REVIEWS
The Times Literary Supplement, London
“The Princess and the Sage:
The Buddha’s Story From his Wife’s Point of View” by Natasha Heller
“Early in Vanessa R. Sasson’s Yasodhara and the Buddha, the title character menstruates for the first time. This occurrence prompts her to ask her mother why women’s monthly bleeding is associated with pollution. Her mother helps her to understand that what “the elders” (men) say about pollution does not need to dictate women’s understanding of their own bodily rhythms. Having to be confined during monthly bleeding gives women time to rest, and time to be together. As Yasodhara’s mother clarifies: “What we do is one thing. How the elders explain it can be quite different. They can say that it is because we are polluted but that is not necessarily what is happening”. Her mother’s explanation – and her attitude – help shape Yasodhara into a young woman willing to look critically at the world around her...”
Asian Review of Books
“Yasodhara and the Buddha” by Soni Wadhwa
“Vanessa R Sasson’s debut novel Yasodhara and the Buddha takes the life of Gautama Buddha, the stuff of scripture and legend, and lays out a story about love between him and his wife. And a fascinating story it is, too, about ego, love, and renunciation as love…”
The Woman Who Married The Buddha
Scholar Vanessa R. Sasson tells the often overlooked story of Yasodhara
The following excerpt was adapted from Yasodhara and the Buddha, a novel by Vanessa R. Sasson.
Shambhala Times
“Yasodhara and the Buddha: A Novel by Vanessa R. Sasson” by Christine Heming
“Abandoned? After lifetimes together? Without even saying goodbye? On the very day his son was born? How could he? Most of us probably haven’t thought about the ones the Buddha left behind when he made his departure from the palace, abdicating the Lion Throne of the Sakya. I know I had not. This seemingly callous abandonment aroused Vanessa Sasson’s curiosity. Sasson, professor of Religious Studies at Marianopolis College in Westmount, Quebec and Research Fellow at the University of the Free State in South Africa, was particularly interested in the females in Prince Siddhattha’s world. How did they react to his leaving? Did any follow him? How did his wife Yasodhara take the news? What happened to her?…”
Buddhistdoor Global
“Fearsome and Impeccably Coiffed: Centering Women in Yasodhara” by Caitlin Dwyer
“First he leaves me, and then he comes back only to take away my only son! How can he do this me?” the woman wails. “How does he keep finding ways to splinter me apart?” Her anguish feels familiar, even personal; stories of mother-child bonds and absent husbands pepper our modern psyche. But this story has a twist: the absent husband is the Buddha...”
Buddhistdoor Global “Yasodhara: Retellings and Hagiographies of the Buddhist Feminine,” by Raymond Lam
“Is an alternative narrative simply a non-canonical work to enrich our imagination, to make us look at something familiar from a different angle? Or does an alternative narrative (the formal word being hagiography) have the potential to be a “statement of possibility”—something that causes us to glimpse something new in a text that we did not see before?…”
The Free Press Journal “Yasodhara: A Novel About the Buddha’s Wife”
“Buddha is an iconic spiritual leader. Countless devotees, strongly connected to the moorings of Buddhism, adore him with devotion. The scholars of Buddhist literature have been delving deeper into its sacred texts since time immemorial…”
Naomi Appleton’s blog
“I love reading novels as well as academic books, but usually, these two categories are firmly separate. Recently this separation broke down as I read Vanessa Sasson’s novel about the Buddha’s long-suffering wife, called Yasodhara and available from Speaking Tiger Books…”
Sunday Chronicle, Shelf Life “More Than Just Buddha’s Wife,” by Suridhi Sharma
“Very little is known about Yashodhara beyond her being the beautiful young wife of Siddhartha, the prince who went on to become the enlightened one — the Buddha. But there is much more to her as a person, and the story of the life she lived…”
The Montreal Review of Books “The Wife’s Tale” by Ian McGillis
“For many lay readers coming to Vanessa R. Sasson’s powerfully imagined new novel Yasodhara, the nearest previous equivalent might be Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha… Serving as an introduction to Buddhist precepts for many non-adepts, it nonetheless left a gap for a popular treatment from another perspective. Thanks to Montreal scholar Sasson, we now have a book that is not only an ideal complement to Hesse, but very much its own thing…”
Buddhist Fiction Blogger “A Novel About the Buddha’s Wife by Vanessa R. Sasson,” by Kimberly Beek
“The novel cuts across various genres. In the book’s Introductory Note, Sasson calls her retelling a work of hagiographical fiction vice historical fiction, drawing attention to the (somewhat sparse) information about Yasodhara in Buddhist narratives and texts given her role in the Buddha’s enlightenment narrative…”
