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1. The Palace of Illusions
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I was intrigued as soon as I heard the plot of The Palace of Illusions, and I knew I was going to like it right away. I think Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni deserves three out of the five stars I gave her just for thinking of the idea itself. The Mahabharata has been part of India's ancient culture and history for the past 3000 years, and yet no one ever thought of narrating the epic from a different point of view.
Of course, I personally cheered at her choice of Draupadi as her narrator, having given a lot of thought to the treatment of women in the Mahabharata. Draupadi, or Panchaali, which is what she is called in this book, has been one of the most mysterious creatures in the grand epic. She has five husbands, the five Pandava brothers, but does not have the choice and freedom of a polygamous wedding, as she is passed around from brother to brother, every year. She has always been portrayed as the victim by all the accounts of the Mahabharata I have read, even though the readers knows little to nothing about her feelings. In this book, Draupadi is anything but the victim. She is shown as a fiercely independent, rebellious woman, who wants to take her destiny into her own hands. While her thoughts and actions sometimes made me less sympathetic towards her character, I still felt like she was empowered and strong-willed.
I won't go into the details of the book, as the Mahabharata is quite a complicated saga. However, I will say that it was very refreshing to read the story through Draupadi's gendered lens.
The author did a wonderful job of sticking to the script of the original epic. Had she strayed from it, she wouldn't be according it the respect that it deserves. But as such, she rewrites the story so masterfully, changing nothing but Draupadi's feelings. These were a bit intriguing to me, as her relationship with Krishna and Karna are brought into play. These feelings are not part of the original Mahabharata, and that is about the only liberty she took with the script. I thought they were a nice addition, and it helped make the book a little more universal, because who doesn't like a love story? But I will get into the reasons why I was a bit disappointed nonetheless.
If I had to criticize this book, I would say two things:
--The manner in which gender roles are portrayed is a little constrictive. It seems that the author is a cultural feminist, one who believes that there are differences in the nature of men and women. Men fight wars, display characteristics of aggression, strength, competitiveness and violence. Women use the power of words, and are supposed to be caring, nurturing, motherly, and cooperative. Most South Asian feminist would agree with this point of view, but it would have been really wonderful if Chitra Banerjee had broken through these "stereotypes" a little and ensured that the reader remained more sympathetic towards Draupadi when she did not follow these gender roles, instead of giving off the impression that she is a bad mother and wife. For example, I would have LOVED to read something along the lines of: "well yes, maybe she is negligent of her children, but she never wanted children in the first place; in fact, she never wanted this fate for herself, so it is useless to criticize her for not fulfilling her duty".
--This is a personal thing too, but I have noticed that most women's self-empowerment stories always have to do with secret feelings or affairs that they have with men that are not their husbands. Although that is not the only way that women can empower themselves, but most stories about South Asian women seem to show them in this light. This is not the first (think Brick Lane, Pikoo's Diary). I just wish that Draupadi's feelings for Krishna and Karna had been toned down a bit, to show that illicit thoughts or affairs are not the only way for a woman to empower herself.
Despite this, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in either women's issues or grand epics. The writing was in no way spectacular, but it portrayed emotions adequately enough. I wanted to read it again as soon as I finished it, and I have a feeling I will never think of the Mahabharata in the same way again