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A review by thegulagula
Honour by Elif Shafak
4.0
'You could call your child "Honour", as long as it was a boy. Men had honour. Women did not have honour. Instead, they had shame. And as everyone knows, shame would be a rather poor name to bear.'
This is only the second book of Elif Shafak that I've read. I kind of like her writing style of non-sequential events of stories and multiple points of view of its characters. But it took a great focus for me to know when and who was that I was reading.
Set in Turkey and then London, the novel talked about a patriarchal and misogynistic community - how the same act of sin are viewed differently by the community depending on the sexes of the sinners. An identical twin, Pembe and Jamila who were worlds apart but still connected in ways in minds and memories: one living as a midwife in Turkey and the other married and moved to London with her family. In London, Pembe's family faced issues like racism, fidelity and money, being immigrants in a foreign land. This is a dramatic story telling of an honour killing as a result of the shame caused by a female in a Muslim family living in the West.
The characters are full of heartbreaking and depressing backgrounds that they did not tell those around them. But it is the author's style of writings that I'm particularly fond of. I only knew that English is not her native language and it amazed me how she used the language beautifully in her writings.
I'd definitely picked up more of Elif Shafak after this.
This is only the second book of Elif Shafak that I've read. I kind of like her writing style of non-sequential events of stories and multiple points of view of its characters. But it took a great focus for me to know when and who was that I was reading.
Set in Turkey and then London, the novel talked about a patriarchal and misogynistic community - how the same act of sin are viewed differently by the community depending on the sexes of the sinners. An identical twin, Pembe and Jamila who were worlds apart but still connected in ways in minds and memories: one living as a midwife in Turkey and the other married and moved to London with her family. In London, Pembe's family faced issues like racism, fidelity and money, being immigrants in a foreign land. This is a dramatic story telling of an honour killing as a result of the shame caused by a female in a Muslim family living in the West.
The characters are full of heartbreaking and depressing backgrounds that they did not tell those around them. But it is the author's style of writings that I'm particularly fond of. I only knew that English is not her native language and it amazed me how she used the language beautifully in her writings.
I'd definitely picked up more of Elif Shafak after this.