Kim: Level 4

Kim is another of those books that comes with a great deal of baggage: some of it reasonable, some not. It would be great to be able to say simply "this is a great adventure story" and enjoy it on its own terms, but I think the reader has to be aware of at least some of the assumptions Kipling is asking us to make about the world. Penguin clearly don't want us to enjoy the book at all, as their Penguin Modern Classics edition comes with a rather depressing introductory essay and some tediously pedantic notes by the late Edward Said.Is it a great spy story? I don't think so - although I heard Dame Stella Rimington, who may be presumed to know a thing or two about spying in India, talking it up as such on the BBC the other day. Whilst Kim's training with Lurgan Sahib is plausible, Kim's big success against the French and Russian agents is a direct consequence of their incompetence - if they'd taken any sensible precautions against counter-espionage at all, Kim and his friends would never have been able to foil their dastardly plans. Some of the tradecraft Kim is taught seems a bit suspect too - what intelligence organisation would be daft enough to give all of its agents a common recognition signal? One traitor would be enough to blow the whole organisation.Is it a handbook for military adventures on the North-West frontier? If that's how it is being used, it might explain the current lack of progress of NATO forces in Afghanistan. Anyone who's read Peter Hopkirk's books knows that by the time Kim was written, the danger of Russian incursions into India and Afghanistan, if it ever existed, was long past. There was, as there always has been, unrest among some of the Muslim communities in the area, but Kipling doesn't tell us anything about that. Kipling's view of the Great Game is a fantasy, and probably has more to do with the costly and unsuccessful colonial war of the moment (South Africa) than with India.Is it a primer in basic Buddhism? Probably not. There is no coherent explanation of what Buddhists actually believe, or why. We do get glimpses of the way the lama's religious beliefs help him to deal with concrete situations, but we are led to attribute his qualities to his own strength of character, as much as to his Buddhism. He is really a kind of generic holy man - he would be just as plausible if he were a Baptist or a Benedictine.Is it imperialist? Yes, of course it is. Kipling was firmly convinced that it was the duty of the British to run India, because he felt that they could do a better job than anyone else. This was a minority view (especially in Britain itself), but it was considered a perfectly respectable political standpoint at the time, and Kipling at least had some experience of the realities of colonial India from his time as a journalist. Said is right, of course, to draw attention to the way that Kipling selectively shows us Indians who support the British Raj, and ignores other viewpoints.Is it racist? Certainly, although the passages Said draws attention to are mostly just evidence of a failure to distinguish between racial and cultural characteristics, which is common to most writers of the period. Kipling compensates for this laziness to a large extent by the way the two most important Indian characters, Mahbub Ali and the Babu, are drawn as individuals who transcend racial stereotypes (in fact, both of them are conscious of the way Europeans stereotype them, and exploit this perception for their own ends). However, in the case of Kim, we have someone who as grown up to all intents and purposes in an Indian cultural environment, having lost his European parents at a very young age, but who nevertheless has a special destiny because of his racial origins. I don't think we can absolve Kipling of racism on this point: on the other hand, it is an assumption Kipling pushes so far into the foreground that I don't see how any modern reader of the book could fail to be conscious of it: it's simply a point that we have to accept as one of the underlying assumptions of the book. Is it a great novel? Yes, of course! Kipling wasn't very successful with the novel in general, but this is the one place where he produced a full length novel that can stand up with the best of them. Interestingly, Said chooses to compare Kim side-by-side not with other adventure stories, but with Hardy's Jude the obscure, making the point that most novels of the period were about frustrated hopes and ambitions, but that the freedom of movement offered by a colonial setting allowed Kipling to write a novel about possibilities seized and opportunities exploited. Hardy can be put side-by-side with Kipling in other ways too: both were fascinated by the voices of ordinary working people, and produced rich, if idealised, views of traditional societies confronted by the modern age. You can certainly imagine Mahbub Ali the horse trader doing business with Michael Henchard the corn merchant. It's probably not a huge exaggeration to say that Hardy's rural Wessex would have been as remote and exotic as Kipling's India to the average urban middle-class reader in 1901.

Kim is an orphaned boy living on the streets of Lahore. When he meets a Buddhist monk who is on a quest to find a healing river, Kim joins the lama as his student and friend. Together they travel, learn lessons, and have adventures. I enjoyed watching Kim grow up in this story, and enjoyed the colorful descriptions of the people Kim and the lama met. However, I’m still trying to figure out what the deeper meaning of this story is. Perhaps time will help.

I'm hard put to explain why I like this novel so much, except that it makes India come alive to me. The travellers on the road, the men of the Hills, the Lama and all the other characters live and breathe.

I missed Kim when I was reading Kipling as a kid. I really like this, part spy and adventure story, part spiritual quest. There is something soothing about how Kipling writes, and he writes such great and real characters, full of flaws and charm.

My first Kipling since "The Jungle Book" so many years ago, and not at all what I was expected. As a child, I adored "The Jungle Book", but as an adult I put Kipling firmly into the imperialist/racist category, and expected his work to be mostly imperialist blather. It's not that at all; what really stands out in "Kim", as many other reviewers have noted, is Kipling's passion for India with all its kaleidoscope of peoples, religions, languages, and everything else. A lot of it, of course, does sound imperialist to a 21rst century ear. "Kim" appeared in 1901, and he doesn't question the right of the "sahibs" to rule India. But in the context of the time, some of his attitudes seem remarkably non-imperialist. Some of the least sympathetic characters in the book are British, including a Church of England minister, who, upon meeting Tibetan holy man "looked at him with the triple-ringed uninterest of the creed that lumps nine-tenths of the world under the title 'heathen' " Kipling is not "uninterested" in anything about India; he revels in it in what one reviewer termed "Orientalism". That's a fair criticism, but I don't think that it means that one should forego Kipling. I will certainly read more, after having read "Kim".

This is my dad's favorite book and he has been telling me to read this one for years. I loved the relationship aspect of this story. Kim's attachment to the Lama and vice-versa is truly inspiring. I also loved Kim's resourcefulness, he takes any situation and comes out on top. I understand now why my dad has to go back every few years to read it.

I didn't like Kim in balance. It has its attractions: the rich detail of Indian culture, the search for identity and opposing forces which create a fine balance along many axis, the quest story both religious and secular, the exoticism and beauty, the child-like sense of wonderment. But the Orientalism, racism and subtle homoeroticism just killed it for me, there were parts that just made me cringe and want to take a shower. As Orwell said in 1942, Kipling is a paradox: "During five literary generations, every enlightened person has despised him, and at the end of that time nine-tenths of those enlightened persons are forgotten and Kipling is in some sense still there." That might be a harsh judgment and with time my feelings will probably mellow.

This is a book I read many years ago and enjoyed, and I think being a teenager helped my enjoyment. Re-reading as an adult, and with more knowledge of the world changes my view a bit, though a lot of the issues I had were more to do with the era of the book rather than the actual story itself.Yes there are very few female characters of note. Yes it's a time when the British Raj were in charge in India and one of their major issues was the possible incursion of Russia or France (or Russia and France) from Afghanistan. But still this story of an Irish orphan being trained to do work for the powers that be as part of the Great Game played by people in order to manage the country. His ability to be different people helps the situation immensely. I must say that as a kid I enjoyed the adventure but now I enjoyed the details and having just read the Skull Mantra the difference in acceptance of Tibetan monks and the casual way in which the imperial system is accepted as being for the "betterment" of the "natives" is an interesting look into the past.

I have always known Rudyard Kipling more by reputation than reading, so I have enjoyed recently getting into his material first-hand. I know Kipling is a wonderful word-smith, but I wasn't as sure of his capacity to write enduring fiction. I found "Kim" to be a great read. The first third of the book is a particular treat; the characters of Kim and the Lama are well drawn, and the sub-continental background is lovingly painted with rich detail of people and places. Parts of the rest of the book seem to have been more of a grind for the author - the pace varies, almost as if the plot had to be grafted on to this wonderful character he had created. Kipling has the contemporary reputation as an arch imperialist, but there are few jarring moments in this book. The people and the energy of the interactions are drawn with generous affection, with no condescension. Read in e-format August 2013.

Kipling's classic tale of the orphaned son of an Irish soldier growing up on the streets of Colonial India and discovering his natural talent as a spy.Between the somewhat old-fashioned language and the many, many unfamiliar cultural references, I fear that parts of this may have gone past me a bit, but I enjoyed it a great deal, anyway. There's a wonderfully subtle sense of humor to it, and an equally wonderful sense of the vibrancy and diversity of the Indian landscape and culture. And the sly, savvy Kim is a terrific character, as are many of the people he shares his adventures with.

 Enchanting, well crafted tale of a lively, Indian life.

I loved the characters in this book. As much as I liked this story and the characters I can’t help but remember that one person’s heroes are the other person’s terrorists esp. in times of political and national struggle. Kipling glorifies English occupation of India and even though he has a lot of sympathy for Indian people and a lot of knowledge of Indian castes, ethnicities, religions and customs one has to remember that the English were the invaders and the Great Game was designed to keep everybody in their place. Having said that, I did not care so much about the plot and the intrigue but really fell in love with Kim and the Lama and their friendship. All the other characters and especially Mahboob Ali, Huree Babu as well as the blind prostitute turned body artist were absolutely exquisite as well. I had not read Kipling before and did not realize what good storyteller he was.

Kim is an orphaned Irish boy, who has grown up under the care of an Indian woman. He's lived in the streets all his life, running amok just as the other Indian boys do, with little knowledge or care that he is white. When he meets a holy man, a lama on a quest to achieve enlightenment by bathing in a certain river, he is fascinated and decides to become the lama's apprentice. Together, as they walk the roads of India and meet many people, Kim also gets himself wrapped up in British espionage. This was a fun little romp that very much reminded me of the many adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, except on the roads of India instead of the riverside of the South. I don't know nearly enough about the intricate nature of India's many cultures to know where Kipling got it right and where he screwed it. Since Kipling grew up in India himself, it makes sense that he drew on his own experiences while writing. I'm sure there's a certain amount of Orientalizing and stereotyping going on, but not how much. In his favor though, Kipling seems to present most of the characters in multiple layers and to treat much of the events as entirely normal, while most Westerners would consider them strange. In some cases, he also flips to show how Indians and the lama are perceived through the white man's lens. For example, the lama, who is seen as a holy man to all the native peoples around him, is seen as just another dirty beggar to the white men. However, the fact remains that the British are clearly the good guys and colonialism is presented as, if not a good thing, then at least not a problem. Also, whenever "magic" came into play within the story, I kind of cringed a bit as it seemed to be the greatest indication of stereotyping the "mysterious and magical East".There are also some spiritual aspects to the book, as presented through the lama and his peaceful quest. He teaches Kim about the wheel of life and how everyone is tied to the wheel, how the body is illusion and he wishes to escape from illusion. This is mixed with the assemblage of Hindu and Muslim people and customs they meet along the road, all of which is very interesting (though again, I can't properly judge how much is accurate). On the whole, I enjoyed it quite a bit from an adventure standpoint with some reservations in regards to other aspects.

Kim is a tale of spies and espionage, which I normally love, but I found the English vernacular difficult to follow and I think over-the-top, which made it a bit of a chore to read rather than pure enjoyment. The story itself is exciting and I did enjoy Kipling's passion for India, where he was born and raised, and its people. In this novel, he truly celebrates the rich diversity, sights, sounds and flavors of the country.

This book is pure fun. And not racist! I was pretty worried it was gonna be racist, but Kipling shows pretty much equal disdain to every ethnic group, referring to whites contemptuously as "the creed that lumps nine-tenths of the world under the title of 'heathen'" (88).

I'm giving it four stars for now because, I dunno, I guess it doesn't feel quite as Important as some of the other books I've been reading recently. But that might change. It's a perfectly crafted adventure novel, and that ain't nothing to sneeze at.

If you can find an edition with a map, go for that. I would have liked one.

You know those books that you know from the very first page, you’re going to love it… this wasn’t that. You know those other books that start out slow and it takes you awhile, but soon you find yourself hooked? Nope, this was not one of those either. In fact, I made it through the entire book without every really feeling invested in any way, shape or form. I persevered only because I started it a few months ago and gave it up, then restarted it, convinced I’d get through it. It’s one of Kipling’s most lauded books and it’s on a million must read lists and there’s got to be something else there. But in the end it just didn’t work for me. A young Irish boy, Kim, is orphaned in India during the 19th century. He becomes a disciple of a Tibetan Lama, Teshoo Lama, and travels with him on his quest. Eventually a British regiment takes him under their wing and enrolls him in an English school. They decide to groom him to become a spy. I loved some of Kipling’s short stories (The Jungle Book, etc.), but this one left me feeling cold. It’s suppose to be a “spy” novel in some way, but instead of having any solid plot it meanders and muses about life. It felt both boring and tiresome and I couldn't help but wonder why we were suppose to care about what happened to Kim. I know I should have more to say about this book, but honestly, I was just glad to be done with it. If anyone loved this book I would be thrilled to hear why.  

One of the most beautiful tales of friendship I have ever read, Kim is much more. Rudyard Kipling created in Kim a novel in the mold of the classic heroic journey that has a pedigree reaching back to Gilgamesh and the Odyssey. With Kim, a young white boy, sahib, at it's center and his friend and mentor the Lama, we see the world of India in the nineteenth century as it is ruled by Great Britain. Kipling raises questions of identity (Who is Kim?), culture, spirituality and the nature of fate. Most of all he depicts the growth of a young man through his quest to find his destiny and the bond that develops between Kim as 'chela' or disciple and his Lama. The greatness of this novel lies in Kipling's ability to combine all of these themes with a natural style that conveys the richness both of the lives of Kim and his friends and the fecundity of life in India. One of the most enduring images for me was the close tie Kim has with the land itself. This is shown several times throughout the novel culminating in his final renewal when he is stretched out on the earth near the end of the novel. The epic quest is successful as this novel unfolds a positive and uplifting narrative.

Adrian Praetzellis did a marvellous job with the narration, especially the various Indian accents.

Kim is a story of a young street beggar who becomes involved in the international intrique surrounding England's control of India. Nicknamed, "Friend of all the world," Kim is charming, savvy, resourceful, and smart. As a street beggar he can slip in and out of nearly any environment without attracting attention. Ignored by those with power and importance, he makes the perfect spy—and he loves the game.

This book has everything: adventure, mystery, even spirituality. One of the subplots involves Kim's relationship with a Tibetan holy man who is seeking a legendary arrow that will lead to enlightenment and salvation. The intertwining of the transcendent spirituality with the gritty reality of Indian street life is handled perfectly by Kipling. It's a beautiful book that is fun, fun, fun on every page.

I've struggled for a long time to make up my mind about this book, and I think I'll struggle on for a while longer too. Is it rank British Imperialism? Or a sweetly bitter tale of a boy's coming of age? It's hard to tell; the description of India is romantic and evocative enough to make the journey intriguing though, if nothing else.

I have just read Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim and am in awe of it.My mother had suggested a few times that I read it and so, of course, I didn’t. This was a triumph of stubbornness over experience. My mother has a few intellectual quirks (Mets fan?) but has never, ever steered me wrong in a book recommendation.*Prior to reading Kim, all I knew of Kipling was 1. he wrote the wonderful Just So Stories 2. his reputation as a stuffy defender of the British Empire 3. and is author of one a great poem about the plight of forgotten veterans, The Last of the Light Brigade. There were thirty million English who talked of England’s might, There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night. They had neither food nor money, the had neither service nor trade; They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.None of which prepared me for Kim.It is the story of an orphaned son of a British soldier, Kim, who has spent his early childhood as a beggar in the Indian city of Lahore. As a result he is both of Britain and of India in a very deep way. He comes into the service of both a Tibetan Lama and the British Secret Service. (If you need it there’s a very good plot summary here. ) The rest of the book concerns the adventures that come about as a result of this. And Moby Dick is a guide to whales.While it has a wonderful adventure story as its frame, Kim is a book about reconciling the spiritual and the physical. It also has an wondrous story of the love between Kim and the Lama who becomes, in essence, his adopted grandfather.For the most part the spiritual is shown in the people of Asia and India. One of the many things that makes Kim an exceptional story is that the indigenous people are rendered as complete human beings. They are not what my friend Steven calls “magical black people” who are only in the story to educate or help the white folks. (Steven is African-American so he uses another word instead of “black people.” He gets to do that.) If you would like an example of the Magical Black Person genre see the movies The Legend Of Bagger Vance, Driving Miss Daisy, Bruce Almighty and on and on and on…Nor are all the Asians and Indians “spiritually minded.” Many, like the spy and horse trader Mahbub Ali, are as pragmatic and skeptical as anyone from the world of the British ruling class. On the other side, the spy Lurgan – a Brit – is an adept of the mysteries and wonders of Asian and Indian non-rationalist thought.The Brits are not denied a spiritual life nor is the Christian tradition denigrated. It is just presented as alien to and useless in India and related lands. Although the Christian belief system is respected, the clergy are not. There is some very fair lampooning of one minister but he is ridiculed for being closed minded not for what he believes in per se.Both British and Asian cultures are portrayed as less-than perfect but with each is also shown to have their own distinct and separate strengths. These can crudely be called the mechanical vs. the magical. Kipling neither faults nor exults one over the other. His chief criticism of both is their inability to appreciate and tap into each other. This is what makes Kim’s development into their synthesis so emotionally powerful.All that said, make no doubt that Kim is a racist novel. Its racism is sometimes subtle and sometimes blatant. The edition I read (Penguin Classics) includes a fine essay by Edward Said that does an excellent job of highlighting that racism and placing it in context without forgiving it or explaining it away. As Said points out the subtle racism can only be understood by what is left out of Kim. Although the Indian and Asian characters are full people not one even considers that they should not be ruled by the British. The more obvious moments of racism involve references to stereotypical “Eastern” behaviors and ways of doing things. In fact these references are so at odds with the rest of the novel that they stand out and interrupt the rest of the story.Without giving Kipling a pass for his racism, it is worth noting that the most truly egregious stereotypes are reserved for other Europeans. A French secret agent is vaguely effeminate and totally condescending toward everyone else. His Russian partner is stupid and brutally ruthless. Neither is particularly clean. As neither France or Russia were subjected to colonization these stereotypes do not bother me in the least.One of the tremendous accomplishments of this novel is that it forced me to accept, question and consider how a work of art could be both racist and essential at the same time. In the case of Kim it pulls this off by never letting us forget that nearly everyone in it is a human being, even while it refuses to consider any challenges to the author’s status quo.For me Kim ultimately is about the effort to reconcile the power and significance of the unseen and unknowable with the power and significance of the mundane. What makes it so successful is that it offers no conclusions on the topic. When the Teshoo Lama finally stumbles upon the river that he has been searching for – one whose waters will cleanse his karma — it is left up to you to decide whether it is “The River” or a stream or both.*Currently reading her copy of Karen Armstrong’s Short History of Myth. I will be returning it to her because half-way through I decided I had to own a copy. So there.

Few characters in literature will capture your heart the way the 13-year-old imp Kim will. Few literary relationships will move you as much as the one that springs up between the Irish-Indian imp and the Buddhist Lama. In three days, the old Lama's heart goes out to his chela (disciple) for his courtesy, charity and wisdom of his little years. So did mine. Kipling's love for India, its people, its customs and traditions, its riches and its poverty shines through in this novel. There is humor, pathos, love and mischief. And plenty of adventure. India's Grand Trunk Road, a river of life, is like Huck Finn's Mississippi River. Kim is a descendant of Huck. And from Kim comes the delightful Hindustaniwallah Hatterr (G V Desani's hero) and Saleem Sinai (Midnight's Children). A real masterpiece.

In many ways I think this is the perfect book. First of all, who can resist Kim, himself? A Sahib street-child turned servant to a holy man and at the same time a player in the international intrigue of India in the 1800s, with a lama, a horse trader, a physician/magician, and an entire British regiment as his friends. Politics, spirituality, acceptance, wisdom from all sources......it was just a pleasure to read this book!

While it is not politically correct, this book is a wonderful story of adventure, spirituality and coming-of-age set against Kipling's backdrop of India. I always enjoy it each time I re-read it.

I'd never read Kim or, in fact, anything by Rudyard Kipling before. I've been told that Kipling is the "poster boy" supporting colonialism, as well as racist so I started this book with some trepidation. It would be nice to be able to say simply "this is a story of a great quest" and enjoy it on its own terms, but I think we have to be aware of at least some of the assumptions Kipling is asking us to make about the world. While I noted some references that are clearly racist (especially by today's standards), I could live with those because most major characters, of all races, were presented as multi-dimensional human beings. What was harder for me to accept is the way the author, and his characters, refuse to consider any challenges to the status quo of colonialism. In Kim himself, we have someone who has grown up in an Indian cultural environment, having lost his European parents at a very young age, but who nevertheless has a special destiny because of his racial origins. I don't think we can absolve Kipling of racism on this point.The debate on whether to continue to read Kipling has a parallel in today's debate over the naming of schools after our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. As Senator Murray Sinclair said in a CBC Radio interview, I think it is important to understand and learn from history. That is why we must read Kim as a product of its time, not as a product of today. That is why it is better to use Kim (and Kipling) as a launching pad for discussion of our history and how it influences our present rather than hiding them in a dark closet. I enjoyed Kim as a character. His character is pulled in opposite directions which parallels the broader geopolitical situation around him. But as a story, Kim was, at best, adequate. The part of the book dealing with espionage was juvenile. I strongly preferred the part dealing with Kim's relationship and quest with the lama.Mr. Kipling's writes well; his descriptions are fantastic, and I really felt like I was on the train with Kim and the lama.On balance, there are good points: the writing, the rich detail of Indian culture, Kim himself and his search for his identity, the quest story. There are also bad points: the colonialism for sure, and the plot, especially the spy story, left something to be desired.

I hoped the longer I read this, the easier it would become. You know once I got a feel for the writing style, well that never happened for me. Half the time I wasn’t sure who was talking to whom or even what they were talking about. I think I should have just watched Errol Flynn in the movie

A grand adventure, good reading about Colonialism and India.

This is a magnificent book that needs to be listened to in audio book form so as to get the real flavor.This edition has for the reader:Ralph Cosham; excellent!!!5 Stars.

An adventurous buddy/road tale set in the teeming infinitude of colonial India. I was worried about it being ruined by Kipling’s colonialist paternalism, but it seems like, while in his head he was an imperialist, his heart was with the colonized. Beautifully and expansively told and described.

My first book of 2014! This was 3.5 stars. So. Kim is an orphan who has survived quite well on the streets of Lahore. He ends up a disciple to a kindly old Tibetan lama who is on a spiritual quest to find the river that will cleanse him of his sins. HOWEVER, Kim is also friends with a Muslim horse trader who also happens to be a spy for the British and he recruits Kim to do some work for him which eventually results in Kim's true Sahib-ness being discovered -- Kim is actually Kimball O'Hara. Kim is sent away to a school for English boys (paid for by his lama) and the British decide to use Kim's street smarts and natural intelligence to become an agent in The Great Game. Which sounds way more exciting than what it actually is -- some kind of beef between England and Russia for domination in Central Asia. Oh, imperialism. Kim goes on many adventures along India and meets lots of people, thus making Kim notable for its diverse portrait of the people, culture, regions, and religions of India. Which would be wonderful except that I am an ignorant dummy: I have some basic and hazy concepts of Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Bengalis, Jains, people from the hill vs. the plains, Lahore vs. Bombay, etc. but I think I missed some of those nuances that, in part, makes the book so enjoyable. I really did like Kim: he was smart, loyal, and endearingly lovely to and protective of his lama. Reading about a teenager being kind and respectful to an elderly person is a nice change, even if it's only fiction. Kim is not exactly introspective, but he definitely changes over the course of the novel -- he starts off as a street smart, independent 13 year old orphan living on the streets and ends the novel as a 17 year old British spy with a father figure who loves and cares for him. Oh, and I also love Hurree and Muhbub Ali. Happy endings!