Scan barcode
A review by _askthebookbug
Mansions of the Moon by Shyam Selvadurai
4.0
I read Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy back in 2020 and I was instantly taken by his empathetic way of writing. I experienced the same quality still in his latest novel, Mansions of the Moon. In this book that reads gently and deeply, Selvadurai has managed to connect with the readers in a way that is quite hard to explain. This fictionalised tale of Yasodhara’s (Siddhartha Gotama’s wife) journey of becoming a Buddhist nun herself, felt like it was written by a woman because of the compassion and pain that it carries. Yasodhara’s life is a lesser told story and it was hard for me to make sense of why Siddhartha did what he did. How is it fair that right after Yasodhara gave birth to their son, Siddhartha left everything behind in search of enlightenment? This sad tale of love found and then lost stirred up a whirlwind of emotions within me.
Yasodhara and Siddharatha were cousins before they got married at the age of 16. Their sweet friendship and affection blossomed into love as time passed by but the melancholy which always resided within Siddharatha, a quality that at one point of time Yasodhara admired only increased with time. He was restless & desired something more than the usual pleasure of being a family man. Siddharatha and his father, Suddhodana never got along well but old age softened the old man to be a little kinder to his son. But even amidst his family and friends, Siddharatha was always looking for contentment which was found only after he met ascetics. It didn’t take long for everyone to realise that Siddharatha would eventually forsake everything and choose the life of spiritualism.
But this book is more about the wife and mother who was abandoned by her husband. We see Yasodhara’s anguish and fury and her strength to carry on alone when everything else seemed to crumble. This woman, brought up in a royal household even lived a peasant life without complaining about it, forged friendships and companionship with other women who kept her going. It was surprising to see women having more freedom back in 6BCE than they have now. This was a refreshing historical fiction that put things into perspective.
Can’t recommend this enough.
Yasodhara and Siddharatha were cousins before they got married at the age of 16. Their sweet friendship and affection blossomed into love as time passed by but the melancholy which always resided within Siddharatha, a quality that at one point of time Yasodhara admired only increased with time. He was restless & desired something more than the usual pleasure of being a family man. Siddharatha and his father, Suddhodana never got along well but old age softened the old man to be a little kinder to his son. But even amidst his family and friends, Siddharatha was always looking for contentment which was found only after he met ascetics. It didn’t take long for everyone to realise that Siddharatha would eventually forsake everything and choose the life of spiritualism.
But this book is more about the wife and mother who was abandoned by her husband. We see Yasodhara’s anguish and fury and her strength to carry on alone when everything else seemed to crumble. This woman, brought up in a royal household even lived a peasant life without complaining about it, forged friendships and companionship with other women who kept her going. It was surprising to see women having more freedom back in 6BCE than they have now. This was a refreshing historical fiction that put things into perspective.
Can’t recommend this enough.