I've liked her other writing, so I'll look for this one soon.

Re: high-highs, low-lows; essentially she's like an opera character, living in vast passions (indeed all the Mahabharata characters are larger than life and twice as real), so flattening that out to make her more "human" or more like a contemporary woman is a mistake.

Making her secretly in love with Karna is a great idea---for one thing, it emphasizes his dual nature and his conflicts!

I wonder whether the nice bookstore down the street has this...