Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan [Paperback]

Norma Khouri (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press; Reprint edition (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743448790
• ISBN-13: 978-0743448796
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (141 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #926,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Oops, I lied..., July 27, 2004

By 

Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Honor Lost : Love and Death in Modern Day Jordan (Hardcover)

Positive, even glowing reviews have been written in the NYT Book Review and elsewhere about this woman's brave attmept to tell a story that needs to be told. Sure, her prose isn't the greatest, and she stumbles at times, but what a story!

Unfortunately, it's all a complete fabrication. Khouri created a fictional potboiler and had a lot of people fooled. And the great pity of it is that women *are* treated as second class citizens in that part of the world, that family honor killings *do* take place, in countries like Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and Khouri's fabrications will only serve to cast doubt on the real stories.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A death threat that never was., July 17, 2003

By 

Paul (Perth, Australia.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honor Lost : Love and Death in Modern Day Jordan (Hardcover)

Id like to share with your readers some of my findings about this book, if I may. Thank you.

The author claims in her book (a claim repeated in her review of Queen Noors book Leap of Faith) that many Jordanian women are in jail for their own protection as they fear that they might be killed by their families. As an Australian of Jordanian descent, I know for a fact that it is indeed true and I believe that it shouldnt happen as it is plain injustice that we should all fight.

But, by writing so in her book, the author shot unknowingly herself in the foot because, if she was REALLY threatened with death by her OWN family for 5 years, why didnt she seek the jails protection against her familys death threat like the other women? Quite the opposite, she spent the last FIVE YEARS of her life in Jordan AT HOME not in jail in fear of her family!

This is yet another undeniable proof that there was NO death threat made against her by her family. In fact, as two reviewers already noticed, her family belongs to a social upper class that does not believe in honour killing. Somehow, she forgot to mention this fact in her book. One wonders why!

If her family REALLY threatened her with death, she would have headed towards the nearest prison asking for protection, the VERY SAME day the threat was made. Something she didnt do for FIVE WHOLE YEARS, by deciding to stay at home. So much for that death threat! Also a death threat that remains active for 5 years is just laughable.

I am therefore sad to say that this book is a pack of lies, written for a gullible and perhaps prejudiced western readership. This death threat claim and episode is just another illustrative example of the tendency of this book to be caught increasingly in the web of its own lies.

So by all means, let us fight honour killing and violence against women worldwide (including my own country Australia) BUT let us not be fooled by this author whose aims are financial and immigration, behind writing this book. Fighting honour killing is one thing and buying this book is another-there is no connection between the two. A carefully orchestrated anti-Jordanian media blitz made the naïve western readership mix between the two.

This book truly does not deserve a place on a bookshelf. Its rightful place is in a dustbin, the dustbin of fake writings where Adolph Hitlers diaries occupy a prominent place already.

Finally, I have found the comments of a fellow Australian (see below) unduly and unjustifiably harsh about Yvonnas review. After all, the reviews aim was to help Amazon readers reach an educated view about this book by highlighting some of the vital discrepancies of this supposedly factual book. There is nothing wrong with that. It is called freedom of expression!

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Victimising Jordan and Islam with a passport to the west., June 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Honor Lost : Love and Death in Modern Day Jordan (Hardcover)

As an immigration officer who has travelled and lived through the middle-east, I have found this book content doubtful, to say the least. The style deliberately constructed to manipulate the emotions of her readers has made me even more suspicious of the author's motives.

In my line of work, I have dealt with claims, as dramatic as the authors', that are made by people eager to enter the west by any means. The author's assertions have simply not been backed up by any material evidence. This is a `love' story with not a single proof! The contrast between this book and Queen Noor's which describes her love story with King Hussein is amazing. In that book, the documented evidence of their love is for all to see-even letters and photos were included!

The author writes that Dalia's death is genuine and her `love' story is true. However, a close inspection shows unbelievable contradictions documented by your reviewers. I may not be Jordanian or a Muslim but, because I have lived for a while in Jordan and the middle-east, I have noticed that the author has been truly careless about her description of her country of origin and Islam. It is as if the author's bottom line, when writing this book, was: `western readers know nothing about Jordan and Islam, so they WILL believe anything they are told anyway'.

For example, the author claim's that photography is forbidden in Islam is blatantly false. As an amateur photographer, I am fascinated by the beauty of Jordan and have attended IN AMMAN photographic exhibitions about the red city of Petra. Also, since she claims to be a close friend to a Muslim lady called Dalia, has the author never seen -in Dalia's home- an Islamic calendar with photos of, say, mosques around the world? I have got one at home! In fact, don't Jordanian newspapers publish photographs? The whole claim seems bizarre and designed to portray her fellow country(men/women) so backward as being afraid of having their souls `stolen' if they pose before a camera lens!

This kind of careless falsehoods has made me switch off completely. In this spirit, since the author's motto seems `as far as the western readers goes, anything goes', I believe that, as her readers, we have the right to demand enough tangible proofs before believing that Dalia and Michael ever met let alone fell in `love'! It should NOT be that hard, as Michael is ALIVE.

The emotional, rather than intellectual, style of this book account betrays the author's objective: settling in Australia with this book as her vehicle. She is neither the first nor the last to resort to this method of emotional `blackmail' to emigrate to the west as I have met so many applicants, in my professional experience, each with a dramatic story that usually collapses under examination. Like the one about a woman claiming to be a rape victim at home who was found to be a virgin when medically examined!

The fact that there is violence against women in Jordan is undeniable. No one disagrees with the author on this point. However, to concentrate on Jordan and forget for example the awful treatment of native women in Australia and New Zealand (the 1994 film `Once Were Warriors' is a haunting example) is intellectual deception and shows yet again that her over-riding goal is not helping women fight violence but settling in the west.

Had the author criticised, in her book, even slightly, the Australian government for the level of violence against aboriginal women, she would have been banned from entering the country. So she seems to have `fine-tuned' her attention and attacks on Jordan and Islam only! It is her SELECTIVE choice of women's issue that makes her book look suspiciously anti-islamic and anti-arab in character. This is why I believe that this book is not a universal cry for help on behalf of victimised women - it is simply the author's passport to the west.

Since she has successfully settled in Australia by now, let us hope that her future writings will be less about settling scores with Jordan and more about fighting GLOBAL violence against women, starting with her new home -Australia- and her new world - the west!