|
Rating:  - Kim by Kipling: the touchstone for 200 years of spy novels
Kipling's KIM is perhaps the best spy novel of the last 200 years. It is strikingly contemporary in its portrayal of the dark and dirty side of the spy game, its robust understanding of India, and its honest respect for the myriad ethnic differences of that complex nation. The darker works of John le Carre such as THE SPY WHO CAME IN FORM THE COLD come close to matching the weltshmertz but not the grit and sophistication of Kipling's presentation of the Great Game as it was played in India. KIM paints a world in which no one can be trusted and any, even children, may be sacrificed to advance government policy.
The reader would do well to do a little research into the Great Game, the first Cold War, an espionage battle between Britain and Imperial Russia between the early 1800s and the Russian Revolution (and in fact, until India's independence in 1947). Generations of British spies earned their bones in the Great Game, and the lessons they learned shaped British intelligence through the Cold War. Many have tried to convey the utter creepiness of espionage at the street level. No one succeeds like Kipling.
Rating:  - KIM by Rudyard Kipling
Kim is Rudyard Kipling's novel about a white orphan, Kimball O'Hara, in India. It was first published in 1901, and is often considered to be Kipling's best novel. In the novel, Kim befriends a Tibetan Lama and becomes his disciple. Later, the British force him to attend a British school. Afterward, he rejoins the Lama, and becomes involved in political intrigue between Britain and Russia.
Kim is noteworthy for Kipling's lush depictions of India, its people, its culture, and its religions. In spite of everything that goes on in this novel, there's no real plot - it's just Kim's wanderings around India. And this is the vehicle Kipling uses to celebrate India. This is well and good, but it isn't all that interesting. The story loses quite a lot of steam after Kim gets into British custody. Perhaps the story holds more allure for those of us who have not been to India (I have, several times).
Ultimately, this is about as good a portrayal of India as you can find in a novel. That is what this book should be read for, not its story.
Rating: - A spiritual journey
This was Kipling's only full-length novel. For it he was reviled, during his lifetime, both as an imperialist and as an Indian-independence sympathizer. In truth, the novel reflects Kipling's own experience - first as child abandoned by his parents while they went to India, then as a treasured child upon whom all the love and attention of the Indian Ayahs (nannies) was showered, when his parents returned and took him to India to live.
Actually, there are three aspects or themes of the story, reflecting the different phases of Kipling's life in India: first, as an army orphan, abandoned by those who were set to watch over him; second, as a participant inducted into the "Great Game" - the unseen, silent war of espionage between the British and the 19th century Russian Empire; third, as a spiritual journey as the boy, Kim, becoming a man, follows a Tibetan monk in search of a river that cleanses the soul.
The way in which Kipling weaves these three themes together is quite unparalleled in modern literature. There are points where the writing verges on sublime. Also, in the context of the two recent conflicts in Afghanistan, the story contains much pertinent historical context. I know of no other novel quite like it.
Rating: - unforgettable
This is one of those books that, even if you read then at an early age, you'll always remember with tenderness. It has adventure, fun, suspense; it makes you think about life and people in different parts of the world. When I first read it - I was sixteen - I wanted to go to India and see all those places and villages. I read it until today with the same pleasure.
page 1 of 1
|
Copyright © 2003-2008 Gunnar Bengtsson, Poetry Connection. All Rights Reserved.