena's story is only framed within Smita, it is only told in between chapters, given 2-3 pages per chapter. Meena is an echo of Smita, the same way that caste-oppressed individuals are echos of caste-privileged individuals. The truth is that Honor would have been much more riveting if it had been Meena's story, and if it was dedicated to her. But, yet we are again donned with a story of oppressed individuals through an oppressor's eye.

But, this is not my gripe with Honor. My gripe lies within the tale told far too often - of the western saviour coming into save the East's children.

I did not want Meena to die. I did not want her tale of honor to be told through her daughter's survival. It might be deemed realistic, but it is too reminiscent of portraying oppressed mothers of the Global South self-sacrificial and pitieous to the point of them dying for their children. I did not read Honor expecting a happy ending, I also did not read expecting for privileged members of the diaspora to regurgitate the new-age white saviour trope to privileged brown people.

That being said, there were several portions of the book that shook me to the core. I was left grasping and floating for life, humanity, and was forced to challenge my own conceptions of honour and privilege. I do not hate Honor as a book, in fact I love it enough to criticize it's shortcomings. It is an artisitic piece of literature, but it should not be mistaken for the liberation that we, or the oppressed women worldwide need.

Content Warnings

jayisreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

3.75

I had a lot of mixed feelings about this novel, though I wouldn’t necessarily say it was bad. To start with the good, while not perfectly executed, I really appreciated how Umrigar approached the nuances of privilege and its relationship to intersections of identity in India; how one navigates different spaces and conversations will heavily depend on one’s class, race, gender, religion, and nationality. This was especially explored through the protagonist, Smita, who is a relatively well-off Indian American Hindu woman in her motherland as a journalist.

All of this comes about through an in-depth look into religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India and the consequences that come with it. This is explored through a literal legal case in the book of a Hindu woman, Meena, who was violently attacked by her village for marrying a Muslim man, and the book’s primary focus becomes a push to get justice for her, which is all being documented by Smita. However, there was this indifferent yet voyeuristic perspective that felt a little off-putting, as it spun grief and trauma into a kind of sensational story that, frankly, I thought became more in-your-face due to it being presented as a legal case. In a way, there was some self-awareness of this perspective through the conflicted feelings Smita has of being back in India.

I think because of the way the book was framed, it led to me wanting more details about Meena’s case, and we sometimes get that from chapters that told her story from her perspective. There was a lot left to be desired with how the case come to an end, though. It also felt like Umrigar set aside Meena’s situation to focus more on the budding romance between Smita and her companion, Mohan. And, I won’t lie, it really rubbed me the wrong way how this explicitly came about.

Overall, I think there were a lot of complex ideas presented throughout Honor that made it hard to parse out how I felt about this book. I can’t help but wonder how different the book would be if it was framed differently and not through the eyes of a journalist.

Content Warnings

carameck's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

reading_and_roaming20's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

You give me big feelings and I’ll give you five stars. HONOR, a story of love and sacrifice, family and heartbreak, did exactly that. It is, in many ways, raw, horrifying and left me reeling. It’s not an easy read, but it was beautifully told with a thread of hope masterfully woven in.

While the beginning was a tad slow, I found the majority of the book to be perfectly paced. Once Smita and Meena’s stories intersected, I was captivated. And damn, THRITY UMRIGAR sure can write her a character. They all felt so real that I’m having a difficult time leaving them behind now that the story has concluded.

We see Smita’s Americanness and complex history with India, her country of origin, contrasting with Mohan’s deep national pride. There is the conflict between tradition-driven prejudice and Meena’s vision for a more open-minded world in which her interfaith marriage is celebrated, rather than reason for unspeakable acts of violence. We see unimaginable injustice and pain that brings through the question of the true meaning of honor. We also have a mother’s love and what she would endure for her child.

So many themes are explored within this book. While some authors try to do too much and the story winds up feeling disjointed and bogged down, that was not the case here. Each intricacy of these characters and their stories tied together perfectly.

As I’ve mentioned, this is not an easy one to read. There are injustices that will have you enraged and acts of violence that are sickening. But, my god, this book is such a must-read. Just be sure to check in on content//trigger warnings prior to picking it up.

I also have to say that HONOR would be a fantastic book club pick. @reesesbookclub was right on the money with this one. It is so complex and thought-provoking that it is sure to prompt many interesting discussions.

I could go on forever. I adored this book in the way that I loved A WOMAN IS NO MAN and THE ARSONISTS’ CITY. I might even make a comparison to my feelings for BEARTOWN. It’s good, y’all. Make sure it’s on your list.

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