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Reviews by judith swartz

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Honor
by Thrity Umrigar
honor (10/25/2022)
Honor is a perfect book for book clubs. with many challenging themes, such as cultural and religious differences and prejudices, sexism, the question of western superiority and more, discussions are likely to be both lively and lengthy.

the main plot deals with the violent animosity that exists between Muslims and Hindus, resulting in a horrific crime and prompting the main character, a journalist, to return to India, the country she and her family had fled 14 years prior.

Unfortunately, the characters in this story are more central casting than creative innovations. the sub-plots are fairly predictable and often test the credulity of the reader. too often the dialogue seemed plot-driven rather than character based, as if the author needed to make her point, regardless of whether the words spoken were an honest reflection of the person speaking them.

Despite these drawbacks, Honor is an easy book to read and one that makes you think, never a quality to be discounted.
One's Company: A Novel
by Ashley Hutson
one's company (5/27/2022)
Reading "one's company" is not unlike (I imagine) slowly, but steadily, descending into madness. The reader is given a tour through the mind of someone losing their grip on a reality that may not even be real. Being transported between the before and after (a specific event), we are privileged to listen to the inner thoughts of someone on the edge. If this is not disturbing enough, many of those thoughts, ideas and desires are ones that we have had ourselves.
The author invites us into a world we both recognize and are frightened or repulsed by. Throughout the whole, there is the sense that this story, this person is absurd. But is she?
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