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A review by _askthebookbug
My Feudal Lord by Tehmina Durrani
3.0
• r e v i e w •
Sometimes you go in with a lot of expectations but come out with a disappointed heart. My Feudal Lord was exactly that. What intrigued me about it was the involvement of a powerful man, Ghulam Mustafa Khar who was once the Chief Minister and Governor of Punjab and was also Bhutto's dear friend. Tehmina exposes his temper, manipulative tactics, physical and mental abuse and his political journey (to a large extent) for the world to see and it truly frightened me to know that a person can carry such evilness inside him/her. What also pushed me to get a copy of this book was because of William Hoffer, who co-authored my absolute favourite book 'Not Without My Daughter'. Having such strong points, I imagined myself admiring this biography but by the end of it all, I remain confused.
Tehmina Durrani comes from an aristocratic yet dysfunctional family. With an unkind mother and an almost invisible father, she grew up being everyone's least favorite. When she married Anees, a decent young man, she was relieved to have escaped her family home but only to realise that she didn't love her husband. Khar's entry into her life only cemented the fact that he has been the one for her all along. Known as Lion of Punjab, Khar was a womanizer and a Feudal Lord, known for his fierce attitude. Against all warning, she becomes his fifth wife and troubles begin soon after. There's physical abuse followed by severe manipulation, where Khar easily pitted the family members against one another. She hasn't had an easy life but there were instances which were simply absurd for me to understand. It lacked genuineness and this was a concerning factor if found in biographies. There's a lot of politics involved in the book which often made me feel that I was reading Khar's biography instead. The book went around in circles, never seeming to end and I couldn't help but feel if Tehmina was truly really oblivious to many incidences.
I discussed this with @ashgadiyar and was relieved to see that I wasn't the only one to feel this way. Tehmina makes it almost impossible to buy her story and although my heart goes out to her for all that she had to endure, the book somehow seems too much. I would have wanted this to be more about her but all the additional details about Khar's political life only ruined the experience for me. For someone who loves reading biographies and memoirs, this was truly such a letdown.
Rating : 3.4/5.
Sometimes you go in with a lot of expectations but come out with a disappointed heart. My Feudal Lord was exactly that. What intrigued me about it was the involvement of a powerful man, Ghulam Mustafa Khar who was once the Chief Minister and Governor of Punjab and was also Bhutto's dear friend. Tehmina exposes his temper, manipulative tactics, physical and mental abuse and his political journey (to a large extent) for the world to see and it truly frightened me to know that a person can carry such evilness inside him/her. What also pushed me to get a copy of this book was because of William Hoffer, who co-authored my absolute favourite book 'Not Without My Daughter'. Having such strong points, I imagined myself admiring this biography but by the end of it all, I remain confused.
Tehmina Durrani comes from an aristocratic yet dysfunctional family. With an unkind mother and an almost invisible father, she grew up being everyone's least favorite. When she married Anees, a decent young man, she was relieved to have escaped her family home but only to realise that she didn't love her husband. Khar's entry into her life only cemented the fact that he has been the one for her all along. Known as Lion of Punjab, Khar was a womanizer and a Feudal Lord, known for his fierce attitude. Against all warning, she becomes his fifth wife and troubles begin soon after. There's physical abuse followed by severe manipulation, where Khar easily pitted the family members against one another. She hasn't had an easy life but there were instances which were simply absurd for me to understand. It lacked genuineness and this was a concerning factor if found in biographies. There's a lot of politics involved in the book which often made me feel that I was reading Khar's biography instead. The book went around in circles, never seeming to end and I couldn't help but feel if Tehmina was truly really oblivious to many incidences.
I discussed this with @ashgadiyar and was relieved to see that I wasn't the only one to feel this way. Tehmina makes it almost impossible to buy her story and although my heart goes out to her for all that she had to endure, the book somehow seems too much. I would have wanted this to be more about her but all the additional details about Khar's political life only ruined the experience for me. For someone who loves reading biographies and memoirs, this was truly such a letdown.
Rating : 3.4/5.