Over the past four decades, the name Bhutto has come to symbolize --depending on which version of history you believe -- Pakistan. It has become our lot inlife to obsess over the Bhuttos, discuss their macabre deaths -- Zulfikar washanged, Shah Nawaz poisoned, Murtaza and Benazir shot -- and wonder how manymore Bhuttos will come to rule over Pakistan.

The latest author to chronicle the Bhuttos is Fatima Bhutto, Murtaza'sdaughter and the much-fawned over columnist and poet whose book, Songsof Blood and Sword: A Daughter's Memoir, was recently released in Pakistan,India, and the United Kingdom. Songs of Blood and Sword is Fatima'sattempt at writing a memoir of her father, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, who died in 1996when the Karachipolice fired on his convoy while his sister, Benazir Bhutto, was primeminister.

On first read, this memoir often feels like a rehash of Daughterof the East, Benazir Bhutto's 1988 autobiography that documented herlife in prison under General Zia ul-Haq's regime and the events that precededit, including her father being hanged by Haq's administration, simply becauseFatima is as defensive of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's domestic and foreign policies asBenazir was.

But Fatima Bhutto's grief is palpable on every page -- anyone who haslost a parent can empathize with her pain, and anyone who hasn't will stillcommiserate. But in her attempt to document her father's life from his birth tohis years in exile in Syria from the early 1980s and eventual return toPakistan in 1993, Fatima tries to wipe the slate clean and goes down the sameroute that Benazir did in Daughter of theEast: selectively using quotes from those who agree with her worldview.

Fatima traces Murtaza's history and finds witty gems and beautiful ex-girlfriendsas she travels to Boston and Athens to discover her father's life. Shefinds professors reminiscing about their talented young student, and oldfriends sharing anecdotes and letters written by Zulfikar to Murtaza.

She writes at length about their shared memories, their bond as fatherand daughter, strengthened further by the fact that he brought her up almostsingle-handedly,since her parents divorced shortly after Shah Nawaz Bhutto's death. Fatima's accountof their life in Damascusis poignant, peppered with their shared interests, anecdotes of Murtaza'sboisterous sense of humor and conversations about life and love. These partsare engaging, make for a compelling read and deserve to be documented. Hewrites a poem to her in a letter while he was in jail, excerpted here:

Here is a small one on Wadi [Benazir] and Slippery Joe [presumably Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir's husband]
Inky, Pinky, Ponky
Her husband is a donkey
Both loot the country
Her husband is a monkey
Inky, Pinky, Ponky.

Fatima also paints a chilling narrative of thenight Murtaza was shot dead along with several of his supporters, an accountthat explains why this book is laden with not-so-quiet rage. In the epilogue,she writes of an occasion when President Asif Ali Zardari and his entouragewere being received at the British consulate, close to Fatima'sresidence, as she stood at the same spot her father had been shot. "Here I was,standing where my father was murdered, and the man who I believe was in partresponsible for the execution was across the road from me, being receiveddiplomatically. I felt my knees buckle. I sat down on the curb."

She transports the reader back to the streets of Karachi and the frenzied scenes in thehospital where doctors tried to save Murtaza's life. It is the story of yetanother Bhutto trying to come to terms with yet another strange and unexpected death,the fourth in as many decades. These are the losses that have shaped Pakistan'shistory to a great extent and will be an influential factor for the foreseeablefuture.

But given that this is a grieving daughter's memoir of her father whowas killed at the young age of 42, it is clear that she does not intend tocriticize his actions in any way. Fatima Bhutto glosses over the time he spentin Libya as a guest of Colonel Gaddafi or in Kabul, as the alleged head of theAl-Zulfikar Organization (AZO) that was set up to avenge the death of ZulfikarAli Bhutto. Unsurprisingly, Murtaza is absolved of all responsibility for AZO.The famed 1981 hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines plane in Kabul that AZO tookcredit for is explained differently. Fatimaquotes a friend of Murtaza's extensively, who claims that the hijacker,Salamullah Tipu, was not a member of the AZO and that Murtaza was actuallynegotiating with the hijackers to release the women and children on board. Itis an account that is widely disputed by former members of the AZO (RajaAnwar, The Terrorist Prince, 1997).

But in this new episode in the saga of the Bhutto dynasty that Fatima has chronicled, the blame -- as well as theacerbic barbs and the retorts -- are all directed at her aunt Benazir Bhutto. Fatimacriticizes Benazir from her choice of room décor at the Bhuttos' Karachi residence to Benazir's decision to wear a headscarf and her wit -- anecdotes all dissected to form a portrayal of a self-centered,power-hungry woman who Fatima squarely holdsresponsible for everything that has gone wrong in the Bhutto dynasty.

In her quest to absolve Murtaza of lingering criticism surrounding hisname and paint Benazir as the "bad guy," Fatima blames her aunt for everythingfrom Murtaza's incarceration after he returned from exile, to alienating NusratBhutto, Benazir's mother and Fatima'sgrandmother, from the PPP and being hungry for power. She does share anecdotesof her memories with her aunt, but writes that "since we returned to Pakisan Ihad seen a different, ugly side of my aunt," citing an incident where Fatima asked her to visit Murtaza in jail with her andBenazir refused, saying "I couldn't get permission from the jail to come." Fatima couldn'tfathom this, given that Benazir was prime minister at the time, and writes, "Icouldn't shift the blame from her any more. She was involved. She was runningthe show." The final blow came after Murtaza's death, when Benazir reportedlycalled his widow, Ghinwa, a ‘bellydancer' from the ‘backwoods of Lebanon.'Fatima writes, "After Papa was killed, I neversaw that old Wadi again. She was gone."

In her quest though, Fatima even attempts to hold Benazir responsiblefor the death of Shah Nawaz,Benazir and Murtaza's brother, who died under rather strange circumstances in Francein 1985. (While the Bhutto family was on holiday in Cannes, where Shah Nawazlived with his wife and daughter, they was alerted by his wife one morning thatShah Nawaz had "taken something" (p.250, Daughter of the East). They discoveredhe was dead, allegedly having taken poison, but the Bhutto family believes hewas murdered while his wife was charged (and then cleared) of not assistingShah Nawaz in time.) Her source? The observations of the lawyer Murtaza andBenazir engaged to fight the case in French courts, Jacques Verges. Theinsinuation that Benazir may have ordered Shah Nawaz's killing and the remarksshe chooses to include by Benazir (such as indulgent postcards she sent toMurtaza at university) sour the book. It no longer feels like a memoir, but yetanother blame game in the history of the Bhutto family that is still at oddswith each other. Their conflict shows no signs of dissipating or staying withinthe family. Last week, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's nephew Tariq Islam senta letter to the Dawn newspaper disputing at least one account in Songs of Blood and Sword by quotingconversations he had with Zulfikar before Zulfikar was executed in 1979.

Fatima Bhutto's rage at Benazir, who she believes was either involved inor complicit in covering up the killing of her father, Murtaza-- the woman she once thought of as her favorite aunt -- isunderstandable. But it is a niece's anger, not a historian's or a memoirist's.  

Songs of Bloodand Sword is not, and should not be treated as, a chapter in the Bhuttos'history. It is a self-serving charade discounting other versions or charactersbecause they do not fit with Fatima's take onevents that occurred in Murtaza's life.

The book has reportedly sold well in Pakistan (ExpressTribune), but the reviews in the Pakistani press have been rather scathing(TheNews, Dawn,ExpressTribune). It is hard to gauge Pakistani public approval or disapproval ofthe book, given that Fatima Bhutto flew out of Pakistan for a book tour after itlaunched and has reportedly refused to sit down for face-to-face interviewswith Pakistani journalists. Conventional readings and Q&A sessions wouldhave given insights, but this is no conventional book. It will continue to sellwell -- anything with the Bhutto name does -- but whether it can spark any negativepublic reaction to Fatima or Zardari remains to be seen.

Ultimately, Songs of Blood andSword is yet another in the series of books written by the Bhuttos abouttheir versions of history as they see it. Mark your calendars: 22 years fromnow, another Bhutto will be penning a memoir. As Tariq Islam says Zulfikar AliBhutto told him in jail, "Iwill go down in history. Songs will be written about me." He probably didn'texpect the songs would be written by members of his own family.