Contents
The Life of the writer
The writer is an award-winning and bestselling author, activist, poet of writing. Born in Kolkata, India, she received a Master’s degree in English from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Her work has been published in different magazines.
Story
The Forest of Enchantments is Sita’s story. But not only Sita’s, this is the story of the women of the Ramayana, and the writer does more than enough justice to them in her retelling.
Writer crafts Sita’s character with care as her strengths and her traits complement her origin. Daughter of mother earth, she understands and connects all things that come from the earth. She talks to the bush, sapling, she identify their pain, she has a green thumb, she can heal through herbs, and she craves the forest. The author pen brings to give lifeline to Sita’s love in amazing flowing prose, making one fall in love with the world as she sees it – unrestrained and free.
The book takes on the aspiring project of outlining the contours of some shadowy female images in the myth through Sita’s interactions with Mandodari, Kaikei, Ahalya, Surpanakha, and Ahalya are all reconstructed in this way.
The novel has one of the most recognizable closing lines ever. The book also asks pretty tough questions about what revealed in the epic — these involve a relook at Soorpanakha’s role, the male entitlement that runs through the story as well as the character of Mandodari. You loved the relationship between Sita and Mandodari while the sita was in captivity. It is the women of the epic that relate to shades of grey. It is a fresh outlook offered to us by the writer compared to the age-old narration of the epic.
The world has always been harsh to women and have asked them to prove themselves time and again their chastity, femininity, ability, and strength. Yet the planet is never satisfied with the answers and that is evident through this retelling of Ramayana.
In the voice of Sita
She is considered to be the immortal one. Deserted at birth and raised by King Janak, Sita the Princess of Mithila is praised with powers to heal. Thus, she is admired as the Goddess, though she contemplate herself as a mere mortal like the others. The story tale told in her own words charts the course of her life, her love at first sight with Ram, their ensuing marriage, her life in her new household in Ayodhya, her desire and feelings for motherhood, her pain in captivity, and finally the unhappiness that arises out of Ram’s suspicion on her character.
The writing is complete. You came to know everything as from Sita’s childbirth to how she married Ram, to the exile, to Ravana kidnapping her, to Lakshman’s role in all of this, to her successful save from bacon, to the exile of Sita yet again, to the birth of her kids, and to ultimately the predictable end. The ending is what one would expect it to be — it wouldn’t be a spoiler to say that the demands of staying true to the original story.
The writer does more than enough justice to this epic narrative. The Forest of Enchantments is not just a telling a tale differently of a much-told epic, rather it is a novel that tells it like it is balanced and non-judgmental.
Opinion about the book
In my personal opinion, it is a must-read because it is a joyful experience. It has to do with the simplicity of the context and. For the most chunk, they sense rooted in reality. The reader do connect to the themes immensely as with the turn of each chapter, there is no choice but to be drawn in.
