The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee DivakaruniMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hooter: A historical fiction account of Rani Jindan - the Queen Regent of Punjab before the British takeover
Pulling out stories of Indian history that mainstream had forgotten is what I'd give Chitra Banerjee credits for picking up the life of Rani Jindan and sharing the Indian freedom struggle from a woman protagonist's perspective which pokes holes into the hero complex versions we end up reading.
The journey was from a young girl - a kennel keeper's daughter to the Queen regent is a rags to riches story we always have a soft corner for but the challenges that come in between seemed very plain and could be considered as fodder for a soap opera to pick up on. Challenges come as easily as they go and I feel there is a lot of caricatures or better phrase it as single dimensional side cast that are thrown in for the plot line to move on. Makes for a good one time read but nothing that captures your imagination. Full marks on the research and maybe that is where most of the focus remained at.
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