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A review by bookishnerdyandcurious
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
3.0
I totally admit that when I saw the title of this come up in Libby while placing holds on various books, I was intrigued. So intrigued, I immediately checked it out and I'm not sorry that I did.
Nikki is a young Punjabi woman, living alone in Central London, unlike her sister Mindi, who is a nurse who lives at home with their mother. On an errand for Mindi, Nikki finds herself at the temple in Southall, where she is supposed to place a notice on the marriage board, as Mindi is looking for a traditional arranged marriage. While doing this, Nikki finds a flyer advertising a position: a teacher for a creative writing class. She soon finds that the women she is to teach are the (mostly) elderly, (mostly) illiterate widows of the community. She also finds that there's more to these widows than meets the eye.
Intertwined with Nikki's story (and the stories of the group she facilitates) is the story of her boss who had a daughter who died under mysterious circumstances and wants desperately to find out what really happened. However, she's stymied by certain people in the community at every step. While I found this storyline intriguing, in some cases Maya's story seems forced - as if the author realized she needed a thread to connect some of these women in a way more than just community. Once I got to the end where more of Maya's sad story is spelled out, I understood more of where it was going/why it was constructed this way, but it still seemed like it could have been told in a smoother way. That is the *only* reason I gave this a 3 star review - if not for that, it would have been 4 stars.
That said, the story moved slowly for me at first, however, once it kicked into gear, I did not want to put it down. Once I got to the end, I really wished it could have gone on longer, as I became invested in the lives of all these women, the community, and the way these stories changed their lives.
Nikki is a young Punjabi woman, living alone in Central London, unlike her sister Mindi, who is a nurse who lives at home with their mother. On an errand for Mindi, Nikki finds herself at the temple in Southall, where she is supposed to place a notice on the marriage board, as Mindi is looking for a traditional arranged marriage. While doing this, Nikki finds a flyer advertising a position: a teacher for a creative writing class. She soon finds that the women she is to teach are the (mostly) elderly, (mostly) illiterate widows of the community. She also finds that there's more to these widows than meets the eye.
Intertwined with Nikki's story (and the stories of the group she facilitates) is the story of her boss who had a daughter who died under mysterious circumstances and wants desperately to find out what really happened. However, she's stymied by certain people in the community at every step. While I found this storyline intriguing, in some cases Maya's story seems forced - as if the author realized she needed a thread to connect some of these women in a way more than just community. Once I got to the end where more of Maya's sad story is spelled out, I understood more of where it was going/why it was constructed this way, but it still seemed like it could have been told in a smoother way. That is the *only* reason I gave this a 3 star review - if not for that, it would have been 4 stars.
That said, the story moved slowly for me at first, however, once it kicked into gear, I did not want to put it down. Once I got to the end, I really wished it could have gone on longer, as I became invested in the lives of all these women, the community, and the way these stories changed their lives.