Reviews

Bombay Stories by Aftab Ahmad, Matt Reeck, Saadat Hasan Manto

vanessa_lehan's review against another edition

3.0

The translation is definitely clunky and it's strange at first to see the same characters over and over but the writing is charming and the glimpse into 1940s Bombay is fascinating.

maaryaam's review against another edition

2.0

I honestly think this book just suffered a lot from its translation. As I was reading it I could literally feel how much context I was missing out on because it wasn't translated well. A lot of meaning and symbolism is lost once a work has been translated and I'm quite a big fan of the way penguin pocket classics format their translated fiction, so for example in those editions if a phrase, name, or a word is mentioned that needs further explanation for the reader to truly understand its importance they add an asterisk and give the background information necessary in the footnote on the page. It's simple to follow and helps a lot with understanding the book. I think if Vintage had a similar format to that of Penguin's this would have been far more enjoyable. There was a point in the book that just annoyed me so there's a line that says "I don't know what his real name was but everyone called him Dhundhu, which was fitting because his job was to find girls that satisfied his customers' varied tastes." But the thing is I don't know why that's fitting because I don't know what that word means to begin with. That's why I feel like I wasn't getting as much as I could have from this collection unfortunately.

The writing was really bland nothing was driving the stories, if this were to have been one story rather than a collection of short stories I'm not sure I would have even gotten through it at all. I failed to see a point or meaning to any of them but I think the stories were more of a character/city analysis rather than one with meaning in them so that was fine. Manto often puts himself in the stories which I didn't enjoy at all it made the stories feel like a poorly written recount because it was all just:

I went to the coffee shop to meet my friend. My friend was struggling. We talked some more then we separated. Then I met another friend.

Again, I feel like this was less Manto's fault and more the translators'.

Regardless, there's no argument that Manto was an incredibly influential writer and I'm glad to have read some of his work. His life was the biggest tragedy and yet his legacy carried on in formation of India's film industry, it's literally the biggest shame that he didn't live to see it. I also enjoyed the essay, "Why I Don't Go to the Movies" in the appendix.

yaboime's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

martinza's review

challenging dark hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Short stories taking place during his time as a screenwriter in Mumbai in the 40s. Much less violent than his stuff about the partition of India. Mainly about prostitutes and alcohol. Sometimes surprisingly beautiful and progressive.

ahsenusta's review against another edition

2.0

The writing style is unsophisticated and lazy; every female character in the book is a prostitute whose only function is to tell the story of a man; Manto unsubtly and randomly inserts himself into most of the stories in a self-praising way which comes across as arrogant; I can’t think of anything good about the book 😓

booktwitcher23's review against another edition

3.0

This book is about the real Bombay of the 1930's and 1940's and is therefore, about such subjects as prostitutes and petty criminals.

yoshittaa's review against another edition

4.0

Alright so absolutely loved the image Manto constructed of Bombay, filled with gangsters and drunk film stars and prostitutes. Out of all the stories, Smell and The Insult are my favorites. This book left me even more fascinated with Mumbai as a city.

raingirl's review against another edition

2.0

Not as good as I was expecting it to be, considering its written by Manto.

crimpinglife's review

5.0

Bombay Stories ( some of which are located in Pune) is a hilarious, and quite fascinating read. The short stories describe a Bombay in the 1930s; at the cusp of Independence from the British Raj but judging by the still somewhat prejudiced multiculturalism of the city - complete with Jews, Parsis, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and Anglo-Saxons - has not yet reached the peak of sectarian/ethnic violence (at home and abroad) that would enable Independence and later, Partition to occur. Manto writes about his own life living - and drinking vast quantitities of Bombay's alcohol - with/among the medley of actors, gangsters, street people and prostitutes of the city. Each character is humanized by Manto with witty prose and humurous but often compassionate writing style. Although the rising tensions in India are mentioned its clear from the casual nonchalance that Manto writes with that he believes that Bombay will remain apart from such ridiculousness. How very wrong he was.

Nevertheless, Manto, I am happy to report, is truly a master of the short story form. Definitely Bombay Stories read if you can - my personal favourite of the stories was Mozelle and Peerun.

harryr's review

3.0

Short stories set in Bombay in the 30s and 40s, which mainly seem to be about prostitutes and their various male customers. These didn’t quite click for me; apart from anything else I was sometimes unconvinced by his ability to put himself in the shoes of his female characters. Apparently Manto is better known for his stories about Partition; perhaps those would have been a better place to start.