By turns erotic, romantic, and mysterious, this tale of women defying patriarchal strictures enchants.
Appalled that her sister, Mindi, would even consider an arranged marriage, Nikki Grewal reluctantly pins Mindi’s dating profile to their Sikh temple’s marriage board. But Nikki may be the sister whose life changes.
Nikki has pretty much disgraced herself and her family—British, Punjabi, Sikh—several times over: in addition to dropping out of law school, she’s moved out of the family home and into her own flat above O’Reilly’s pub, where she tends bar. She’s also taken several lovers, none of whom she ever intended to marry. So Mindi’s desire for a traditional arranged marriage bewilders Nikki, particularly since Mindi has a successful career as a nurse and doesn't need anyone else to support her. While posting the profile, though, Nikki notices an advertisement for a writing instructor. Although disinclined to hire a young, modern woman, Kulwinder Kaur, Community Development Director of the Sikh Community Association, has had no other applicants. So Nikki begins teaching a group of Punjabi widows, who quickly hijack her lesson plans. Instead of teaching a creative writing course, or even an introductory English literacy course, Nikki finds herself facilitating an erotic storytelling workshop. The widows delight in telling titillating tales of illicit sexual encounters despite the danger of discovery by the Brothers, the self-appointed morality police. As Nikki deepens her relationships with the widows—and finds a new boyfriend along the way—she learns of the strange death of Kulwinder’s daughter, Maya, who may have been accused of dishonorable behavior. But trying to discover what happened to Maya may land Nikki herself in trouble. With a keen ear for dialogue and humor, Jaswal (Sugarbread, 2016, etc.) deftly entwines these women’s lives, creating a world in which women of multiple generations find common ground in the erotic fantasies that reveal both lived experiences and wistful dreams.
By turns erotic, romantic, and mysterious, this tale of women defying patriarchal strictures enchants.Pub Date: June 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-264512-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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