A review by aminhas
Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter's Memoir by Fatima Bhutto

2.0

No one can deny that Fatima Bhutto is a good writer. The book is enjoyable to read, but provides an incredibly one-sided approach to Pakistani politics. If she focused more on the 'memoir' part rather than politics I probably would have given this a higher rating. The entire time I read the book I felt she was trying to convert me to her beliefs on Pakistani politics with very biased information. She doesn't approach the history/politics of Pakistan in an objective manner due to the fact that she is unable to let go of her family name when discussing the topic. She quickly dismisses the negatives of the family members she loves, and tries to convince us that those who disagree with those family members are evil/corrupt/etc. I think I can understand that she would hero-worship her father and grandfather, especially since they both did not die from natural deaths, but a consequence of that is she has an inability to approach these figures in a critical manner. In the beginning of the book she mentions that her thesis adviser warns her that a dissertation she was writing on her grandfather was too hagiographic, and I do not think that adviser would even consider this book as a work of scholarship. As such, when I read this I had to constantly remind myself that the subtitle is "A Daughter's Memoir."