Book Review: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: June 13, 2017
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Publisher’s Description:
Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her 20-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a “creative writing” course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community.
Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected – and exciting – kind.
As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s “moral police”. But when the widows’ gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife – a modern woman like Nikki – and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.
Nikki comes from a Sikh family but she has bucked tradition. She lives alone and works at a bar. To earn extra money, she takes a job teaching creative writing at the community center, but the Sikh women who take the class think they signed up for a class to learn better English. Nikki ends up teaching them how to write stories that are erotic fantasies. The men of the community find out about this and are not happy about it.
There is also a mystery element to this book with a twist that surprised me. And if you’re unsure about erotica, that part of it is pretty tame. It’s not 50 Shades of Gray. I also learned a lot about the Sikh religion and culture.
Recommended.
