The Diary of a Social Butterfly by Moni Mohsin / A Comic series of Experiences

 

A few days ago, I came across an interesting novel “The Diary of a Social Butterfly” by Moni Mohsin. Reading this novel was like riding a roller-coaster of fun. It is a comedy novel and through humor, she highlights several aspects of society. But her way of writing is so enjoyable that we do not know that there is satire in the novel and later thought about the incidents in a very different light.

This novel is about the life and experiences of an Elite Class woman as she calls herself “Social Butterfly”. Although this novel is a satire on the life of Elite class social practices. But the way she describes her experiences is just so marvelous that I cannot help but laugh. This novel is great to read if you are feeling a little down. The woman is living with her husband and her son in Lahore, Pakistan. The way she gossips about different things helps in getting a glimpse of her competitive life.

The novel is written in diary form (Epistolary Novel) and every new chapter started from two headings, one main heading of the chapter which usually talks about major issues (national or global) but the sub-heading talks about happenings of her life. Further, when she discusses all the incidents of her life, the satire becomes clear that the Butterfly does not care about national or global problems, but only focuses on her immediate issues that seem utterly meaningless to us. The most hilarious part for me in this novel is when her mother-in-law had an angina attack and she told everyone that she has vagina attack, on reading it I laughed so hard. The way she tries to speak English (she can’t speak English) is fun to read as she misspells almost every English word (i.e. she calls condo as a condom). My experience of reading this novel was great, what was your experience while reading this novel?