I'm not sure really why I was so fired up to read Kim. I'm a fan of Rudyard Kipling's short fiction. I teach "Mark of the Beast" every year in my British Literature class. "Riki Tiki Tavi" was one of my big favorites as a kid, yet some how I've never read any of Kipling's novels.
For some reason I fixed on Kim for a first try. I think it is because Puffin picked it up and started marking it for young readers. The story follows the early life of Kim O'Hara who is the son of an Irish Maverick and an English nursemaid both of whom are dead by the time young Kim is a toddler. As a result, Kim is raised on the streets of Lahore and is fully enculturated into the native population. He's a scamp and trickster, a talented mimic, and an amateur disguise artist. His ability to move between cultures makes him valuable and the British spy masters eventually become aware of him and see that he is educated and trained. The novel follows life through this phase and into his first mission afterwards.
To say that the story meanders is an understatement. Kim takes up with a wandering Tibetan lama, a horse trader, and a whole other cast of characters. The language is artificially antiquated and the action is hard to follow. The attitudes of the time period come through to an almost problematic level. It's dense. Over all, I have to disagree with Puffin books; I would not hand this to your average young readier.
It is interesting though. It took me a month and a half to struggle through the thing and even so, I wasn't tempted to abandon the read. Yet, I found myself having to reread whole sections over and over to tease out what was happening. There's a lot of discussion of philosophy and eastern religions which may or may not be entirely accurate.
I'm hoping that my next Kipling attempt is a little more smooth going. Maybe I'll try the Jungle Book.
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