Blood ties and stories
Do you have the right to write a memoir at 28? But I will be kind to Fatima Bhutto. Not just because she is a beautiful and intelligent girl..
Book:Songs of Blood and SwordAuthor: Fatima Bhutto
Publisher: Penguin India
Price: Rs 699
Do you have the right to write a memoir at 28? But I will be kind to Fatima Bhutto. Not just because she is a beautiful and intelligent girl living in what is often described as the most dangerous city in the most dangerous country on earth, but because she carries such a good story in her blood.
In her aptly titled memoir, Songs of Blood and Sword, Fatima is not kind to her famous aunt — Benazir Bhutto. She maintains that her aunt was morally responsible for her father’s killing. Of course, the book is not about Benazir. It’s about Fatima’s father, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, the lesser-known Bhutto.
Songs of Blood… is very different from Daughter of the East, Benazir’s memoirs, written over 20 years ago. That was ghostwritten, self-indulgent and a launch pad for a debutante politician. This book too is about the family, but Fatima is also a columnist, so the book is more journalistic in scope. Besides the life of the Bhuttos, one also get a picture of evolving Pakistan through the family’s trials and tribulations.
Five things you didn’t know about: Fatima Bhutto
* She hates Facebook.
* She buys second hand Vanity Fair magazines from Karachi’s second-hand book markets.
* She is an insomniac.
* She doesn’t like parties.
* She is a fan of Malcolm X’s autobiography.
