Again, after all my reading, I was expecting to come away impressed. Manto is held in very high esteem and his works (including some 22 collections of short stories) are considered among the best Urdu writings of the 20th century. Unfortunately, I didn’t find this collection particularly likeable and this time I don’t fault the translation. (I was very interested to read this in a review on Amazon, however: “another translator/scholar, Mohammad Asaduddin, argued that [this version] omitted or summarized large portions of Manto's original texts, thereby eliminating key elements in the portrayal of character and theme, added bits of text not by Manto, and changed unnecessarily the titles of some of the stories. In some cases, more than 10% of a story's original text was cut, it was claimed. An example of a changed title would be "The Return," which should be "Open It," a phrase that was uttered in the original to prompt a haunting gesture.” If this criticism is accurate, it might be good reason for a new translation—or for me to see whether there is another more recent collection available in English.)
These stories, generally about the downtrodden (his protagonists are often prostitutes) and the underworld, simply don’t rank with the best of what I have read about that time and place. Part of it is a stylistic habit of Manto’s: stories often end quite abruptly with the conclusion implied (at best). I don’t generally have a problem with that style but there was something about his conclusions, in story after story, that simply failed to impress me and often led to a story falling flat in my estimation. Few of these stories or even characters “spoke” to me in a way I could truly feel and empathize with. I suspect my reaction is a distinct minority (he is very highly rated on Goodreads, for instance) and I cannot help but wonder if my opinion will change with time. ( )

Manto as everyone knows wrote originally in Urdu. I was surprised by his stories. The narrative never shies away from sexuality. In fact, Manto was tried at least 6 times for obscenity!!

No, he is not at all obscene. Has written heart-rending stories around Partition. He also has a dry as well as sharp sense of humor and wit. A very interesting read. ( )