I Wish I Could Say I’m Surprised
Last summer, I walked into a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan Beach to find a copy of Norma Khouri’s Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan prominently displayed on the main table. (In the UK and Australia the book was titled Forbidden Love.) I read the back flap and discovered that this was a memoir written by a Norma Khouri about her childhood friend and business partner Dalia, whose affair with a Christian man was discovered, leading to her being stabbed and murdered by her father. Norma, fearing for her life, managed to smuggle herself out of the country and escaped to freedom.
At the time, my instinct was to say, Goodness, is this what publishers want? More of these poor-oppressed-Arab-women-being-abused-by-their-men? Well, apparently, yes, that was what publishers wanted. The book was published in 15 countries and sold well, particularly in Australia where Khouri immigrated (her publisher helped out with her residency paperwork.) Australians even voted her memoir one of their 100 favorite books of all time.
Well, the clich