Book Review: HONOUR – Elif Shafak: Trauma Love Of Brown Women

HONOUR replaces The Bastard of Istanbul as my favourite book by Elif Shafak. Once again, this story is about Turkish women navigating the changing faces of patriarchy between Western notions and their traditional values. But this time, we also see the journeys of the men through these same paths. The Turkish characters originate from poor remote villages rather than the bustling city of Istanbul.

A character calls her son, ‘her sultan’. This reminds me too painfully of Indian motherhood’s ‘raja beta’ and my country of Oedipal syndromes, daddy issues and honour killings. Indian culture’s idea of honour ties into the policing of women’s bodies just as closely. Just as Shafak’s writing depicts, these notions are passed on through the generations even if they get less obvious with economic power and global (Western) exposure. They seem like mere scars on the surface but really, they’re veins, throbbing with the very pulse of our lives. And any minute, our selves could be shattered by a single act, bringing down with them the worlds of our families, and communities to create a statement in racial politics. Brown people are never far away from these realities, no matter how many visas we accumulate.

It’s extra poignant to read this in the wake of the Hamas attacks and the Israeli genocide of Palestinians surges on unfettered by the world’s gaze. Islamophobia is never mentioned or described graphically in this novel. It’s buried behind the huge walls of racism in Britain of the 1970s and even the 1990s. Nearly all the characters that choose to interact with the central family are peoples of colour and usually impoverished immigrants from brown countries (except one kindly black hairdresser). The Muslims are Lebanese, Egyptian, Pakistani and more. One notable character hails from Montreal and describes himself as being from everywhere but has Middle Eastern ancestry. A neat little suggestion by Shafak of the privilege of even being white-passing.

The writing might feel strange to readers used to the more linear narratives of white/Western authors. HONOUR moves fluidly between characters’ inner journeys, across countries and back and forth through time. Yet, it never feels cluttered because each location, character and point in time are so markedly described. It never gets hard to keep people’s lives or even the points in their lives straight because they are each written with such compassion. From a rural Turkish herbalist to an immigrant labourer in Abu Dhabi to an East European exotic dancer to a Lebanese cook. Every person’s journey counts as much as it would inside their own heads.

I applaud even the gentle feminism of this story which has grown much more nuanced from Shafak’s earlier works. This book covers much deeper issues of violence, racism, political genocide and economic exploitation. But in reading, you find yourself moved by even the characters who commit the worst acts of all. And miraculously this is done without graphic descriptions of violence or other such triggering things. You know they’re all happening but the author takes us on a deep dive of what these do to the people who live through these experiences.

This is a deep, nuanced reading. Enter only when you have the appetite to do it justice. And if like me, you’re seeking identity in stories closer to your life, you might want to check out my post on ‘Best of Friends‘ by Kamila Shamsie.