by Vaishnavi Patel
416pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 8.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4.2/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.71/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.85/5
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Goddess of the River is Vaishnavi Patel’s second novel, following her beautifully written reimagining of the story of the vilified titular queen from the Ramayana, Kaikeyi. Like her first novel, this gives a voice to a female character who had an important role but is often overlooked in texts and studies focusing on the original work: this time, by reimagining the story of the river goddess Ganga from the Mahabharata, particularly how being cursed to live as a mortal and a mother affected her, and in turn, impacted the kingdom of Hastinapur.
The novel opens long before the conflict of the Mahabharata, beginning with Ganga’s descent to earth in response to humans’ prayers for water. Bound to an area around a mountaintop by Shiva (also in response to mortals’ prayers when they feared her power would destroy their world), she observed humans and became fond of the company of the eight godlings known as the Vasus.
When the mischievous Vasus are cursed to live as mortals, Ganga’s attempts to intervene on their behalf result in her being cursed along with them: to live a mortal life of her own as their mother. Soon after becoming mortal, Ganga is found by a king, who is strangely eager to marry this random woman he found in a river, and the two are wed.
Once Ganga fulfills the conditions of her curse, she is restored to godhood and returns to her former life like the other godlings—except for the last Vasu. Forced to live as a mortal, her son takes an oath removing himself from the line of succession for the good of his father and kingdom, which eventually results in the war between the two branches of the royal family.
Nearly a third of Goddess of the River focuses solely on Ganga, culminating shortly after the birth of Devavrata, her son who later became known as Bhishma, and her return to godhood. After this, the novel alternates between her first-person perspective and Bhishma’s third-person perspective, as the author wanted “to imagine the interplay between her and her son all the way through the war and how they influenced each other.” Bhishma’s viewpoint begins when he is older, starting by showing the growing rift between the grandnephews who are like grandsons to him, and Ganga’s covers the time from her son’s childhood through the end of the war.
This is beautifully done, combining the sweeping events of an epic with a poignant tale of a goddess who is changed through her time as a mortal and her inability to escape human concerns in large part because of her love for the son who continues to live among them. It also tackles a lot of themes: how everything is connected, how duty and honor may not be the same as justice, the horrors of war, and the necessity of change, to name a few that particularly stood out to me.
Like Vaishnavi Patel’s debut novel, Goddess of the River is a lovely mythic story, and I think this is even a little stronger than her first with more dimensional main characters. In fact, this is one of my two favorite 2024 releases so far, largely because of the goddess’s unique perspective and views on humanity, as well as the novel’s thoughtful exploration of its major themes and focus on knowing and doing what is right.
As much as I love the epic-ness of stories with lots of gods and those aspects of this one, my favorite part was the two main characters at its heart. In particular, I enjoyed how otherworldly Ganga’s viewpoint was as a goddess and a river, despite her ability to experience things relatable to us, like loneliness, rage, sorrow, and love. When she became mortal, she went from being larger than life to contained in a single small form, leaving her baffled at human senses and her sudden inability to hold so many ideas at once. I appreciated her wry observations about humanity and its rules—particularly those that they attributed to the gods though they were, in fact, the inventions of mortals—and how she was transformed throughout the story because she had a mortal life.
Bhishma’s perspective was also wonderfully done, especially because I completely understood both the other characters’ frustration with him for holding so tightly to his vows as well as why he did so. Though he certainly had flaws and made mistakes, he also was truly trying to do what he thought was right, having internalized that he had a responsibility to be dutiful (as a prince) and that he should hold himself to a higher standard than others (as the son of a god). It was tragic that he strove so hard to be fair and impartial when following his heart may have been the best thing he could have done, and personally, I loved this.
The main reason I’m not giving this the highest rating possible is that I would have actually liked a bit more exploration of the big questions being asked and more narrative subtlety since this is a book that lays out what the main characters are thinking and feeling. This is, of course, my preference and I can also understand why it may have been seen as necessary to thoroughly explain Ganga’s views given that she is so different as a goddess and a river. It was also a bit difficult at times to keep track of all the characters involved in the war, but I cared enough to keep going back to the family tree graphic to figure out how everyone fit in so this is a heads up for potential readers rather than something I considered negative, especially since that’s due to my not having more familiarity with the Mahabharata. (Also, for those who want to avoid certain content, there are warnings at the beginning of the book as well as on the author’s post on Goodreads.)
Small quibbles aside, Goddess of the River is an incredible novel that stands out as something different from the recent books I’ve read given its focus on a mother and son as central characters, its truly unique first-person perspective of a goddess, and its inclusion of a variety of themes and questions. It’s one of my 2024 highlights, and I’m excited for Vaishnavi Patel’s next novel (Ten Incarnations of Rebellion).
My Rating: 8.5/10
Where I got my reading copy: Finished copy from the publisher.
Read “Divorcing the Evil Stepmother” by Vaishnavi Patel from Women in SF&F Month 2022
