It came recommended by two people - an avid reader friend who raved about it and my mum, who was matter of fact about it. The opening surprised me, probably by the language employed. For some reason, I find it hard to to reconcile with Draupadi talking about houseflies farting and buttocks and such like. I cant quite get the word to describe the disconnect; maybe I expect a certain lofty prose and gravitas associated with mythology that Divakaruni Bannerjee's book fails to provide. I think I will reconcile to the language in a couple of chapters and write a more objective review.
The word for the feeling I described is, 'anachronism'.
That's what is amiss. I cannot reconcile to contemporary language in a story with a period setting. Is this even considered period? Hell No. Its a myth.
Three days and a hundred odd pages later, I think I have made my peace with the language. Actually, I don't see the anachronistic language popping up again. The gravitas has been restored and its tinged with a slight bit of drama that I can make my peace with.
Its a page turner and that's quite something for a mythological piece.My memories of mythology are tainted with preachy overtones that totally put me off. At least this one is not like that.
Five days into the book I have reached, what can be described as the singular event that made an epic out of the Mahabharatha - the Vastraharan. I was angry as I read her version of events. I was bristling at her five able bodied husbands who sat there watching her humiliation. I rage with her, at the injustice of the men of the world. I think again of Nirbhaya and how, not much has changed.If the Mahabharata did actually occur, it was a patriarchal setup that attached zilch importance to women then and is so now.
I was sad today at the murder of Abhimanyu, orchestrated by Drona, Karna and the others, flouting all rules of righteous war.
'So Abhimanyu fell, his beautiful face turned toward the women's tent where Uttara waited, his eyes filled with astonishment at the perfidy of men he'd respected as heroes. And his killers- so greatly had war altered them-roared their triumph like beasts.'
Angry at Drona, for being a blood-thirsty elder and at Karna the righteous who was swayed by the blood heat of battle.
