Oct 06, 2009 03:48 PM
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Palace of Illusions: It's thestory of Mahabharata from Draupadi’s point of view. The book started very well.
It talked about the childhood of Draupadi in very unusual and novel way; especiallyher relationship with her brother Dri (Dhristadryum) and Krishana. But after say some 100 pages the book lost its initial zest.
It almost became a dragged and presumptuous narration of Mahabharata. The author lost herself with a few assumptions that she had made. e.g.- Draupadifeels very strongly for Karna. I mean even if that can be one of the many complex feelings in her heart. Itshould not become her life story I guess!
And my biggest disappointment was with the fact that Draupadi’s relationshipwith her husbands is totally superficial. She is one woman who was officially married to 5 men. The book was a hope tounderstand what and why of her psyche in this regard. But as usual the storytalked a few things about Arjuna, Bheema and Yudhisthira, but Nakul and Sahadevwere hardly even mentioned.
I mean it's ok if Vyaasa didn't mention them too much as he had too manycharacters to talk about. But if we are talking about story of Draupadi, shouldshe not be talking about these two men who are supposedly her husbands! Another huge disappointment was the fact that Draupadi andKunti’s relationship which started on a complex note was never mentioned ordeveloped later on in the plot.
In another words novel raised the hopes really high in the beginningbut never met those hopes.
Other women characters where also mentioned so briefly thatit hardy told anything about women’s place in the time of Mahabharata.Gandhari, who is an extremely interesting woman, was mentioned so briefly as ifshe doesn’t exist.
Yet another disappointment was with the portrayal ofDraupadi herself. Draupadi was not such a composed woman the way it’s portrayedin the book. She was much fiercer or else the Great War would NOT have takenplace.
Here Draupadi and Kunti appear to be same person after apoint with same set of dilemmas. I don’t want to reveal the plot so I will nottell much about it in detail.
Another thing, was it not Draupadi who wanted to wash herhair with Duhsashana’s blood. I mean when we talk about Draupadi we see THISwoman who was so passionate about her revenge. You will be horrified to knowthat incident was not even mentioned in the book.
Overall the book was a huge disappointment for me.
