Kim

Rating:
Summary: A classic Raj era tale
Review: A classic Raj era tale

Rating:
Summary: Stunningly Overrated
Review: Am I missing something here? Apparently. I found Kipling's writing extremely stilted and archaic, in a bad way (not in a say, Shakespeare way). The characters were one-dimensional, and the plot was heaped with deus-ex-machinas. I had to struggle to get through every page, and force myself to read a designated amount each night in order to finish it (it took me almost a week, and it's not a long book). The writing is filled with colloquialisms and foreign expressions, and I had to constantly flip to the Endnotes to decipher the code, which was extremely inconvenient. I did learn something about India and its history, and I can't wait to read a better novel on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: I loved the imagery in Kim. The vivid representation of live in India under the British, although idealized, creates a reading experience that surpasses most of Kiplings writing. The way in which he represented the clash of cultures and religions was well done although skewed by Kiplings own beliefs. Through these clashes Kim takes an image of its own, both beautiful as well as insightful.

Rating:
Summary: a mild but quite thorough story of initiation:
Review: Kim is honestly a fun book. This is not to say that there aren't lapses, tedious mirings that swirl around the overall ebullient excitment, but these stem more from an excess of the author's wordplay than from anything else. The story is on the surface rather quaint: Orphaned British tyke grows up alone in India, has the internal wits and capacity to learn basic survival skills and has the ambition and sense of humor to make something of a name for himself. From there he meets a 'holy man'--not one in the traditional sense of Western (or even Eastern) literature, but here is more of a true seeker, someone not pulled down by the conventions of organized religiousosity, but one moreso looking for a one-on-one understanding of God. There is a great deal of subtle and transmogrified mythologizing--the traditional fables bowled over by reality, the high, idealistic hopes often stunted in birth by more rational and everyday life concerns. Kim, street-smart and wise before his time, is fascinated by the holy man's honesty and feels some compelling need to accompany the man on his random journies.

Kim is the story of two journies, certainly the holy man's as well as Kim's own, the reckoning with cultural identity and the east/west clash in a time of subterfuge and war. It is really a quite powerful story, dulled down at times by the author's seemingly ceaseless wonder, but for a tale marketed as being about a white European lost in the maze of turn-of-the-century India, there is a great deal that is very contemporary and an enormous amount of action and even betrayal.

Give it a go and read it to your kids. There are many valuable life lessons Kipling makes an attempt to teach and many wrong paths he explains to us all about taking.

Rating:
Summary: Chapter 1 has 99 footnotes!
Review: Maybe this is the way things were done a hundred years ago, but today, this book wouldn't get past the first reviewer. (Nor should it.) Read it for historical purposes, to see how bad novels used to be.

Otherwise, I recommend Laurie R. King's "The Game", instead -- or anything by her, for that matter. "The Game" follows Sherlock Holmes and wife Mary Russell in search of Kim, 30 years later.

Rating:
Summary: Splendid
Review: Rudyard Kipling has become somewhat of a controversial figure in today's politically correct and overwrought world. His notions of the White Man's Burden and the civilizing mission of England (and America) are well-known and often cited as evidence of a racist mindset and disposition. To be sure, like all people, Kipling was not perfect and held his fair share of prejudice. KIM, however, serves to bring out the basic humanity in Kipling's character. It is certainly one of his best works, if not the best. Kipling's great knowledge and love of India and its people shine through every page as do his way with words, his story-telling ability, and his cerebral depth. It is no wonder that KIM is the much-admired and favourite book of countless literary and political figures, both Indian and otherwise.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Classic
Review: So why am I writing a review of a book published in the early 1900s?
I hope some young people will read all the positive reviews and pick up the book and have a great time. No Stephen King or Dean Koontz wrote this. A wonderfully narrated book of a time that is not coming back. The language is smooth as flowing honey and the Indian words are used with the skill of one born and brought up there (Kipling was later sent to England to complete his schooling).
Enjoyable even after years and years.
I would recommend to buy the hardcover (Everyman Library) edition. A bargain at Amazon's prices

Rating:
Summary: A tug of war between Kipling's two minds
Review: Some say Kipling was an imperialist. Some say he was an Indophile. I think he was both at the same time. One Kipling was a polished and sophisticated part of the ruling class, the British. Another Kipling was a child, innocent of the artificial divisions of the society, fascinated by the color and splendour of the Jewel in the Crown, India. This novel at a subtle level, to me, represents a tug of war between the the two warring Kiplings. While the British elite Kipling is forced to believe in the good the Raj is doing to the poor rascals, the other Kipling has his doubts and frustrated by his inability to declare them freely, they find a veiled expression in Kim.
Kim is a Classic story of a boy's adventure in British India. There runs a background plot about "the great game", the spying war between the British and the Russian empires. Kim becomes a chain-man (spy) for the British and his native early years make him formidable in the profession. However more interesting is the other parallel story, that of friendship between Kim and a Tibetan lama and their wanderings together which also make this a road novel.
Kipling understands the oriental way of life and its philosophy. "Only chicken and Sahibs walk around without reason" he says. Through many such comments Kipling questions the western way of work, hurry and constant activity. As the lama says "to refrain from any action is best".
Lastly, one can not but wonder, how much Kim represents a fantacy of Kipling that he wanted to happen to himself. A few common facts between the story and Kipling's own life, for example his father's association with the Lahore Musuem, his own schooling experience etc are revealing. They almost make you hear Kipling sighing "I wish thus would have happened with me!"
Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A classic boy's adventure
Review: The tale is a classic adventure story, of Kim, Irish orphan growing up as a street urchin in northern India. It is a colourful picture of a short period in history when East and West met and were intertwined during the British Raj in India. Unromantic lefty dullards will go on about the imperialist tone of the book. But the book tells of an India so gloriously rich and diverse that the British are simply absorbed like conquerors before, one caste among hundreds: Moghuls, Brahmins and Sikhs, Pathans and Tibetans.

We are left in no illusions about the political realities of imperial India. We know that the white man is in charge, though they are shown to consist of fools like the Anglican chaplain as well as good men like Colonel Creighton. Like heroes such as Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings or Shasta in C S Lewis' A Horse and His Boy, Kim is always aware deep down (and it strengthens him even though at times he hates it) that he is set apart, of a nobler race, because he is a Sahib. Yet this seems perfectly natural in India, a land of myriad castes and classes, from high-born Brahmins to low, despised, Untouchables.

The characters are brilliant and amusing: Kim is such a lovable scamp ("You - you Od! Thy mother was married under a basket!") I find it hard to understand how anyone can fail to be immediately absorbed in his world and his fortunes. Hurree Babu and Mahbub Ali are likeable Indian characters. The Tibetan holy man, whom Kim follows as a disciple, portrayed in such a tender light that for all his scattiness one believes in his holiness, and we understand why Kim follows and loves him like a father.

But this is a boy's book, and the female characters are marginal and unsympathetically treated. Most will find the Indian slang and jargon tough going, unless they are willing to skim it over, and it is often necessary to keep a finger on the glossary at the end of the book. Nonetheless, beautifully written, and a Good Read.

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Summary: Among the top 3 most influencial novels of 20thc
Review: This was probably the first - and almost only time a white author really entered the mind of asia.

It opened the whole relationship of the west with india an even ironically helped the campaign of Ghandi and his (MKG's) largely phoney portrayal of a hindu holy-man (so frightening to muslims).

Kiplin himself perhaps saw Kim as his "perfect self" though sadly the real Kipling about this time embrased the two dimensional imperialism of the Daily Mail - in want of a distant Bad Guy for his actual manichean fantasy he fitted up the germans - and sadly had a huge influence on the disaster that was the First World War.

"Kim" Philby (named for the hero) and others in search of this foreign world of duplicity and black and white values later embraced communism.

This novel affected all of this - was the first realistic (rather than idealised) view of buddhism in its evolved and contradictorary form (I like the way the Lama blends in snatches of Pure Land along with his "no self" agnosticism). Kipling "sold" a positive picture of India and its two-way relationship with "Blighty" that greatly influenced later events an perceptions of both right and left.

Too bad he embraced the rich and powerful so whole-heartedly - (as did WB Yeats at a similar time in a similar way) and so lost his clear poetic vision.

Rather than take on the task of fighting germany - he might have wrtiten a sequel - in which O'Hara had to contemplate the foundations for the glamourisation of the struggle between the European powers - questioned the disruptive influence of the Entente Cordial (all the dangers of a treaty and none of the mutual benefits) and why exactly Britain had to be a continental power with a land-army (responsible for the defense of France and Belgium but with no say in the methods) when it had plenty to do across the oceans.

Kipling painted a picture of the glamour and cultural richness of India - and of great-power conflict. He knew a lot more about the first than the last - sadly because of his authentic voice on Asia folk took heed of him over Europe.

He is one a few people who almost completely discounted a great cultural good with a massive social evil. The pen was mightier than the sword and it was correctly said that at that time the word of Kipling was more eagerly listened to than the words of all but a few heads of state. He lost his own son to the multinational meatgrinder that he and a few "war-glamourisers" wound into action - implying that the whole thing might be more fun than driving a desk in Finchley - he encouraged the French to think they could use the British to gain hegemony in Europe - based on the sound prediction that the Rosbifs would leave when the bloodletting was over.

I adore this man and abhor him - I want to grab hold of him after this book (1901) and send him back to India. You don't understand the Twentieth century if you don't read this book - from the Somme to TE Lawrence to Woodstock to the rise of Mandela is the story of folk who read this book and/or felt its influence. Only the Beatles can compete - but only because they too were influenced. Kipling as colonial taught generations to identify with the locals - thusd fueling de-colonialisation - into the hands of the very "Babu-Class" that he distrusted. They were not like his "Babu". Hurree - they were "in a hurry"!

If only the Neo-cons had both read it and understood its mixed influence and implications. The whole Iraq fiasco could be described as "insufficient Kim".