The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Welcome to the paperback trails. Today, we begin our mythical journey of May, as we check out some of the best works of involving mythology from around the various cultures of the world. In this trails stop we revisit a rather riveting piece of feminist literature, a little old but still as relevant (perhaps even more) as it was when it was released in 2008. The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The is a retelling of the epic Mahabharata, from the point of view of Draupadi, who in a way was one of the most important female characters or rather characters in general in the magnum opus. Before we begin with the book itself, let's have a look at the author Chitra Divakaruni, her past works, and understand a little about her writing.

Divakaruni is a prolific Indian-American author and poet, who has penned down several successful works like the Mistress of Spices, Palace of Illusions and most recently The Forest of Enchantments. Her other works include young adult fiction, short stories and poetry. Her famous works have strong feminist undertones to them. In the Palace of illusions, she retells the Mahabharat from the female protagonist - Draupadi's point of view. In her most recent book The Forest of Enchantments, she retells Ramayana again from Sita's point of view, the Ramayana's female protagonist. She has been awarded numerous awards and her articles have been published in multiple magazines.

With this out of the way, it's time for our 3 most important questions of Why, What and How.

Why did I pick this book up: Well for starters, the Mahabharat and the Ramayana are stories on which I've grown and any retelling of the same automatically evokes a sense of interest in me. When an author tries to analyse mythology and retell it or try to reimagine it, it is always an interesting prospect for me. Although I've read multiple retellings of the Mahabharat and different viewpoints, Draupadi's point of view was a novel concept for me, so I decided to give it a shot

What is this book about: So this book is basically about Draupadi, who is a character in the Hindu epic The Mahabharata. A little primer for those unaware of the Mahabharata. It recounts the story of a great bloody battle fought between the brothers of the kingdom of Hastinapur. The Kauravas and the Pandavas fight over the unjust treatment meted out to the latter at the hands of the former. It is an extremely detailed book (roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined) so getting even 1% of the nuance of its plot points in this review would be a grave disservice to one of best pieces of literature ever produced. All we need to know to understand The Palace of Illusions is that Arjuna (one of the Pandavas ) marries the princess of the Kingdom of Panchala - Draupadi (who happens to be our protagonist). The book basically takes the focus to Draupadi, taking us through her birth (attached to which was the apocryphal story that she was born out of fire), her childhood and giving us a clearer look at her psyche. We are introduced to a headstrong and ambitious girl who wants to chart out her own destiny. But, providence has other things for her and her life takes unexpected turns placing her in the midst of a polygamous marriage, getting waged over a game of dice, a shameful public disrobing, and a rueful battle which brings nothing but destruction. This book deals with all those events in great detail and brings out Draupadi's psyche as she goes from being a queen in a palace to a daughter in law in another palace to a parlourmaid in a remote land to being exiled in the jungles for 12 years. How she deals with all this with her integrity and self-esteem intact and her head held high for most of the time the narrative of the book. She embodies the strong feminist values and keeps her ground despite the numerous trepidation, doubts, anxiety and conflicting emotions she feels. The tension (sexual, emotional, psychological) between her and Karna, another immensely conflicted character in Mahabharata, forms some of the best parts of the story. Given most know how The Mahabharat ends, you might not find plot twists or cliffhangers here but what you will find is a high sense of empathy and relatability to Draupadi's character, and that makes for an extremely satisfying and fulfilling read.

How is the book to read ?: As someone who has read the Mahabharata in its entirety(a little humble brag here), I must admit the author does an extremely credible job in retelling it with strong feminist undertones. She does it without distorting the original story and only goes to show the various layers the Mahabharat contains and the myriad interpretation it is still spurring after 5000 years. The book is not demanding as far as vocabulary goes and anyone who has a basic sense of English can understand and appreciate the book. It does a great job in making Draupadi an immensely relatable character. Her asides and soliloquies have some of the best lines on love, ambitions, destiny, expectations, that I've ever read. The prose is extremely coherent and the makes for a quick read. To the credit of the author, she's made sure that even someone who does know what The Mahabharata is, can still enjoy the book as a standalone feminist piece of literature.

So should you pick up this book ?: Yes, you should. You might not be interested in the Mahabharata, but even then, you should read the book, because it tells a gripping story about a lady who despite having existed 5000 years ago, faced similar problems like so many of us do today. This is a story about mistakes, triumphs, happiness, grief, injustice, guilt, basically all the ingredients of life, and that is precisely why you should pick up this book.

Can this be your first book ?: If you've grown up on stories from the Indian Mythology then this would be the ideal first book, because you would have all the references ready in your head, and would appreciate the text much better. The first book I'd read was also on Indian Mythology for precisely the same reason. If not, you might find the book a little arcane at sometimes. You might not get a couple of references here and there. But worry not this book will successfully ignite that spark of inquisitiveness in you, to know and read about the Mahabharata in greater details.

You might not like this book if: Indian Mythology doesn't interest you. If you find stories from Indian Mythology not interesting enough, then you might find this book pretty bland, because after all, it builds upon what is essentially the story of the Mahabharata. If you've read the Mahabharata or about it, you know it is a fast paced and action packed book. This book doesn't really have that. What this does portray brilliantly though, are the inner conflicts which rise in humans from time to time and how we deal with them. It is essentially out response to those conflicts which define our choices and our choices define what or how history remembers us as.

With this, we come to end our fourth trail stop. Hope you will read the book and have as much fun watching Draupadi, find her way through her palace of illusions as I did. Until next time, keep reading, keep recommending and keep sharing the love, for more the fellow passengers in the paperback trail, more the fun