What readers think of Honor, plus links to write your own review.

This was an easy book to rate, no hesitation five stars, but then the author is Thrity Umrigar who never disappoints. The story follows Smita a journalist who travels the world reporting on human rights abuses. She comes back to India, a country that she left when she was a teenager and had no intention of returning in order to help her fellow journalist Shannon. What she doesn't realize is that what Shannon wants is not help with her recovery from surgery but to write a story about a woman named Meena.

Meena is a Hindu who married Abdul a Muslim and because this caused shame on her family her brothers set fire to the couple's home. Abdul died and Meena escaped but she was horribly disfigured. Meena did an unusual thing and brought charges of murder against her brothers.

When I first started to read "Honor" I thought it was set in the distant past. The fact that it takes place in present day India was a shock. The murder happened in a remote area where Hindu and Muslin relations don't seem to have changed since the 1940s when the country was divided.

Because of an incident that changed her life and gradually unfolds, Smita's feelings for India are summed up when she says, "...she found herself dealing with everything she detested about this country - its treatment of women, it's conservatism. But you're the damn gender issues reporter."

Shannon has her friend Mohan an upper caste Hindu escort Smita to meet Meena, her lawyer and her brothers. At first Smita sees Mohan as a privileged rich man and dislikes him. However, as she gets to know him she starts to view him and India, the country he loves, in a different way.

Ms. Umrigar brings the city of Mumbai to life with her descriptions of the crowds, the heat, the beauty and the cultural disparities. You feel as if you are on the journey with them whether they are in a large city or a remote village. Smita's journey helps her to come to terms with her past, to heal and to appreciate the things she loved about her homeland. We also learn about Meena and come to respect her strength and courage as she tries to protect her daughter Abru and face the consequences of her decision to marry outside her faith and try to live her husband's dream of a new Hindustan.

It is impossible to read this book and not be touched by these characters and deeply immerse yourself in their stories.

Parts of this book are hard to read, but I think it would make an excellent choice for a book club.

There is modern India and there is backward villages India. In a village where a Muslim and a Hindi would never marry...where women are treated as the property of men. Reporter Smita, who has secrets of her own as a youngster in India, reports the brutal story that takes place in such two such villages. The book mesmerized me. It is a beautiful story of love and sacrifice.

This is my first Thrity Umrigar book although I have had The Space Between Us in my TBR pile for ages. I feel her talent (at least in this book) lies in delving into and describing the atrocity of India's traditional actions of misogyny, sexism, and all of these inequalities while not pushing the reader away in the process. It's very much as if she wants the reader to see what is going on, and understand why it's happening. "The reason for Abdul's death was simple, really:
It was a failure of imagination. Bearing no malice or prejudice himself, he couldn't imagine the contempt or hatred that his brothers-in-law felt for his kind, couldn't have foreseen how they seethed under the scandal and dishonor that Meena had wrought." Pg 96 Then, there is Meena's explanation for her brothers' anger at the 2 sisters working outside the home: "...the most dangerous animal in the world is a man with wounded pride." Pg 131

This is a book and author not to be forgotten, both for subject matter and for her skill in drawing the reader into a place that's not easy to be in.

Wow! Thanks to BookBrowse for the amazing opportunity to read Honor by Thrity Umrigar.
I believe that the story takes place in the late 1990's. The abject poverty, superstition and the way women are treated are hard to read about, let alone believe. Meena, a Hindu,has married Abdul a Muslim, without her brother's permission. Smita, a journalist,has lived in America for twenty years but was born in Mumbai. When they meet, their bond is very strong, which makes their story even more heartbreaking.
The write up about Honor references Etaf Rum's "A Woman Is No Man". Neither book offers a happy story but offers a mesmerizing look into these women's lives. Thrity Umrigar is a masterful writer whose characters are well developed. I highly recommend Honor to all readers. I'm giving it to my daughter to read this evening. Book Clubs will have lots to talk about.

Once again, a big thank you to BookBrowse for the ARC of Thrity Umrigar's new novel, Honor. I was especially excited to receive this book as I am a loyal fan of her work. Ms. Umrigar did not disappoint. Honor was well written, with a compelling storyline. Heartbreaking, and anger inducing. As a reader, I was filled with admiration for the bravery, selflessness, and empathy of the main characters. The contrast between the old and modern India was well portrayed. All in all, an excellent and important book, highly recommended.

Thrity Umrigar is one of the most eloquent of all storytellers. In this book, she draws us into the lives of two women whose story depicts the state of today's India with its conflicts between tradition and modernism, castes, religious beliefs, and the role of women in Indian culture. Smita, an Indian by birth who has lived in the US since she was a teenager, returns to India on a work assignment that forces her to reflect upon her cultural past and present through her connection to Meena, an Indian woman caught up in the throes of caste and religious conflict played out in the rural villages that have been her home. The book describes many difficult scenes of violence toward women through Meena's story. While it is painful to read these scenes, Umrigar also allows the reader to look into the windows of goodness in the hearts of people who attempt to make change in this world of sadness. Honor is a book worthy of your time, and you will carry the characters in your heart long into the future. Definitely a five star book!

India, a land of contradictions, is front and center in this novel of HONOR and how it can be used to hurt and even kill. Two women share the spotlight, Meena, dreadfully maimed by her brothers because she has brought dishonor to their family, and Smita, an American journalist who has her own reasons for avoiding India and all it has meant to her family and who is charged to write Meena's story.
This book was difficult to read and yet necessary to understanding the conflicting and conflicted women and men is this novel. The modern India of large cities and modern conveniences is balanced by the India of small villages where tribal leaders hold sway over men and women who live in primitive conditions. Muslim India is balanced by Hindu India, two "peaceful" faiths that bring about horrors beyond imagining when they come into conflict.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand the conflicts in India and by extension the conflicts in many parts of the world where men and women, Christian and Jew, Hindu and Muslim, orthodox and liberal, come into conflict.
Well written and sympathetic, HONOR earns 5 of 5 stars.

A masterpiece! Lushly formed characters confronting the contrasts of two cultures. Opened my eyes to a country (India) I knew very little about.

We are privy to witness how Smita, main character, conquered her fears and her past. This alone is intriguing but there is MUCH more. Not until the very end do we discover why the author titled her book Honor, a novel so rich in descriptions of connectedness and interconnectedness.

Ponder these: What is life? What is love? --- as you savor each and every page.

I am hopeful you will find yourself applauding the author as I have done.