Kaikeyi

Description:

This is the story of the chief 'Bad Girl' of the Hindu epic the 'Ramayana.' imaginative and well-written, it is a defiantly feminist view of the start of the myth, and the forces that drove her to her present situation as an outcast, hated by the generations that follow. A little too long, especially the midsection, and rather marred by the use of magic to establish bonds and control minds, but on whole much better than the usual run-of-the-mill mythological recreation of obscure women as first person principals. And then, in a mythological setting which has gods, demons, ogres and monkeys in the mix, one cannot seriously object to a little magic an mind-control!

subjects: nyt:hardcover-fiction=2022-05-15,  New York Times bestseller,  feminist retelling

People: Kaikeyī

Places: Ayodhya,  Bharat,  Kosala (Kingdom),  Kekaya

Times: 7th-5th to 5th-4th centuries BCE.