"Do you feel like a Goddess?”
“Only when you kiss me!”
The Forest of Enchantments is a mythological retelling by the bestselling author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Following the huge success of ‘The Palace of Illusions’ which is based on Mahabharata, Divakaruni gives us another epic tale, Ramayana.
Summary :
The book is the telling of Ramayana, which is the great Indian mythological tale. It is about love, mistakes, acceptance and trust. This timeless legend is given a twist as Sita is the one narrating it. The fables which are told in every Indian household are now told from a woman’s perspective.
Review :
Many a times writers fear from writing on sensitive issues of mythology and religion because they are very close to people. It is a risky business to give these parables depth but here the author takes that risk. The writing style is consistent throughout the book and it is very gentle. Words are very thoughtfully chosen and placed out of necessity. They take note of the delicacy of the story as well as are successful to build the aura. There were few repetitions in the structures which are seen in lines like “Love is….” “Love does to you….”
Even though the book has a strong meaning and amazing writing, it lacked to have a lasting impact on me. The characters were not familiarised to the reader. The author could have taken some time in explaining the characteristics, their nature and their values. Due to the lack of connection, I could not connect to the narrator itself.
Ramayan is an enormous piece of work and cannot be summed up in mere 350 pages. That being said, there were parts which lacked focus. They were rushed to an extent that I was waiting for something major to happen but the moment passed and I was left unsatisfied with the little information.
I wanted to discover more of Sita’s feeling and her connections with not just Ram, but other characters too. I wanted more conversations between Sita and her Father, Urmila and Hanuma. Sita’s relation with Laxman were very pure but there is hardly any conversation among them which justifies it. During the course of this book, there is rarely any deep insight. It felt like I was reading the same old Ramayana, just with a change in narration. Sita’s character was not portrayed to be as strong as it should have been. Having read ‘The Palace of Illusions’ first, this book could not stand up to the mark.
The ending must have been a challenge for the author, to tell a story whose climax is already known. To my surprise the ending was good and satisfactory. We saw a strong, kind-hearted and loving Sita. The book would have been better if the same Sita was maintained throughout.
In conclusion, the book was not bad, but it was something worse, it was disappointing.
GoodReads Rating : 3 Star
If you like this, you might like :
The Palace of Illusions (Mahabharata) - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Menka’s choice - Kavita Kané
Mohini : The Enchantress - Anuja Chandramouli
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