Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel

Goddess of the River is “a powerful reimagining of the story of Ganga, goddess of the river, and her doomed mortal son, from Vaishnavi Patel, author of the instant New York Times bestseller Kaikeyi.”

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“In her retelling of the Mahabharata, Patel (Kaikeyi, 2022) has once again narrowed her version of a famous epic onto one compelling, female protagonist. Fans of the original as well as fans of mythological fantasy and retellings will enjoy Ganga’s fierce independence and well-told journey as well as the twists and turns that spell out Bhishma’s destiny in this complex story.” – Booklist

About The Book 📚

Title: Goddess of the River

Author: Vaishnavi Patel

Publication Date: May 2024

Publisher: Redhook Books

Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Retelling

Pages: 496

Setting:

Content Warnings: child death (infanticide), ableism, sexism, violence, war

About The Author

“Vaishnavi Patel is a lawyer focusing on constitutional law and civil rights. She likes to write at the intersection of Indian myth, feminism, and anti-colonialism. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Kaikeyi. Vaishnavi grew up in and around Chicago, and in her spare time, enjoys activities that are almost stereotypically Midwestern: knitting, ice skating, drinking hot chocolate, and making hotdish.” https://vaishnavipatel.com/about/

My Review

› In the content warning at the beginning of Goddess of the River, Patel explains “the Mahabharata is a story about philosophy, sin, and the meaning of life. It is a sprawling, almost two-million-word epic that contains most of the beloved stories of Hindu myth in some shape or form.” The Mahabharata shows how the “age of darkness” began, which is the age we still live in today (also called the Kali Yuga).

› Patel said, “Goddess of the River is my examination of the story (the Mahabharata) through the eyes of two difficult, complex characters, and a contemplation on the nature of power and the responsibilities of those who wield it.”

“Do you know how a river forms? Perhaps you have heard that it begins as a small stream in a cold and distant mountain, a trickle of melting snow and a splash of rain that slowly carves its way down steep slopes, connecting with other rivulets, growing, leaping, bounding as it cascades down the mountainside and into the land below, sculpting tree and rock with its powerful currents until it unites, at last, with the sea. But that is not how I came to the earth. No. I came because they prayed for me, all those years ago, and I was young and naive.”

› In Goddess of the River, the god Shiva caught Ganga and trapped her on earth because he was afraid she would destroy the earth with her rage. Reviewers familiar with the Mahabharata say this is not factual, and that Ganga asked Shiva for help. This made him look like a villain, and I’m not quite sure how that served Patel’s retelling.

“If Shiva had not grasped me so quickly, if he had failed to pin me down, it is true—my power and joy and strength might have destroyed your world. But ask yourself: Would that have been such a tragedy?”

› She was extremely frustrated and it took many years for her to notice humans coming to the river to ask for a blessing, or to pray.

“I did not know then that when humans pray for nature, they pray for something to control.”

› Over time she became interested in the landscape around her. She discovered eight godlings called Vasus. More and more people found the river and they built a city not far from her banks, this place was called Hastinapur.

› One day the godlings stole a cow from a powerful sage who placed a curse on the godlings and Ganga. He said Ganga would be their mother and removed her powers making her mortal. She ran into the river desperately trying to become one with it when she started drowning, but was saved by Shantanu, the Raja of Hastinapur. Shantanu asked for her name, and knowing she couldn’t tell him her real name, she introduced herself as Jahnavi.

› And so, we are told Ganga’s story in first-person perspective. She struggles to fit in with humans and gives birth to the eight babies hoping to break the curse. Please be aware that there is infanticide. One of the children is named Devavrata who becomes the crown prince of Hastinapur. Devavrata, also known as Bishma, did not want to be king and vowed to serve the crown for life. This decision causes two groups of cousins to argue over who should become king leading to war.

› Ganga is well-developed but for the last half of the book, she feels like a side character acting as our eyes to the story. I wanted her to be making decisions and I wanted to see how HER actions were affecting the plot. I did like that all of the characters are morally grey, however, many of the characters were boring and underdeveloped. I couldn’t picture what they looked like, they lacked characteristics to enable me to differentiate between them.

› I didn’t care about the cousins, so I did not care about the war. I liked the world-building and description, but I wanted more. The writing is eloquent with a good dialogue style. The timeline jumping was confusing and I didn’t enjoy the parts written in the third person, however, I enjoyed the first-person point of view from Ganga. I felt confused about many of the character’s motivations and the side-character plot line. I found the middle boring and the ending anticlimactic. The novel is unique, however I didn’t feel compelled to pick it up and had a hard time finishing it. Overall, this was a good read for me. I think it would have been better as a series.

APPEAL FACTORS
Storyline: Intricately plotted, character-driven, nonlinear, sweeping, tragic
Pace: unhurried
Tone: emotional, heartwrenching, sad, mystical, magical, challenging
Writing Style: descriptive, lush, richly detailed
Character: brooding, complex, flawed, strong female, diverse, multiple points of view

Read Alikes:
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lyn Tan
The Bear and the Nightengale by Katherine Arden
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
Circe by Madeline Miller

› In the past I have given a rating out of ten and converted that to a star rating, but I’m no longer giving a star rating here on my blog. I will continue to do that on Goodreads and The Story Graph.

› Final Thoughts
• Goddess of the River is an ambitious story about a mother and son’s complicated relationship, jealousy, greed, the burden of responsibility, and the corruption of power. I’m looking forward to reading more from Vaishnavi Patel.