Honour by Elif Shafak.

Honour by Elif Shafak

24/05/2020  5:03 AM 

A few days ago I started this book called Honour by my favorite fiction author Elif Shafak. I had read one her books a couple of weeks ago " The forty rules of love" which was incredibly interesting. I thought to myself I should read her other books too. So I found the PDF of another of her books and to read it at ease I made xerox copy of it. Because I could not order it online, it would have taken a lot more to arrive. 

    So after making copy of it, I started reading it. Right now I am in the last pages. I will probably finish it  by the next hour. let me finish it first then I will write my views about the book 

 

2:05 PM 

    I just finished the book. I could have finished it earlier but I got tired and took a nap before lunch and then had lunch and started the book. 

    This might be one of the best thing I have read. Elif Shafak is incredibly talented. It's like she knows everything about topics she writes about. The story was really interesting and sad. It follows the story of a twin sisters; Jamila and Pembe. From their birth until the day when both die. They love and complete each other. Their devotion and affection toward each other is so pure and selfless. At some points it was provocative enough for me to shade some tears. Story's been written in a manner that you completely imagine yourself inside scenes. How everything is occurring events and their consequences and it's effect to story. it is just remarkable. 

    The chronicle which story follows is intriguing. The story has been told by different characters' point of views; Pembe her sister Jamila, her elder son Iskender, her daughter Esma, her younger son Yunus, her father, her husband her lover Elias and so  on and also a third person's point of view. It is like everything occurring at the same time. It follows the story of three generations simultaneously. One event from the past one from present and from future. At the beginning of the novel you know what is going to happen but reading those subsequent events which provoke that final scene is amazing. Like how and what happens and why he kills his own loving mother. Spoiler alert he does not kill his mother instead he kills aunt who is his mother's twin sister. Until ninety five percent of the book I thought Pembe, Iskender's mother was who killed but at the last pages it prevails that she was still alive and dies later on from a virus in her village in her sister's home. 

     I don't want to mention more details you should find by your own by reading this incredibly astonishing book. The message this book carries is so wise and so deep. It states that how Honour is more important that happiness of people in a some society. How pathetic traditions can cloud judgment of people. How it can provoke misery and distraction to the lives of people. Iskender's mother Pembe was not an honor-less or characterless woman. She just needed someone to be with, to love and to be loved but Iskender effected by tradition and society could not see his mother's happiness but instead what he saw was the shame he thought she brought to his family. Pembe was a loving mother. In early days when Iskender was a five year's old child in Turkey in their village. A old woman told her about a prophecy that her son will tear her heart in to pieces and turns out she was right. He did break his mother's heart. 

 Every detail about the story is written with an outstanding manner. Sometimes you get confused think you might have missed something that you can't understand what's happening but then a few page letter it gets clear  that what happened and why did it happen.?

  

     It also talks about racism in UK in early seventies and eighties. About Xenophobia and some other cultural and traditional problems which existed between immigrants and British people. FYI Pembe moves to UK with his husband and children after living in Istanbul for a while. 

     It hurts me the most that how Iskender's stupidity ruined his mother's happiness and shuttered his family apart. Caused his mother to live last twelve years of her life in solidarity in a faraway Kurdish village in Turkey. Pembe's life was agonizing from the beginning when she married  Adem. She found love for the first time in her life, for the first time she felt loved but Iskender's falls honor couldn't bear it. I feel really sad about what happened to Pembe. She used to call Iskender her lion her sultan but despite of all those years of love Iskender prepared his fucking honor to his mother's happiness. 

I think it is an incredible book with a strong British vocabulary. Due to my weak vocabulary I could not picture the scenes in mind vividly because the author has used really sophisticated words and British slungs. 

    Here are some beautiful lines from this incredible book

# "There were many odd things about human beings. They thought insects were disgusting but felt lucky when a ladybird landed of their fingers. They detested  rats but loved squirrels. While they found vultures repulsive, they thought eagles impressive. They despised mosquitoes and flies but were fond of fireflies. Even though copper and iron were medicinally important, it was gold that they worshiped instead. They took no notice of the stones under their feet but went mad for polished gems."

# We are all half fool, half wise, there is no wisdom without foolishness and no pride without shame."

# Mothers don't go to heaven when they die. They get special permission from God to stay around a bit longer and watch over their children, no matter what has passed between them in their brief mortal lives."

# "They didn't hear her, but it was enough that God did."

# "There were many legends about these rocks behind every legend a story of forbidden love."

# "When a person reaches a certain age, he starts to make peace with his boundaries and mistakes."

# "We glances. Finally he came at that moment. He will be able to show how much he hates me. I also feel that his feelings are unrequited. No need to act any more. We will not pretend we are better than we are anymore. We are what we are."

# "Women would be divided into two. Those that are obviously complex and those that are not at first glance complex."

# "As he grew up and missed every ambition he was chasing, he decided that all things were temporary."

# "Someone who plants in your heart a lifetime to things so pleasant yet so minute you don't realize how much you have come to depend on them until you lose them all."

# "Human life was short, no different that a wolf's. Or that of the silkworm. The sons of Adam and the Eve were strange creatures. It would be taken if you were like a worm, they would enjoy being compared to a silkworm. They were disgusted with insects, but they considered their ladybugs a good sign. They were disgusted with the rats and loved squirrels. They would find vulture repulsive and eagles imposing. They despised the flies and loved the fireflies. They did not give importance to copper and iron, they worshiped gold. They would go crazy for the jewels without looking at the stones under their feet."

# "... for he knew that when he was grateful it was harder to go crazy."

# "When you first became a father, you assumed your child was an extension of yourself. He gave you pride, and a sense of achievement and rootedness, until you came to realize, little by little, that a child was a being of his own making. He would keep to his own destiny, no matter how much you wished, prompted or forced his follow in your footsteps."

# "So it was that in the land where Pink Destiny and Enough Beauty were born, 'honor' was more than a word. It was also a name. You could call your child 'Honour', as long as it was a boy. Men had honour. Old men, middle-aged men, even schoolboys so young that they still smelled of their mothers' milk. Women did not have honour. Instead, they had shame. And, as everyone knew, Shame would be a rather poor name to bear."

# "Never had it occurred to him that you could deceive the person held dear. Until that day, he hadn't known that you could love someone with all your heart and yet be ready to hurt them. It was his first lesson in the complexity of love."

# "One can flee to the end of the world but one cannot run away from his behind."

# "There are two things in this world that make a man out of a boy. The first is the love of a woman. The second is the hatred of another man."

# "If the man is quarrelsome, his love is full of fights. If he is placid and kind, his love is a balm. Should he pity himself all the time, his love will crumble to dust. If he is a jolly, his love will abound with joy. Before losing your heart to a woman, you need to ask yourself what kind of love can you give her?"

# "When the Rich Fight, it is the Poor who Die."

#  "They just can't get enough of us. So strong is their desire to correct sinners and score points in God's eyes. We're their tickets to heaven. We, the scumbags of the earth--the wicked, the fallen."

# "The night is calm, and in the cloak of calmness are hidden dreams...."

 All the very best

I am still thinking about Pembe and her agonizing life........