My sister Aarti has already written a detailed review of the book. I’ll just add that this is a truly Indian novel, for the first time a major publication of our great myth Ramayana. I’m recommending it to everyone I know.
If you miss out on this book because of what some armchair critics have said, you’ll be doing yourself and every Indian a great disservice. Prince of Ayodhya is a fine book and it’s excellent writing by a writer I’d never heard of before, though Aarti says that he’s written something before. The point is, this is the Ramayana, republished for the first time internationally, and that’s such a great thing.
After 911, it’s been difficult here in the US for us Indians, but we know that things will work out. We have become somewhat closer now than before, and some of the people we know who are not Indian are so encouraging because they say things like if an Indian writer like Jhumpa Lahiri can win the Pulitzer Prize, that shows that India is a part of American--and world culture. That is what the Ramayana’s new edition proves--that the world is embracing Indian culture. Ashok Banker has done a great thing. I believe he was writing thrillers before? Well, he could have written another thriller and made himself a packet of money but by writing the Ramayana he is reviving a great tale for new readers across the globe. What a great achievement. And what a book.
Just read the book. You will be blown away, like I was.
Sunidhi