Palace of Illusions
by: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Published by: Anchor
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Reviewed by Muhammed Hassanali
The Palace of Illusions recasts the Indian epic “Mahabharat” as seen through the eyes of Draupadi (a princess and one of the main characters of the epic story). With demi-gods, unnatural births, magic, and cryptic foretelling of future events, the story does lend a surreal and mythical character to the story. The “Mahabharat” is after all, an epic of mythical proportions; one would not expect any less!
Condensing an epic into something the size of a novel is not an easy task. However this book does a good job of narrating most of the major events in the epic, and adds some innovations of its own as well. When retelling a voluminous work like the “Mahabhrat” in a novel, some essentials of the story would necessarily be lost either because of space constraints or due to translation. This book suffers from both inevitable shortcomings.
A second challenge is keeping readers engaged. Those already familiar with the original epic (and most Indians are) need to find something new and refreshing to hold their interest. Those unfamiliar with the epic need to be given enough background so that the narrative can be faithful to the original story. Here lies the second shortcoming where there isn’t enough novelty to keep those already familiar with the “Mahabarat” interested– and the shorter novel format does not allow for adequate narrative to keep those not familiar with the epic from following the sequence of events and development of characters.
I am ambivalent about this book because in its attempt to cater to both those who are and those who are not familiar with the “Mahabharat, it does not do enough to keep either of these groups riveted to the novel. I applaud the effort that went into condensing a great epic into a novel, but am chagrined by the necessary loss of richness and detail of such a task. I felt that I was reading the “Mahabhrat” without its soul, and hence without its essential character – but this is from the perspective of one who is familiar with the epic.
Armchair Interviews says: Heed his reviewer’s unique perspective of knowing the original epic.
From our armchair to yours...
