The Colour of Nothingness: Modern Urdu Short Stories

by Muhammad Umar Memon (Editor)

Complex, audacious and strongly individualistic, the stories in this selection underline the originality and power of the modern Urdu short story. The contributors to The Colour of Nothingness are among the finest writers produced by Pakistan and India.

Genres: Short Stories

230 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Muhammad Umar Memon is a critic, short story writer, renowned Urdu translator and editor of The Annual of Urdu Studies from Pakistan. He is Professor Emeritus of Urdu Literature and Islamic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Memon was born in Aligarh, India in 1939. In 1954, his family moved to Karachi, Pakistan where he earned his bachelors and masters degrees. After his graduation, he taught at Sachal Sarmast College and Sind University. In 1964 he won a Fulbright scholarship to the United States. This move enabled him to earn a masters degree from Harvard University and eventually a doctorate in Islamic Studies from UCLA. Dr. Memon joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1970 and retired from there after 38 years of service. He has remained active as a scholar: besides working on translation of Urdu works into English he serves on the editorial board of Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies and is also an advisor to the Urdu Project.

Reviews

[Joe Zeppetello · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely and poetic collection of short stories translated from languages of the Middle East. All of them were worthwhile, and, to me, shows h what is lacking in literary short stories published in the US. These are small pieces of crystal, and tend to avoid purposeful agendas.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

With just a few exceptions, the stories in this book did not interest me. A couple were more descriptions of state of being than stories, and were simply boring. Some were too surrealistic to make sense of. But even most of the proper stories did not speak to me. Perhaps there were some cultural nuances I did not get, but none of my other forays into ethnic literature have felt so profitless. I did get the sense that the authors had things to say, just that (again, with three or four exceptions), they were not talking to me.