The Diary of a Social Butterfly

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Moni Mohsin is a famous columnist and a freelance writer who originally belongs to Lahore, Pakistan. Her current writings are published by several renowned publications, one even owned by her own sister here in Pakistan, Jugnu Mohsin, called ‘Friday Times’, and others being; The Guardian, The Nation, The times of India, and The New York Times (Emirateslitfest). Her first two novels, The End of Innocence and Duty Free, are both prize winning pieces of work (Emirateslitfest). The former novel is based on a sensitive and astounding story centered in west Punjab during the unstable times of Pakistan during the 1970’s (Mukherjee), while latter is more of a satirical and humorous writing based on a woman who helps her cousin to find him a suitable wife (Mohsin, Google books). Moni belongs to a liberal and educated family background. During the General Zia-ul-Haq's dictatorship, as the political and social environment became a bit religiously extreme, she and her family felt uneasy during that time (Lau). This might be the reason why she has critiqued in so much depth over the Pakistan’s politics and Pakistan’s elite class, in her journal- The Diary of a Social Butterfly. The journal is satirical commentary through the perspective of a socialite. It is filled with humor, tongue in cheek tone and wit which gives the reader fits of laughter. Moni has maintained periodicity while presenting the real events that occurred from 2000 to 2008. Most prominent thing about this writing is the malapropistic voice of the protagonist which maintains the humor even while presenting the sad and awful events in the journal. Also there is use of both English and Urdu language which makes the writing unique and interesting. However in her writing the autho...

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...e writing style. She has used the effective methods to approach her audiences and it will be safe to say that she has been quite successful. Only if the social critique was less and the Butterfly character was little more down to earth, this journal would have been more realistic and less of a critique itself.

Works Cited

Emirateslitfest. Emirateslitfest. 2014. .

Lau, Lisa E. J. Sawnet. 2006. .

Mohsin, Moni. Dairy of a Social Butterfly. Random House India, 2008.

Moni Mohsin. Duty Free. Google books. 2011. .

Mukherjee, Neel. Neel Mukherjee. 26 Jan 2009. .

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