Thursday, July 22, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

 





The Palace of Illusions is a feminist retelling of the Indian/Sanskrit epic, The Mahābhārata, by author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.  This is actually my third novel/series inspired by or adapting this epic, whose original contents I know mainly from those adapations (Sangu Mandanna's Celestial Trilogy, Ashok K Banker's Upon a Burning Throne), and both of those adaptations take some pretty substantial liberties with the source material at times.  Still, I loved Mandanna's Celestial Trilogy and so when this book popped up on a list of books based on godly mythology, I reserved it from the library immediately.  

And The Palace of Illusions rewarded me doing so, being a fantastic retelling of The Mahābhārata from an alternate perspective: Draupadi/Panchaali, the princess who marries all five Pandava brothers (some of the usual heroes of the story) at the same time.  It is, at least as far as I can tell, a very straight adaptation of the original epic, but the shift in perspective shows the weight and impact of Panchaali's choices and character and really makes it a fascinating story - and puts a feminist spin on things - whether you know where the plot is going or not*.  If you've read Madeline Miller's Circe, this is a similar type of novel, albeit more tragic than triumphant, but it is still really really good and worth your time.  

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When Draupadi was born, in a fire ceremony meant to provide her kingly father with a son, she was a surprise extra gift....one that came with a prophecy: "she will change the course of history."  And so she dreamed of having the same influence and power as her brother and father, and of the great deeds she might perform...until the day she meets a sage, who prophecies that she will marry the "five greatest heroes" of the time, will become the "queen of queens", but will also cause the greatest war of all time, and bring about countless deaths.  And that she will be known as "Panchaali"

And so, as foretold, these events come to pass, but not in ways Panchaali could ever have predicted.  For Panchaali's life will be hard and tough and test her patience and pride, with her autonomy challenged by unworthy men and husbands constantly.  And then there is Karna, the man who is her eventual husbands' enemy, the man she cannot stop dreaming about, the man whom she cannot stop from driving away onto a deadly deadly collision with all Panchaali holds dear.  

In the end, the sage would be right - but not in a way anyone could have predicted, and Panchaali's epic story would indeed make history, in both ways happy and tragic.....
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The Palace of Illusions takes place entirely from the perspective of Panchaali, as she encounters and instigates the events of the Mahābhārata - her marriage to the Pandava brothers, the building of the Palace of Illusions, the disaster that leads to their exile, the conflict over the end of their exile, the fateful war that results, and then the aftermath and rebuilding.  Whereas in the original work, Panchaali was largely someone who something happens to, and who isn't given a major focus with the focus instead being on the men, here Panchaali's feelings are front and center and color the entire perspective.*  That does not mean that Panchaali is always the driving force behind the action: she is very influential in how she drives her husbands at times, how her own actions drive others, and how she possesses various moments in which she could have made a different choice BUT there are so many other characters involved in the story, many of whom act in places off limits to Panchaali as a result of being a woman, that she is not always the instigator of it all.  She is both active and, probably more so, reactive, but her emotions and perspective color it all.  

*Again I haven't read a version of the original, but it's worth noting that there doesn't seem to really be a "definitive" version, and as such, even to the extent that this story follows the path of the original, the author is also choosing various versions to combine into her own canon*.  

Which is to say that this is not a feminist reinterpretation in how it changes the events to necessarily give Panchaali a greater significance, although it does that quite a bit, and certainly not in removing the gender barriers that exist at this time - those barriers still exist, and Panchaali struggles against them from the very beginning, when she wants to learn the same lessons as her warrior brother.  But it is so instead in how it shows how those barriers affect Panchaali and the other women involved, and how it colors their decisions, and how it makes it clear that Panchaali is just as important, if not more so than those men.  Take the Pandava brothers themselves for instance - they may each get some discussion from Panchaali's eyes, such that they are independent characters, but they are honestly not that important even if the world treats them as mattering more, with the book openly disdainful at times of the so called virtues that the brothers exemplify (the oldest brother, who screws up the most gambling, is the only one, as per the original story, who makes it into heaven, and the book finds that honestly a lonely and sad fate for him, as really befitting what he did to Panchaali.  

And this works so so well, really.  Panchaali is a fantastic character, a woman of pride, caring and love who is constantly unable to get what she truly wants, and whose happiness is upset by the actions of others, and who finds herself beset by choices repeatedly where she makes what she knows immediately to be a mistake....but a mistake she cannot help but carry out.  For when confronted by the idiocy of men, how can she stay quiet when her beloved brother is in danger; how can she restrain her laughter when a pompous ass doesn't pay attention, and why should he restrain her curses when men treat her as property to be dishonored out of jealousy?  This is her story, and it is more often than not a tragic one, but it is an easy story to care about from her perspective, which makes the moments of joy she has, and the moments of good she does, all the better for it.  

The rest of the characters are a mixed bag - none matters as much as Panchaali, and because seemingly everyone from the original epic makes it in, it can very easily be overwhelming to readers unfamiliar with the source material, like myself.  The greatest is Krishna (an avatar of Vishnu, partially unknown to Panchaali) who acts as Panchaali's greatest guide and friend throughout it all, the only one mostly trustworthy.  And then there is Karna, the man who would be her husbands' greatest rival, who Panchaali would desperately desire but be unable to stop acting against whenever they might interact.  But other than those two, and occasional others who pop up (The Pandavas' mother Kunti mainly), there isn't enough space for them all. Which is fine, since it just makes it more clear that this is Panchaali's story.

Truly a remarkable read, even if you have little to no knowledge of the original.  Recommended. 

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