Tender Hooks by Moni Mohsin is a sequel to her hilarious The Diary of a Social Butterfly that introduced us to Butterfly Khan and her page 3 life in Karachi. This book brings her back, but this time she is in Lahore, but could be anywhere in India too.
Also back are her son Kulchoo, husband Janoo, cousin Jonkers, his mom Aunty Pussy and his father Uncle Cock-Up. Aunty Pussy wants Butterfly to urgently get a good girl for Jonkers who has just got his divorce from a woman she hated (aik number ki chaloo cheez wife from lowly bagground), and she wants him to get married before the soon approaching Muharram. The English is infectiously funny:
And then last year Jonkers arrived home with Miss Shumaila, his secretary, with whom he’d already done secret marriage in a mosque…And even more worst, she had a meaty, furry smell about her as if a wild animal, like a female monkey or fox or something, had entered the room. Jonkers, of course, was like her lap dog, following in her meaty trail with his tongue hanging out. I tell you, all men are cracks.
Mohsin takes a shot at the absurdities and hypocrisies of Pakistan’s elite society. Each chapter starts with a news headline referring to the horrors of daily life in her country, even as she goes about poking fun at the upper class in language that makes you laugh out loud.
Tender Hooks
by Moni Mohsin
Random House
Proce Rs.199