Benazir Bhutto's book, released after her assassination Dec. 27 in her native Pakistan, presents a problem.

Her portrait in a Muslim scarf peers out at the potential reader from the dust jacket. Her face, Madonna-like, can only be described as serenely beautiful.

The book has a virtually irresistible title. It addresses an issue central to international relations. Given the road the two-time Pakistani prime minister trod and her bitter, tragic end, "Reconciliation" would seem to be essential reading for Americans, analysts of foreign affairs of all nationalities and Pakistanis in particular.

		"RECONCILIATION: ISLAM, DEMOCRACY AND THE WEST" By Benazir Bhutto and Mark A. Siegel HarperCollins ($27.95)

But there are flaws. The book shows signs of having been stuck together precipitously after her death, with not always felicitous results.

Her collaborator was Mark A. Siegel, former executive director of the Democratic National Committee.

The beginning is a sometimes tedious treatise on Islam. I didn't see in it anything that is flat wrong, but I am not a Muslim theologian, but neither is Bhutto nor Siegel.

Her point -- well taken -- is that Islam is not monolithic by any means. In fact, she sees the divisions inside Islam as a very serious problem.

The part of the book that I -- and I imagine most readers -- found most useful was Bhutto's account of the history of modern Pakistan, from its independence in 1947 until before her death. She calls Pakistan "the most dangerous place in the world."

Bhutto's account of the history of the three countries that make up the South Asian subcontinent, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, has the freshness and authenticity of someone who lived on the inside.

She knew nearly the whole cast of characters, either directly or through her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who also served as prime minister. One of the points that emerges clearly is that much of what happens in that area of the world was and is a result of ethnicity, or tribalism.

Even though India and Pakistan were divided in 1947 on religious lines -- roughly, Hindus vs. Muslims -- the people of both East and West Pakistan were all Muslims. They parted company in 1971 when largely Bengali East Pakistan became Bangladesh and largely Punjabi West Pakistan became present-day Pakistan.

The preeminence of tribalism in the South Asian region is important to keep in mind particularly as America grapples with the problems of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, its Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Afghanistan, otherwise known as Osama bin Laden's neighborhood.

Bhutto is quite effective in helping readers understand the realities of that complex region.

At the same time, even her history is colored immensely by the hero status she accords her father and the Bhutto family. One might have hoped for revelations of the reality of her father's trial and execution and the truth of the criminal corruption charges against her and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, de facto head of her party, the Pakistan Peoples Party.

At the same time, it is important to recall that when she died, Bhutto was still very much a practicing politician, approaching national elections with somewhat realistic hopes of becoming prime minister a third time under President Pervez Musharraf.

Her followers accuse Musharraf of not providing her sufficient security. It is, of course, very hard to say, but it is certainly true that she took big, big chances with her security.

Given her perhaps unique combination of deep knowledge of Pakistan and broad experience of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Arab Gulf, she would have made an interesting partner for the United States in Pakistan, yoked with Musharraf.

If one takes her at her word in "Reconciliation" she had some important, helpful ideas to offer for our times. At the same time, while seeking to avoid the maudlin, it is probably also true that she was too good for the murderous world of Pakistan and Afghanistan of 2008.

That is a world of car bombs, improvised explosive devices and Drones, rather than reasoned, religious-based proposals to solve the problems there.