~ Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, by Balli Kaur Jaswal ~
The first thing to note is that the Punjabi widows of the title live in London, perhaps not one’s first guess at a location for women living heavily circumscribed lives. But these women live in Southall, in an intensely close Punjabi immigrant community: they wear white, they cover their heads, they are mostly illiterate and rely on their families for support, even though some are quite young.
Nikki, a 21-year-old Punjabi Londoner, comes into their lives only because she is desperate for a job. She applies to teach creative writing to a class at the local gurudwara, and since she is the only application, gets the job. Turns out that the actual class is a reading and writing course for illiterate women. By chance, the women stumble across a book of erotica in Nikki’s bag, and instantly emotions are released! Erotic stories come flowing out of the women, even the shy ones, and the one literate widow writes the stories down. They get secretly distributed across the community and cause scandal! horror! thrills! re-ignition of middle-aged love lives!
The idea of the book is fun, but it could have used some Marie-Kondo‘ing. Multiple themes struggle for attention, and the book is long and cluttered.
Male oppression within the Punjabi community is one major theme: Taliban-like young males act as morality police, harassing women on the streets for ‘inappropriate’ behaviour or dress, and leaving threatening anonymous messages for those who break the Punjabi equivalent of omertà.
Then there are relationships and personal cultural issues. Nikki’s sister keeps saying she wants an arranged marriage, but somehow this involves posting a dating ad in the gurudwara; Nikki is strongly opposed to this relatively modern approach. Nikki herself wants a relationship but the right guy has not appeared. She is torn between cultural expectations and her own modern instincts. Her family is very traditional and say things like ‘It is the parents left behind who suffer with worry when the children leave’.
And last comes the mystery: what happened to Kulwinder’s daughter Maya? Why can Kulwinder not bear to look at her neighbour’s house? Why does Sheena wear a pendant with a ‘G’ on it? Here Nikki plays our intrepid girl detective, and as per literary tradition, is both brave and foolishly reckless and requires a dramatic rescue act at the end.
This is a lot to fit in a book, and it requires many pages to get it all sorted out, even though the reader can see some of the conclusions coming from a mile away. There are several unnecessary side trips that affect the pace of the novel, such as a long flashback to the time when Kulwinder first took her daughter to school, or Nikki’s interest in old Beatrix Potter books. One or two fewer themes would have helped.
Some of the plotlines break in surprising ways. Nikki is indeed rescued at the end, but not by the character you might expect. Tarampal has an unusual backstory and a secret present. A mother and daughter have a breakthrough, if slightly far-fetched, conversation about their sex lives.
There is little to say about the writing, which is matter-of-fact except for the occasional odd sentence.
Kulwinder felt a stab that took her breath away.
Hope flittered [sic] in her chest.
Laughter broke like fireworks into the air.
The erotic stories scattered throughout the book are distinctly subcontinental in nature, involving bride-viewings, tailors, and joint families in an entertainingly original way. The women use vegetable analogies to describe sex, which is often very funny. There are no Western saviours, which would have made the book predictably formulaic. And the author makes an admirably strong point about culture and honour killings in the Punjabi-British community. So the book has its heart in the right place, but the clutter detracts from its literary merit.
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, by Balli Kaur Jaswal. William Morrow, 2017.
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