Scan barcode
canis_majoris's review
5.0
I feel like writing a review for every story but then I realised it would be a very useless act.
Just read the stories and live the long silence that you feel over your existence after reading them.
The stories are carefully chosen from a very large collection of stories by Manto. Nandita Das deserves a credit for that.
Manto Zindabad!!
Just read the stories and live the long silence that you feel over your existence after reading them.
The stories are carefully chosen from a very large collection of stories by Manto. Nandita Das deserves a credit for that.
Manto Zindabad!!
thepavand's review
5.0
This is a collection of ten of Manto's most well known stories, translated by Aatish Taseer. The translation is occasionally a bit off and the meaning not always clear, giving the general impression of reading better in the original language, Urdu. The introduction is a good addition to the book, I felt, expressing a general love for Urdu. I am tempted to learn Urdu now.
Manto is a delightful writer, the stories are intense and crisp. They are mostly straight forward and easy to read but contain great nuance. Manto deals expertly with sexual themes- there is no excessive euphemism or unnecessarily florid language, something a lot of very accomplished authors falter at.
This is a very elementary collection, 10 in number and of 130 pages in total. Most of the stories set in pre-independence Bombay, a couple set during or after the partition. My favourite was Ram Khilawan, because it holds a lot of relevance today, more than the others.
Manto is a must-read, if only at least his most famous stories as in this collection. The stories are: Ten Rupees, Blouse, Khol Do, Khaled Mian, My Name is Radha, Ram Khilavan, Licence, The Mice of Shah Daulah, For Freedom, Smell.
Manto is a delightful writer, the stories are intense and crisp. They are mostly straight forward and easy to read but contain great nuance. Manto deals expertly with sexual themes- there is no excessive euphemism or unnecessarily florid language, something a lot of very accomplished authors falter at.
This is a very elementary collection, 10 in number and of 130 pages in total. Most of the stories set in pre-independence Bombay, a couple set during or after the partition. My favourite was Ram Khilawan, because it holds a lot of relevance today, more than the others.
Manto is a must-read, if only at least his most famous stories as in this collection. The stories are: Ten Rupees, Blouse, Khol Do, Khaled Mian, My Name is Radha, Ram Khilavan, Licence, The Mice of Shah Daulah, For Freedom, Smell.
perspectives's review
5.0
Somewhere in these 10 short stories, I found myself thinking about these characters more than I wanted to. They had me wanting to pull at my own short stories, the old ones I had written when I had time and ambition left in my fingers, and wanted me to write my own characters, with their own mysterious endings. But, above all, they had me thinking about how good of an observer I really was not as compared to Manto. This short story collection is fiction. But, is it? When Manto pulls in and out of his stories, writes them with the fresh detail that one could only write with if experienced, and spends words like they are gold, is it really fiction? Or somewhere do we find ourselves in these stories?
I'll first start with how I discovered this book before I get into the gritty details of the collection and its contents. I was procrastinating on my work and watching an interview with noted actress, Shalini Pandey discussing her favorite authors. Her serious expression when discussing Manto's work enticed me into downloading this collection onto my Kindle; the serious looking cover had me simply peep into the first pages of the stories. And, that peep spilled into an undying appreciation for Manto. These stories will confuse you. I've had to look up endings to so many, just to understand if the connotation I understood was actually true or if I had misinterpreted with a despicable thought. Once you realize the connotation is true, you think then about how everything clicks in your mind. The stories never end with a giant moment, they just end as all good stories do. They end without really ending.
I was going to review the stories in detail, but I think to even reveal the plot to some stories would be to create an expectation which I do not wish to create. So, here are my favorites: Ten Rupees, Khol Do, Khaled Mian, My Name is Radha, Licence, and The Mice of Shah Daulah. Out of these, two are especially notable for me: Khol Do and My Name is Radha.
Khol Do is a fairly short "short story" but the effect it leaves on the reader is long. My friends had met up with me minutes after I finished this story and I could not even come back to reality after finishing the story for an hour. Even with the cloud of laughter around me, my mind kept lingering around this story, thinking about the trauma it intends. It really did unhinge me.
My Name is Radha is more lighthearted in a way, but it was the story I most related to. I understood Radha, I saw myself in her. In fact, every woman has a little bit of Radha- the sexy, wild woman who wants a man she can't have for a thrill. The high of being sensual, it's another persona in itself. I seriously projected myself onto this story, because we all know a Radha, and sometimes we all are a Radha.
Manto, my new all-time favorite.
I'll first start with how I discovered this book before I get into the gritty details of the collection and its contents. I was procrastinating on my work and watching an interview with noted actress, Shalini Pandey discussing her favorite authors. Her serious expression when discussing Manto's work enticed me into downloading this collection onto my Kindle; the serious looking cover had me simply peep into the first pages of the stories. And, that peep spilled into an undying appreciation for Manto. These stories will confuse you. I've had to look up endings to so many, just to understand if the connotation I understood was actually true or if I had misinterpreted with a despicable thought. Once you realize the connotation is true, you think then about how everything clicks in your mind. The stories never end with a giant moment, they just end as all good stories do. They end without really ending.
I was going to review the stories in detail, but I think to even reveal the plot to some stories would be to create an expectation which I do not wish to create. So, here are my favorites: Ten Rupees, Khol Do, Khaled Mian, My Name is Radha, Licence, and The Mice of Shah Daulah. Out of these, two are especially notable for me: Khol Do and My Name is Radha.
Khol Do is a fairly short "short story" but the effect it leaves on the reader is long. My friends had met up with me minutes after I finished this story and I could not even come back to reality after finishing the story for an hour. Even with the cloud of laughter around me, my mind kept lingering around this story, thinking about the trauma it intends. It really did unhinge me.
My Name is Radha is more lighthearted in a way, but it was the story I most related to. I understood Radha, I saw myself in her. In fact, every woman has a little bit of Radha- the sexy, wild woman who wants a man she can't have for a thrill. The high of being sensual, it's another persona in itself. I seriously projected myself onto this story, because we all know a Radha, and sometimes we all are a Radha.
Manto, my new all-time favorite.
uroybd's review
5.0
Only recently, I think, Manto is getting traction once again. A writer disowned by his country because of cultural bigotry (This act is an irony itself since Manto himself left his country and then regretted it.) and was unable to grow in his new ground, died as a middle-aged man. People was forgetting him, and would have unless a nice movie came out.
I’m not going to talk about the movie though. His writing, specifically of a book of some translated short stories by **Aatish Taseer** is my locus now. Rather a short book of short stories it is, only 138 pages, you can simply read it at any time, and I urge you to do so.
The stories are indeed well chosen as the translator claimed to show the spectrum of Manto’s ability. I can also vouch for the translation quality because I’ve already read some really good translations of Manto in Bengali. Since all the languages in the Indian subcontinent are kins, they share similarities. You can easily get a vibe of the original writing.
To see in Manto’s eyes is like seeing with sensors rather than wisdom. You don’t need any special depth to understand Manto, I think. His writings are all about the things that are alive. You’ll rarely find any description about the environment in his writings, but whenever you get some, they will hit some of your nerves. You may find yourself beside a long wall with the stink and stains of urine or in a room so small that you may suffocate. These stains and stinks, these feelings of suffocations are lively. Minute details, which is a strength of many writers is almost absent in his works. Rather he will talk about peoples mind and thoughts in length, what are they thinking, acting and living… The stories are stories of living things and you’ll start living and breathing in these stories.
Time to time, we talk about this and that responsibilities about writers and artists in general. Well, to be truthful, an artist’s only responsibility is to speak his mind truthfully. To do that an artist may, and historically always has been an iconoclast in her/his style, subject, and expression. Obscene, Manto was, and also skeptic about the then contemporary ideas of revolution and freedom. Icon, be it Gandhi or Virginity, he has challenged. By doing this, he expressed truths that transcend beyond the societies ethics yet very close to our human self.
I’m not going to talk about the movie though. His writing, specifically of a book of some translated short stories by **Aatish Taseer** is my locus now. Rather a short book of short stories it is, only 138 pages, you can simply read it at any time, and I urge you to do so.
The stories are indeed well chosen as the translator claimed to show the spectrum of Manto’s ability. I can also vouch for the translation quality because I’ve already read some really good translations of Manto in Bengali. Since all the languages in the Indian subcontinent are kins, they share similarities. You can easily get a vibe of the original writing.
To see in Manto’s eyes is like seeing with sensors rather than wisdom. You don’t need any special depth to understand Manto, I think. His writings are all about the things that are alive. You’ll rarely find any description about the environment in his writings, but whenever you get some, they will hit some of your nerves. You may find yourself beside a long wall with the stink and stains of urine or in a room so small that you may suffocate. These stains and stinks, these feelings of suffocations are lively. Minute details, which is a strength of many writers is almost absent in his works. Rather he will talk about peoples mind and thoughts in length, what are they thinking, acting and living… The stories are stories of living things and you’ll start living and breathing in these stories.
Time to time, we talk about this and that responsibilities about writers and artists in general. Well, to be truthful, an artist’s only responsibility is to speak his mind truthfully. To do that an artist may, and historically always has been an iconoclast in her/his style, subject, and expression. Obscene, Manto was, and also skeptic about the then contemporary ideas of revolution and freedom. Icon, be it Gandhi or Virginity, he has challenged. By doing this, he expressed truths that transcend beyond the societies ethics yet very close to our human self.
nagateja95's review
5.0
An epic journey through "self". Many of the stories couldn't string me(possibly as at this age I haven't seen much of the world.) but as a whole it was instigating a debate on several issues of our daily life.
chandanakuruganty's review
5.0
" The world has many colors, Dhobi. Sun in places; Shades in others. Five Fingers are not alike."
I've picked it up seeing some recommendation videos on best short stories from Indian Subcontinent and I must accept that they are a masterpiece. I loved the collection of short stories and the diversity of setting in each, the rustic and realistic character depiction ( including his clever sexual innuendos) and trying his best at contrasting characters in limited words. The best part is, he knows where to start and where precisely to end a story and that is certainly worth all the praise!
Recommended for those looking for a real fast-breeze read and eclectic collection of short stories from Partition era India.
I've picked it up seeing some recommendation videos on best short stories from Indian Subcontinent and I must accept that they are a masterpiece. I loved the collection of short stories and the diversity of setting in each, the rustic and realistic character depiction ( including his clever sexual innuendos) and trying his best at contrasting characters in limited words. The best part is, he knows where to start and where precisely to end a story and that is certainly worth all the praise!
Recommended for those looking for a real fast-breeze read and eclectic collection of short stories from Partition era India.
cowboyrat's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
thought provoking, dreamy writing! i really enjoyed this and the translation was great, but i would love to read the original urdu versions to compare in the future.
saileedhole's review
4.0
I am not really a huge fan of short story genre. But every story in this collection was so heart-touching and so warm.
space_dacait's review
3.0
As it happens with a lot of collections, some stories are really good. But then some of them are just okayish. So the 3 stars are more for the compilation than Manto as a writer.
santreads's review
5.0
I didn't know what to think of Saadat Hasan Manto. I heard good things, but I didn't realize he would be that good.
When Salman Rushie (and many others) said that he is one of the best short story authors of the sub-continent, they were not wrong.
The stories made me cringe, made me sad, made me wallow. There were stories of dogs, of the partition, of human emotion that just rang true in so many different ways.
Everyone should read at least some of his short stories - it was truly a delectable treat for my brain.
When Salman Rushie (and many others) said that he is one of the best short story authors of the sub-continent, they were not wrong.
The stories made me cringe, made me sad, made me wallow. There were stories of dogs, of the partition, of human emotion that just rang true in so many different ways.
Everyone should read at least some of his short stories - it was truly a delectable treat for my brain.