Journal Entry 1 by katayoun from Tehran, Tehran Iran on Friday, September 09, 2005

from
Amazon.com
One of the particular pleasures of reading Kim is the full range of emotion, knowledge, and experience that Rudyard Kipling gives his complex hero. Kim O'Hara, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier stationed in India, is neither innocent nor victimized. Raised by an opium-addicted half-caste woman since his equally dissolute father's death, the boy has grown up in the streets of Lahore:
Though he was burned black as any native; though he spoke the vernacular by preference, and his mother-tongue in a clipped uncertain sing-song; though he consorted on terms of perfect equality with the small boys of the bazar; Kim was white--a poor white of the very poorest.
From his father and the woman who raised him, Kim has come to believe that a great destiny awaits him. The details, however, are a bit fuzzy, consisting as they do of the woman's addled prophecies of "'a great Red Bull on a green field, and the Colonel riding on his tall horse, yes, and'--dropping into English--'nine hundred devils.'"
In the meantime, Kim amuses himself with intrigues, executing "commissions by night on the crowded housetops for sleek and shiny young men of fashion." His peculiar heritage as a white child gone native, combined with his "love of the game for its own sake," makes him uniquely suited for a bigger game. And when, at last, the long-awaited colonel comes along, Kim is recruited as a spy in Britain's struggle to maintain its colonial grip on India. Kipling was, first and foremost, a man of his time; born and raised in India in the 19th century, he was a fervid supporter of the Raj. Nevertheless, his portrait of India and its people is remarkably sympathetic. Yes, there is the stereotypical Westernized Indian Babu Huree Chander with his atrocious English, but there is also Kim's friend and mentor, the Afghani horse trader Mahub Ali, and the gentle Tibetan lama with whom Kim travels along the Grand Trunk Road. The humanity of his characters consistently belies Kipling's private prejudices, and raises Kim above the mere ripping good yarn to the level of a timeless classic. --Alix Wilber
 

Journal Entry 2 by katayoun from Tehran, Tehran Iran on Monday, October 03, 2005

reserved for perfect-circle as part of the "International Reverse Wish List" relay .
 

Journal Entry 3 by katayoun from Tehran, Tehran Iran on Monday, October 03, 2005

reserved for gypsyrose02 as part of the "Christian Names" relay.

 

Journal Entry 4 by katayoun at Bookrelay in Bookrelay, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Released 6 yrs ago (10/5/2005 UTC) at Bookrelay in Bookrelay, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

and off gypsyrose02, hope it's enjoyed! 

Journal Entry 5 by gypsyrose02 from Byford, Western Australia Australia on Saturday, October 22, 2005

arrived today. thankyou so much! 

Journal Entry 6 by gypsyrose02 from Byford, Western Australia Australia on Tuesday, November 27, 2007

reserved for tqd 

Journal Entry 7 by gypsyrose02 from Byford, Western Australia Australia on Wednesday, January 02, 2008

on its way to TQD 

Journal Entry 8 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Monday, January 07, 2008

Thanks gypsyrose02, this one turned up in the mail today, on the last day of my summer holidays. Back to work tomorrow, *sigh*... 

Journal Entry 9 by tqd at Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Monday, September 12, 2011

Kim, full name Kimball O'Hara, is a young boy of Irish parentage who was orphaned in India in the 19th century. He's bright and clever, so survives as a street urchin for a while, before he runs into a naive Tibetan monk, Teshoo Lama, who has come down from his monastery to search for a sacred river. Kim becomes his cheli, or disciple, and navigates the monk through the maze of Indian customs and society, while the monk takes care of Kim.

Kim also finds the protection of a Muslim horse trader, Mahbub Ali; a Catholic priest, Father Victor; and an obese Hindi master of disguise, The Babu. All together, they conspire to have him educated as a white boy in an English school in India; but on his summer holidays he returns to his Indian habits and travels as a native, having his own adventures.

Much like The Jungle Book, I did find the "thee" and "thou" language stilted, but I think I picked up this time around the Kipling world that it's his way of translating different forms of "you" from Hindi into English. I also discovered I knew nothing about the story (unlike The Jungle Book where everyone knows the basic characters, thank you Disney), so that meant a good fun read without any expectations.

Funnily enough, considering the amount of stuff that happened in this book, it was strangely lacking in plot. There was no big climax or anything, but it's a wonderful journey through India, and I loved all the characters. This is probably one of Kipling's more "colonial" books (the English are definitely the good guys, although the characters are almost all native), and there's a great sense of the love he had for India. Although, as a modern reader, the strange emphasis on "native" vs "white" jarred a bit. There's no denying he loved India and all its people, but he was definitely part of a white minority in the country.

I do have to say that Kim is one of my favourite literary characters of this year. He's cheeky, smart, endlessly inventive, always cheerful, and (apparently) rather handsome as a grown up. I think I'm a bit too old for him, so I wish I'd read this when I was younger so I could have fallen properly in love with him. 

Journal Entry 10 by tqd at Crown Hotel, Elizabeth St in Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Released 3 mos ago (2/14/2012 UTC) at Crown Hotel, Elizabeth St in Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Releasing at BookDrinks tonight.

Happy hunting/reading!