kim

I don't think I've read Rudyard Kipling since I was a teen; that was probably Captains Courageous. A quick look at the Books page here on the blog tells me I'm wrong; I read The Jungle Book; Just So Stories in 2010, but didn't write about it. Anyway, I guess you could compare Kim with The Jungle Book, in that it focuses on a young man or boy in India. In both stories the boy has 'gone native' and ends up moving toward a more civilized (less wild) life as a young man. Perhaps its a parable on how we all grow: from a life of play and fantasy as a child, to the norms of society as an adult.

Perhaps they're just boy's adventure stories.

Kipling was born in India during the British rule (1865) but was sent back to England as a 6 year old for his education. He returned to India at 17, and worked there as a journalist and poet until he returned to London as a well known author at 24. So he spent some formative years in India, and you can see why he focused some of his well known stories on young men in India.

Kim (Kimball O'Hara) spends his early life as a street urchin, begging for his meals, and doing odd jobs where he can get the work. His street savvy has caught the attention of a horse dealer, who keeps his eye on the young Sahib, living as a local, and speaking to vernacular.

The story takes place over a number of years (roughly 1898 to 1902) and across a huge swath of India, from the Himalayas and Umballa (Ambala) down through New Delhi and Lucknow, to Benares (what is now Varanasi.) By train, and often on foot, either on an errand for the horse trader, or in the company of a Tibetan lama, whom he adopts and becomes a chela (guide) for in the lama's quest. In time, the lama, the horse trader, even a wealthy widow with her own children and grandchildren, become a kind of family to Kim who has lost his own family. They help him find purpose, education, and an connection to his lost European roots while allowing him to remain true to his 'street' self when he needs to. In the end, Kim even finds wisdom.

There is more to it than that, including a cloak and dagger theme that runs through the book, that I wont get into. I was a little surprised by it, but it gave the story I depth I wasn't expecting when I got into it.

Read this book.