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| The Palace of Illusions a novel, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni published 2008 Image from Indian Epics Reading Guides |
- Krishna had an attempt on his life when his nurse-maid tried to poison him through her breast milk. Of course, he survived.
- He has nicknamed Draupadi Krishnaa, which is the female name of Krishna, but also the one whose attraction cannot be resisted
- I loved her grandmother character here (Dhai)! So good! I want to use her to expand on this story in so many different ways.
- The feminist viewpoint/perspective here is so captivating. Divakaruni is doing a great job of reminding us of the origination of her inspiration for the story, the Mahabharata, while also fleshing out Draupadi to make her a real person, with a life story, wants, desires, insecurities, and a wondering about where her life will take her.
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| Krishna and all of his women that he has seduced, including, possibly, soon to be Draupadi as well Image: 18th Century Indian painting via Wikipedia |
I started listening to this book on AudioBook, but I wanted to have a better feel for the layout of the book, and how long it would take me. I'm actually really grateful that I looked this book up online, because there is a wonderful introduction that Divakaruni wrote that isn't mentioned in the AudioBook version at all. Divakaruni does an inspirational job at explaining why she wanted to write a story from the perspective that she did, and how she couldn't put away that nagging feeling of "If I ever write a book about this, I'm going to write it this way....." Very much like an Author's Note that we do at the end of our stories as well.
Reading A
1 Fire
2 Blue
3 Milk
1 Fire
2 Blue
3 Milk
- Milk! Oh my gosh, Milk! Almost made me cry! A little boy hears from his friends how creamy, sweet, and delicious milk is, but his family is poor. He comes home and asks his mother to get milk for him also, so that he can know what milk tastes like. They're too poor to afford it, to she mixes some flour, water, and a hint of jaggery to it. The boy drinks it, is delighted that now he, too, knows what milk tastes like, and the mother begins crying. The pure, blind trust the boy has in his mother is beautiful, but it's the fact that she had to stoop to deceiving him that is heart breaking for the mother, and also nearly broke my own heart. I love this little vignette.
5 Smoke --- oooooooh, foreboding is being set up here! Yes! I love this! We later find out that this mysterious Sadhu-Ji is Vyasa.
