Book Name: The Palace Of Illusions
Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Published on : 2008
Synopsis: The author has tried to grasp the aspects of the great epic Maahaabhaarat through the eyes of one of the most influential characters, Draupadi. There are very less books which makes an effort to write from the view of the women in those times, and this book was perhaps a breakthrough in those times.
The story and the accuracy: The story and accuracy; I don't even know what to say about it. The author seems to just have used the books of Maahaabhaarat to design the cover page of this books and nothing else.
She has rather used her haywire imaginations to flesh out the story, that even the major factual points are errors. The book doesn't have plot holes, it has huge trenches to say the least. The way she has claimed to have researched upon Maahaabhaarat a lot reminds me about the false claims made ministers for real; for not a single fact appears to be right from any angle.
Draupadi has a childhood; she was undesired by Drupad ( such a common trope I am tired of reading); her childhood friendship with Krishna; she knowing everything about her future through Vyaas and many more to name.
The fact that the Dwapari period and its norms were flushed down through the toilet was the least I could say. None, literally none of the Vedic rituals were highlighted nor its way of lifestyle, the author has just used fake feminism and wokeness which absolutely lends no meaning to the story.
Everything, I am not even exaggerating; every single trope has been taken from the controversies prevalent nowadays regarding woman--colorism issue (That Draupadi was dark skinned and people prefer fair skin-imagine someone from the Dwapari days speaking so-), that women could not study, woman should stay indoors, woman should not be given importance as men, etc. etc. And Draupadi seems to be the only one noticing such issues with such passivity, that she is just complaining about it and nothing else.
Writing: The writing lacked vigor overall. At some points it shone, specially in the initial chapter, but later it was inconsistent. The kind of style and dialogues which were chosen were between formal and informal(something which I kind of liked) but again, it appeared very off at some places.
At times the author had given too much, just too much insight to Draupadi's thoughts, and at times literally none. Quite literally. The happiness, sadness or thrill; or her internal views regarding to an event (specially during her Swayamvar) wasn't thrown light into. It was like it was just happening for the sake of happening.
There are weird kind of clichés, and the author seemed to have forcefully crammed all the stories of Maahaabhaarat into the book just like how students fill the answer sheets with useless paragraphs just to grab another booklet.
Quite literally, in each chapter there is a story which is retold, and it felt so forced-
The flow in the story is haywire, making it difficult to understand between the past and present and when is the author switching from Draupadi's POV to third person. The wittiness in the writing seems missing to an extent, that it is enough to bore anyone.
If only you have to read the folklores, one could've just picked up some book rather than reading this. Instead of giving insight to Draupadi, the author has focused more on the surroundings and stories, which is just---annoying.
