- Mona Verma
- Thursday, November 29, 2018
Multicultural fiction books are fascinating looking glasses into disparate cultures and perspectives. There is beauty in diversity and these books bridge boundaries and shatter stereotypes. They reveal that as human beings, we experience the same feelings and emotions and when stripped bare of our external differences, we are more alike than we are different.
"A lively, sexy, and thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women’s lives at all ages."-Harper Collins
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows: A Novel by Balli Jaswal is a glimpse into the Punjabi diaspora settled in Southall, London. This enclave of immigrants have attempted to create a home away from home in a distant land.
The Punjabi people have left India behind, but, they have created a similar society in a foreign country to keep their traditions, culture and values alive.
Nikki, the protagonist of the book is an independent girl who smokes and bartends and risking her Indian dad's disappointment, quits law school as she does not feel passionate about a career in law. Her sister Mindi is more traditional with an online profile for arranged marriage. Nikki smirks that "The title of her blurb made her sound like a supermarket seasoning spice: Mindi Grewal, East-West Mix." Other entries for matrimonial matches include specifications such as "we are open-minded about many things but will not accept non vegetarians."
Nikki starts teaching a creative writing course at the Sikh community development center and the class is attended by a group of Punjabi widows. Kulwinder Kaur, the director of the center deals with getting her funding requests dismissed by Gurtaj Singh, who always finds pleasure in rejecting her ideas.
Nikki is not paid much but she enjoys spending time with these widows who are “fiery eyed and indignant” and they “would pen their stories for the whole world to read.” Nikki had not planned on teaching them how to write erotic stories but she accidentally leaves behind a book called Red Velvet: Pleasurable Stories for Women and the students mistakenly assume that is the pattern they have to follow.
The erotic stories which flow from these women whom society has shunned as ‘invisible’ and ‘irrelevant’ without their husbands are incredibly imaginative, colorful, sensuous and erotic and they will definitely make the reader blush.
The men of the community, especially a group of men called “The Brotherhood’ who have taken upon themselves to morally police the women,are not happy when they hear about widows owning and talking about their sexuality which is considered taboo in the culture.
There is also a murder mystery storyline about Kulwinder’s daughter Maya’s death which is full of intrigue and a hidden love affair. The book reveals the hypocrisy of a society which values the honor of a family above and beyond the happiness of its members. Intertwined among all of this, there is also a very sweet love story where Nikki meets the man of her dreams and reunites with him after some hiccups in their relationship.
This book was featured as a selection of Reese Witherspoon’s book club in March 2018 and received rave reviews, some of which include:
“Charming ... This is a sparkling read.” (Publishers Weekly)
“By turns erotic, romantic, and mysterious, this novel of women defying patriarchial strictures enchants.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“Heady stuff ... a funny and moving tale of desire and its discontents.” (The Economist)
If you are interested in reading diverse books, here is a list of ten multicultural fiction authors in the Richland Library collection which can get you started.
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Jean Kwok
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Amy Tan
- Junot Díaz
- Khaled Hosseini
- Gabriel García Márquez
- Isabel Allende
- Bharati Mukherjee
- Rajaa Alsanea