Snake Catcher

by Naiyer Masud, Muhammad Umar Memon (Translator)

The author's second work to appear in English is featured in this masterful collection of stories by the author of Essence of Camphor. Original.

Genres: Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2005

About the author

Naiyer Masud (1936–2017) was an Urdu scholar and Urdu-language short story writer.

Naiyer Masud was born in 1936 in Lucknow. He did two separate PhD degrees in Urdu and Persian, and was a professor of Persian at Lucknow University. He started publishing his fictional work in the 1970s, of which four collections have appeared so far. Two collections of selected stories have appeared in English translation as Essence of Camphor and Snake Catcher, the former later also translated into Finnish, French, and Spanish. Besides fiction, he has several volumes of critical studies of classical Urdu literature to his credit and has also translated Kafka and numerous contemporary Iranian short stories. In 1977 he visited Tehran at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, Government of Iran. He was the recipient, in 2008, of India’s highest literary award, the 17th Saraswati Samman.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even to rate this book seems inappropriate. Masud is a brilliant writer. I don't know what he writes. But I'm glad I have read it. Every little sentence is so simple and makes so much sense. But when you put the simple little sentences together, none of the stories make any sense at all. Not that it's clear that Masud ever meant them too. If nothing else, these stories highlight the ambiguity of life in a manner that makes all other literature seem false and contrived by comparison.

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The jacket-flap compares Masud to Kafka, and that seems right. Every story begins in a universe that you recognize as your own until a word or phrase or event makes you realize you were wrong, that this is not your universe. The stories also succeed at answering mystery with deeper mystery.

[Teodora Gheorghe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐ The kind of “obscure” book that is either out of print or very expensive (because you can’t find it in your country). Luckily, a good Samaritan uploaded it to Internet Archive. I don’t usually read books online, but I made an exception for Masud, who was a brilliant writer. I had already read his collection of short stories “Essence of Camphor” (loved most of them!). I did not enjoy “The Snake Catcher” quite as much, but I did find a few gems here: “Resting Place”, “Custody”, “Lamentation”, “The Weather Vane”.

“Obscure Domains of Fear and Desire” is also present here (I first discovered it in a collection of Urdu short stories...this is how I fell in love with N.M.). Masud’s stories are atmospheric, mysterious, poetic, and gloomy...They are surreal and plotless, like fragmented dreamscapes where people appear and disappear on a whim, dialogues are usually strange and end abruptly or don’t make sense at all... dreamscapes with hidden messages found in hidden places, with enigmatic doors, and smells that bring back old forgotten memories.

[Mena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different... I think I'd appreciate this better if I could read it in the original Urdu. I liked the way that the narrators were rarely named, and each story would launch in head-first with little orientation, resulting in them overlapping with one another. I'd definitely read more from the author - or perhaps start learning Urdu and read this again.

[Viet · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I have spent most my life in fruitless diversions. And these days I spend most of my time wondering what, if anything, I have gained from them -- which is my latest, perhaps final, perhaps even most fruitless diversion."

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not get through it. Too diffuse for my taste. Kafka seen through a pastel Indian screen. Short stories.

[Kiran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully atmospheric short stories. Masud is a master story-teller. Of course reading him in Urdu is a totally different experience.