Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Book Review : Fractured Legend

This is my first book review .I have recieved this book under the books review program of Blog Adda.I am thankful to BlogAdda for giving me this opportunity.

The book 'Fractured Legend ' is by the Hyderabad based novelist, Kranthi Askani.This book has been published by APK Publishers,Pune who started publishing books, in order to give a chance to upcoming writers.

The cover of the book is full of - red,yellow,black, orange & white hues.It shows a teenage girl asleep on a table with her head completely resting on her left hand.

The  tales of the heroines are told by the women themselves.They are their own sutradhaars.Men have a role or rather roles to play in the stories of women.The roles of men are just like branches which grow out of the trunk of a tree.The setting is real to surreal,present & past ,dream  & reality.

The story of the book is about  three women - Priyambada,Nandhini & Pravalli.Priyambada is a temple slave.She decides to go in for a life in flesh, even though she will lose immortality which she has, as a temple slave. Priyambada goes through the human cycle of marriage & childbirth.She is unable to break with her past though she is quite happy with her human life.Nandhini, is a woman, who has taken up the task of eliminating people by killing them for a price.She is trapped through her son  into killing her boss .She kills her boss & then she despairs if she  did right.This had never confused her earlier.Pravalli is penning a letter to her mom after years.She is unable to forgive & forget her mom.As the book ends,Pravalli tries to come to terms with  why her mom, behaved the way she did.

The author has tried to weave magic in the story - as his heroines keep passing from the real world into the surreal.The heroines keep going back & forth in time,  every now & then- memories of association as the heroine reminds us.They dream quite a bit.The book starts weaving its magic slowly & pensively.It has a sad undertone.One can feel the anguish of the women who are trapped, for no fault of theirs. One tends to sympathise with the heroines & this makes us anxious to read further.

The writing is good, though in the initial pages ,it gives a feeling of too many words being used from the world of architecture.Later ,it is not so.Simple easy words would have helped more.The imagination is very vivid.The author correctly describes the feelings of all mothers who will keep sweets for the child whenever they attend any function & not devour them like fathers.The tender relationship between the mother & daughter is detailed poignantly.

The pleating of sarees has been described by the author correctly.This is a surprise, considering that nowadays ,sarees are the  last option of generation next.Even I started wrapping sarees in some decent manner quite late.One  heroine is typically frugal in her choices -she will go for the middle priced item, be it bangles or anything else.Chiffon sarees are the preferred choice of the ladies  & all this paints  a vibrant kaleidoscope of colours !

I would recommend this book for those readers, who are patient enough to wait for the magic to begin slowly but surely.The wait is going to be worth it though the ending leaves many questions unanswered.Perhaps,the writer is penning a sequel.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

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