Just after a few pages, a serious reader who might be expecting it to be Zeus’s thunderbolt or Lakshman’s swift arrow loaded with his iconic anger or Krishna’s Sudarshan, things begin crumbling and a simple or below average narrative tries its best to accompany the ambitious attempt by Chitra Banerjee that seldom holds together. The grandeur of theme and lustre of narrative that are promised by the hype around the novel fade away as soon as you begin reading it. The Novel: Though there are many elements in the novel that make it an interesting subject for analysis and attempts of literary criticism, the novel has many ambiguities and a dull narrative with the use of over-simplified, entirely un-epic language. Though the intention was good and ‘heroic’, the poor handling of the narrative and also unnecessary twists in the main storyline have almost killed the vital spirit in the novel. However, to add the twist, the novelist has given the narrative and perspective authority to Draupadi, the lead female character in the epic. Written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, the novel is clearly using the same set of characters and the plot. Background: The Palace of Illusions is a novel based on Hindu epic Mahabharat and the historical Lunar Dynasty battle between the Kaurav and Pandav brothers.
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