Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows: A Novel

I picked up the book because nothing could seem so Incongruous that erotica and punjabi widows. But as the story unfolded pulling back the veil between the community and this young women. The more I wanted to read. Then came the snippets of stories told by these women that if we were to meet. We’d be forced to called “Auntie” and how our own upbringing would cloud our visions of these older women still wishing to live full lives or just recalling a time when it was full. But the stories are but a tiny piece of the puzzle, murder, infidelity, nosey neighbours, and more.

The story revolves mainly around Nikki, a first-generation Punjabi, born and raised in England. She's a law-school dropout trying to earn some extra money by signing up to teach creative-writing classes at the Sikh temple. What she doesn't know is that the students she gets are mostly illiterate Punjabi widows looking to kill the boredom and routine by engaging in lively, oral, sexy storytelling... And this is where the fun begins. Of course, that's not all that there is to the story, it also deals with the challenges that multi-cultural people face when it comes to tradition, pressures of close-knit communities, family relationships, and so much more.

This book reminded me of Reading Lolita in Tehran but much more lighthearted and charming. As soon as you start the book you are immersed in the story, and oh, the story is just wonderful.

Overall I enjoyed this book and recommend it to all!

Nikki is a typical modern young adult. Much to the dismay of her parents, she dropped out of law school to work in a pub while she discovers who she is. When looking for work, she notices an advertisement for a teacher for creative writing classes at Southall, a traditional Punjabi community center. When she shows up, the classroom is full of widows, expecting her to teach them basic literacy skills.
I really wanted to like this book but I thought it was slow moving and shallow. Nikki was not a particularly smart or likeable character. I really wanted to know more about the widows individual lives, but instead they were ancillary to the story. Overall, a bust.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows should really be renamed Erotic Stories of or from Punjabi Widows.

The story begins with meeting Nikki and her family in London. They are of Indian nationality and have tried to follow the customs of their nationality except that the father let his daughters make their own choices in life. Mindi wanted to try for an arranged marriage to stay with tradition and Nikki didn't know what exactly she wanted to do, but it was not an arranged marriage.

While she's trying to figure out her life, she works in a bar she lives above and also applies to teach what she thinks is a traditional ceative writing class. As it turns out, it is a class to teach older Punjabi woman, most of who are widows, to read and write English. Even though it is not what she thought she was sigining up for, she decides to give it a go only to be surprised that they really have no desire to learn English, but to tell their own stories. Erotic ones.

I will admit that I was not crazy about the first half of this book. It seemed as if the characters were a little superficial and there just wasn't a whole lot of "meat" to the story. Thankfully, the second half dove into the characters and the stories behind them making it a far more interesting read.

My favorite thing about this book is that we all have preconceived notions about certain groups of people and these women proved everyone wrong.

I picked up the book because nothing could seem so Incongruous that erotica and punjabi widows. But as the story unfolded pulling back the veil between the community and this young women. The more I wanted to read. Then came the snippets of stories told by these women that if we were to meet. We’d be forced to called “Auntie” and how our own upbringing would cloud our visions of these older women still wishing to live full lives or just recalling a time when it was full. But the stories are but a tiny piece of the puzzle, murder, infidelity, nosey neighbours, and more.

The story revolves mainly around Nikki, a first-generation Punjabi, born and raised in England. She's a law-school dropout trying to earn some extra money by signing up to teach creative-writing classes at the Sikh temple. What she doesn't know is that the students she gets are mostly illiterate Punjabi widows looking to kill the boredom and routine by engaging in lively, oral, sexy storytelling... And this is where the fun begins. Of course, that's not all that there is to the story, it also deals with the challenges that multi-cultural people face when it comes to tradition, pressures of close-knit communities, family relationships, and so much more.

This book reminded me of Reading Lolita in Tehran but much more lighthearted and charming. As soon as you start the book you are immersed in the story, and oh, the story is just wonderful.

Overall I enjoyed this book and recommend it to all!

Nikki is a typical modern young adult. Much to the dismay of her parents, she dropped out of law school to work in a pub while she discovers who she is. When looking for work, she notices an advertisement for a teacher for creative writing classes at Southall, a traditional Punjabi community center. When she shows up, the classroom is full of widows, expecting her to teach them basic literacy skills.
I really wanted to like this book but I thought it was slow moving and shallow. Nikki was not a particularly smart or likeable character. I really wanted to know more about the widows individual lives, but instead they were ancillary to the story. Overall, a bust.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows should really be renamed Erotic Stories of or from Punjabi Widows.

The story begins with meeting Nikki and her family in London. They are of Indian nationality and have tried to follow the customs of their nationality except that the father let his daughters make their own choices in life. Mindi wanted to try for an arranged marriage to stay with tradition and Nikki didn't know what exactly she wanted to do, but it was not an arranged marriage.

While she's trying to figure out her life, she works in a bar she lives above and also applies to teach what she thinks is a traditional ceative writing class. As it turns out, it is a class to teach older Punjabi woman, most of who are widows, to read and write English. Even though it is not what she thought she was sigining up for, she decides to give it a go only to be surprised that they really have no desire to learn English, but to tell their own stories. Erotic ones.

I will admit that I was not crazy about the first half of this book. It seemed as if the characters were a little superficial and there just wasn't a whole lot of "meat" to the story. Thankfully, the second half dove into the characters and the stories behind them making it a far more interesting read.

My favorite thing about this book is that we all have preconceived notions about certain groups of people and these women proved everyone wrong.

The plot line is appealing: Nikki, a young British woman of Indian heritage is at loose ends. She has dropped out of college and is working at a tavern, she has moved out on her own to her mother’s chagrin, her beloved father has died, and her more traditional sister is seeking an arranged marriage. Nikki has turned away from much of her Sikh background, but stumbles across a job opportunity teaching a writing class to Punjabi women. She is shocked to discover not only are the women, all forgotten widows in their male-dominant society, mostly illiterate in a English, they really don’t care to learn the language at all. Instead, they want to share stories about what they are missing - sex. All the women are secretly yearning to weave romantic, soft-core porn involving detailed fantasies of women’s sexual fulfillment. If only the novel had stayed here, the author could have mined this material for a great, clever story on its own. Could have been funny, poignant and insightful at the same time.

But instead, the story wanders into a sort of mystery with some cruel violence, a sort of romance within a culture clash, a sort of coming-of-age saga, and a sort of family reconciliation story, all wrapped around a multitude of soft-core porn stories. That is waaasy too many “sort ofs” in one book. The author seems to have had lots of good ideas for a novel, but didn’t trust any of them to stand alone, so she tries to weave all of them into one story and it just mostly falls flat. By trying to do too much, the author does not do enough to build memorabe characters and make the reader care about any of them. What could have been a sharp and clever take on culture, family and values instead just becomes an oddly unemotional criss-cross of ideas. This is not a terrible book, but it could have been much better.

**SPOILER ALERT** (vague references, but be warned!)
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows is an easy, "cotton candy for the brain" sort of read. While there is a pro-feminist leitmotif and the author touches on controversial topics within the context of both religion and culture as a whole, the (numerous) plots are predictable and the characters are all rather superficial. Even by the final page (which could have come two chapters sooner) where all loose ends are tied up in a neat little unrealistic bow, I was completely apathetic regarding the protagonist, Nikki. The story moves along with her as an occasionally reacting bystander more or less, and if it weren't for the two or three scenarios in which she played a significant role, the story could have moved right along without her. Kulwinder was the only character who gained a bit of depth as the story continued, though the Kulwinder at the beginning and the Kulwinder at the end of the book are two completely different people. It takes more than a good roll in the hay to reverse years of enculturation and moral belief which makes her shift a little awkward, especially when there is a lack of discussion regarding the internal turmoil and cognitive dissonance it would have brought about. The erotic stories included add a bit of spicy humor and, fleshed out (no pun intended), could make a fun little pillow book all on their own. I can say, despite the predictability, if someone trying to win my heart did what Nikki's beau Jason did at the bookstore I'd be won over as well. What can I say...I'm a sucker for books. Finally, I was really disappointed by the number of typos in the book that seemed to proliferate as the story progressed. I did not lower the rating for this reason as this is an editing issue and has nothing to do with the story itself, but it does get distracting and will hopefully be addressed in future printings. Jaswal has lot of potential, but may have tried to include too much in one book and was determined for whatever reason to have a perfect ending, even down to the protagonist's decision on college. I am interested in seeing what Jaswal comes out with in the future.

“It would be easier to be a criminal fairly prosecuted by the law than an Indian daughter who wronged her family. A crime would be punishable by a jail sentence of definite duration rather than this uncertain length of family guilt trips.”

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows is the third novel by Singapore-born author, Balli Kaur Jaswal. Twenty-two-tear-old Nikki Grewal has found a job teaching creative writing to Punjabi women for the Sikh Community Association at the Southall Temple. This is a welcome development in her life as, with half a law degree and a job in a pub that looks less that permanent, she can do with another source of income. And facilitating these ladies in finding their creative voices speaks to her sense of promoting women’s rights.

But the woman who employed her, Kulwinder Kaur has perhaps been less than honest: it turns out that most of these women can’t read or write at all, Punjabi or English. When her basic lessons apparently bore the widows, they begin telling stories they know, have heard or made up. And not just innocent little tales, but erotic stories, just about the very last thing Nikki would have expected from the mouths of these respectable ladies. One of their number is literate enough to be their scribe: could their tales be published?

As Nikki becomes more familiar with her students, she realises that despite their candid talk, there is something they are not revealing. It has to do with a young woman whose death, fourteen years earlier, is still a mystery. Or is it really? As Nikki gains her students’ trust, she learns of another death, labelled accidental, and then the recent purported suicide of Kulwinder’s daughter, Maya.

One of her widows says: “All those people who say, ‘Take no notice of those widows. Without their husbands, they’re irrelevant.’ We’d be invisible in India; I suppose it makes no difference that we’re in England.” But news of the classes spreads among the women in the community and far beyond, and more students join the group; Nikki worries that the real content of their writing will attract the wrong sort of attention.

Jaswal’s novel explores many topical subjects for Indians living in Britain: parental pressure regards career or marriage partner; the vital importance of status and reputation in this community; and the powerlessness of women in the community are but some of these. She describes a culture that, in twenty-first century London, still condones or even promotes arranged marriages, bounty hunters and honour killings; a culture that is slow to react to modern times and difficult to change while is it perpetuated by the men in power and by some of the older, uneducated and often illiterate women.

While these are serious topics, Jaswal also gives the reader plenty of humour, much of it quite black, charming characters, natural dialogue and a rather exciting climax. As for the sexy little stories, they can easily be skipped if mild erotica is not to the reader’s taste, without affecting the flow of the main story. Funny, moving and thought-provoking, this is a great read!

I first heard about Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal from Reese Witherspoon. She hosts a monthly book club with Hello Sunshine to focus on strong books written by strong people. I was drawn to the idea that someone, who is a first generation daughter in a family with an immigrant background, is surrounded by her culture once again.

Nikki's father recently passes away. For Nikki, her life is about coping and facing the grief that affects her life. In order to move on from her loss, she continues with her life. But she doesn't even consider what this loss changes in her mother and sister's life, monumental and life-altering ones. Nikki steps up, to help her family, and to do something that she feels will make her father proud. She signs up to teach a writing class for Punjabi widows.

Nikki is a strong lead character. I identify myself in her, her thoughts, and her experiences. She has a strength to her that I long for, but more than that, she has a confidence that I admire. Despite the chain of events that have catapulted her life to where it is at the beginning of this story, it definitely does not define this story.

For me, the star of this story are the women. Their personalities, their quirks, and their stories. I loved all of them and wished they were around me. Their struggles, their hopes and dreams. It was clear that despite where we come from, what we've experienced in our lives, we are all the same. I loved it all. 

Listening to an audio book can sometimes alter the way that I understand and take in the story. But for Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, I wanted to hear the voices of the different women. I felt it would add to the experience of the story. Listening in my car, laughing out loud during traffic, it was great. 

Overall, I loved this story. I now know why Reese chose this story. I urge you to read it. It's so, so good!

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Before reading any further, just keep one thing in mind: This book is NOT just what the title says! I know, whenever anyone sees this title, the first thing that comes to mind is that it contains just the erotic stories. So if anyone doesn’t read Erotica, (s)he will certainly not pick this. Even, I thought so in the place but since I like reading Erotica, I didn’t mind. But today, when I am writing this review, I am really happy that I read this book. It has some erotic stories but yet it is a tale of self-being and expressing your desires openly. This book has so much going on beyond the steamy title.

I think in the title, it should be “by” instead of “for” because the stories are not for the Punjabi widows rather they have been told by them. These women told their stories of their personal experiences. Some of them were even imaginative enough to put the spark of their own creations. In either way, they portrayed their hidden desires. Hidden because the community in which they lived, was not that open minded to talk about these things.

Being an Indian, I can understand the thought process of Balli Kaur Jaswal behind writing this novel. A widow in our society is not accepted as she is supposed to be. There are so-called certain rules that the widows should follow – what to wear, how to behave, where to go etc. Their life is not as free as one can think. So in those conditions, they are often left lonely and disguised. Having sexual desires is not a crime but for those women, even thinking about those things is a disaster. So when these women found such type of class being run, even more, such ladies gather there and were eager to listen and share the stories. they may have moved from India, but the Indian taboos were still haunting them.

I must admit there ARE erotic stories. But the stories are in a pattern and not like the whole chapter is about those stories. Almost all the stories are just 2-3 pages long within the chapters. So even if you are not comfortable with reading erotica, you can simply skip the story and can progress with the rest of the chapter.

Through these stories, Balli Kaur Jaswal has tried to tell the various relationships of a woman within and outside the family. She has tried to show how women are projected and what they are supposed to be. The conclusion of this novel or we can say the hidden story is about the honor killing. Can you believe that even in 21st century, we, especially the Indian community, are not free of it? We have moved out of India, have changed our status, switched so many places, have achieved multiple things and yet here we are. If not all, some of the communities are certainly carrying this horrific thing. And even the worst thing is “moral police brigade". I mean who are these people to judge anyone’s character and take control of the women in society? It is really shocking to know that this kind of things still exists.

Jaswal has also shown the struggle of second-generation immigrants. Since they are living abroad from their childhood, they are used to that society and often struggles to cope up with their parents having the first-generation mindset. Same was the case with Nikki. She had different views from her parents and thus had a conflicted relationship with them. She was against arrange marriage and was not able to understand how her sister can agree to that. She quits the career path that her father chose for her and rather she wanted to make her own way.

This novel also depicts that everyone has secret desires whether they say it or not. When those stories go out and many people get their hands on them, it was revealed that even those people were enjoying those stories who wouldn’t have come forward otherwise. Also, many of these sparked the romance between couples especially between Kulwinder and her husband, who otherwise was still mourning over the death of their daughter Maya.

Except for Nikki and Kulwinder, there are so many other characters that are equally interesting. Jaswal has maintained the integrity of each character perfectly. Once you start this book, you can easily immerse into it. The writing is very easy to understand and the reader doesn’t lose interest anytime. Author has cleverly used some Punjabi words into the story but they didn’t go out of the context anytime. You can actually imagine yourself at Southall while reading it (I actually did!). This book will offer you so much – erotic stories, romances, generation clashes, family complications, gender challenges, and even honor killing with an unsolved crime. This book also presents an interesting documentation of Indian culture that exists in Punjab.

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This novel is hilarious and thought-provoking. It is dark yet heartwarming. Once you get into the story then it is a full-on page turner. It is not just about romance and erotica but is a story of female empowerment depicting the feminism current. This is about finding the courage to express your sexuality and to be more independent. It is about love, betrayal, courage, family and friendship. An absolutely wonderful book that I highly recommend. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows is about discovering you.

I absolutely loved this book and can’t recommend it enough. If you are fine with reading a little bit of erotica, then I would definitely ask you to read this ? Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

This novel is almost an anthropological study of immigrant Punjabi Sikh women, mostly elderly, in Southall, London. A strict upbringing, continued Punjabi language use and annual family visits to India cannot always prevent British-born girls from rebelling against strictures imposed on them, questioning their fate: an arranged marriage. Early on, Nikki, the book’s heroine asks, ‘Why did we emigrate, when nothing ever changes’ , holding on to our culture, food and dress, meeting daily in newly-built temples? Widows, of which there are many and who are not allowed to remarry, are staunch guardians and enforcers of tradition.

This male reviewer stopped reading around p.120, feeling an intruder into a foreign, female world not dissimilar from strict local Christian and orthodox Jewish or recent Muslim immigrant communities. Found all this perfectly-plotted and -written, with plenty of dark secrets, dramas and hopeful outcomes ahead. But. This is also a quintessential woman’s book, a soap brimming with gossip, snooping and 80% dialogue. Again, it is wonderful how it is put together, but I cannot stand another 200 pages of small talk, backbiting and innuendo.

I was attracted to Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows firstly by the vibrant cover, then the blurb promised humour so I decided to give it a go. And I am so happy I did. This is definitely a ‘something different’ read and the stories, whilst the hub of the story, are far from the whole novel. This book is stuffed full with a mystery – which you don’t actually realise is a mystery until the final few pages – an insight into Sikh communities and a real understanding of the lives of these women and how tradition and honour dictates how they live on a daily basis along with the pressures of change.

I feel I have learned so much I didn’t know before, and yet it is all wrapped up in a very funny and eminently readable novel. What a fun read! I now have such understanding and empathy with these women, and I think it must have been a very hard book to write yet Balli Kaur Jaswal has managed to hit all the right notes and has produced a wonderful read which, all things being equal, will mean she has a bestseller on her hands.

A full and completely satisfying read and one which I wholeheartedly recommend – your mind, if not your life, will be all the richer for it.
Please note: I read the kindle edition.

I received an arc via NetGalley in exchange for my honest, original and unbiased review.

Contrary to the title, this book is not erotica (although it does contain some). Nikki, a young British woman from a Punjabi family, works part-time as a bartender (to the consternation of her family) while she figures out what she wants to do with her life. To earn some extra money, she signs up to teach creative writing at the local Sikh community center. Due to a miscommunication, her students (mostly widows who are not expected have a social life) show up expecting to learn basic English skills. The class seems like it is heading into disaster but when Nikki’s students accidentally find a book of erotica that she bought as a joke, the ice is broken and the class transforms into a space where her students feel comfortable expressing ideas normally deemed taboo.

I didn’t know anything about the Sikh community of Southall, and the author does a good job of setting the atmosphere and making it feel like a whole world unto itself that I was interested in learning more about. The book alternates between the point of view of Nikki, who is modern/easy to relate to and Kulwinder (the woman who hired her), who is more traditional. This helps readers understand Nikki’s students better as well since we have an outside perspective about the same events that Nikki is reacting to.

I didn’t find Nikki to be a compelling protagonist, I couldn’t get a sense of who she was as a person. She doesn’t have a lot of agency, most of the book is just her reacting to events happening around her. Even the evolution of her class is pretty much entirely driven by her students, I didn’t see what she contributed to it. I’m also not a big fan of romantic subplots unless they’re done very well, and the one in this book was fairly generic, and it had a bunch of drama around my least favorite trope – people refusing to talk to other people. Actually, the rest of the drama around Nikki’s students wasn’t very interesting, either, mainly because the characters didn’t draw me in enough to care what their secrets were. However, Kulwinder’s story and growth arc brought the book up a notch, it’s a little melodramatic but she’s a more unique character and that helps.

The book is interspersed with examples of erotica produced by Nikki’s class, which also helps liven the book up a bit and provides some humor. Overall, I thought this was a pretty decent book, although I didn’t love it.

I must confess... I picked this book in error... I read the title (without my glasses) as Exotic Stories....but was very pleasantly surprised by the tale. A beautifully woven story showing the "confusion" between reality and perception based on culture and upbringing. After all everyone know that widows are old and decrepit and have no life. :) I was fascinated by the different story lines that took place within this story.

I got this book from the library and really wanted to like it. I enjoy learning about other cultures and this was the main reason for getting the book. The story had promise but the writing was very sophomoric. Several times I was lost and had to back track many pages because the author did not sustain a cohesive flow between the multiple sub plots (which were not adequately developed) and the multiple characters which also were not adequately developed. I kept waiting for one of these plots to reach full manifestation but nothing really took off until the last 30 pages of the book. I lost interest early in the story but decided I really needed to give this author a chance and stay with it to the end. Clearly she put a lot of work into her book.

This novel deals with Nikki, a young modern Sikh woman, hired to teach women at a gurdwara in Southall. The classes take an unexpected turn as the Sikh widows have a different agenda. Their stories are revealed as well as a mystery to be resolved. This all leads to a satisfactory conclusion for all involved with some action at the end.
The book is character-driven mostly although the plot elements are well-conceived. Having lived in Leicester for 25 years, a lot of the story was familiar to me, dealing with arranged marriages, women's role in Sikh society, honour killings etc.. It is engaging and enjoyable and worth a read. Recommended but probably more a woman's novel than a man's.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.