 Word On Books
with Jeremy Fenton
Holy Cow
By Sarah MacDonald
Published by Bantam
 Sarah MacDonald lived to regret the day she was told by an Indian beggar that she would return to India for love. No she wouldn't, she thought, as India was a place she had decided she detested after backpacking her way around the country.
Over a decade later the 'love of her life' was posted to India for work reasons. She quit her own job as a national radio announcer and followed him to New Delhi. Prophecy fulfilled.
It's not hard to think of India as the most 'here and now' culture on the Earth - full of contradictions, endless surprises and enthusiasm for life, the Indian people are a joy to behold. Even if, as MacDonald discovers, it's sometimes hard to take for poor Western people accustomed to our more homogenised culture.
Her book is an exercise in confronting the unexpected, and even unexplained, as she experiences such things as being cursed by a naked sadhu (an event that may, or may not, have lead to double pneumonia), and meeting the goddess of healing hugs (which may, or may not, have lead to having her breasts balloon in size).
Holy Cow is effectively a hip travel book for the young, and the young at heart, as it bounces through pop-culture references and snappy language with an energy that is hard to resist.
Overall it's a fun and engaging read - those expecting some deep introspection and analysis of the various religions and traditions MacDonald encounters should know better from the title alone. If anything it is reminiscent of the Bollywood films mentioned throughout: bright and colourful, while changing tack on the head of a pin.
Forbidden Love
By Norma Khouri
Published by Bantam
 In Jordan the 'ancient tradition' of honour killing still continues.
It's a horrific practice that effectively encourages the murder of women believed to have dishonoured their family through 'immoral' actions.
Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri is a literary attempt to bring wider attention to the monstrous tradition, while also offering a more personal memorial to a close friend.
Published elsewhere under the title Honour Lost, Forbidden Love tells the true story of Dalia, a young Arabian Muslim woman living with her family in Amman, Jordan.
Through the sort of encounter we would think of as romantic in the West, she falls in love with Michael, a Catholic man.
Conducting their chaste affair in utmost secrecy (with the clandestine help of friend Norma), the pair eventually arouse the suspicion of one of Dalia's brothers. Predictably, but still overwhelmingly shocking, their short love story ends in a dreadful tragedy when her own father kills her for shaming the family.
As a result of writing the book (reportedly in an Internet café), Khouri herself was threatened with death by her own family for "shaming them in public". She was forced to flee to Athens (and now lives in Australia) for her own safety.
Forbidden Love is a powerful and moving book, and while it's being promoted as a work that will "strike a chord with women everywhere", I think it has equal appeal to male readers. At least in this country.
jeremy@wordonbooks.com
www.wordonbooks.com
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