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. 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. 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. 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. 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. I've been told that Kipling is the "poster boy" supporting colonialism, as well as racist so I started this book with some trepidation. I'd never read Kim or, in fact, anything by Rudyard Kipling before.
Sadly for me, all of the amazing detail is squandered and the story transforms from being realistic to impressionistic. These are his heart's treasures and he wished to share that with others. You can tell this is a work of love and Kipling loved India and his boyhood there. The impact of the dead slang (much of the dialog) combined with all of the nod, nod, wink, wink, nudge, nudge implications and cultural assumptions means that many interactions went over my head. The many end-notes are essential but break the story's flow. I can step into Chaucer or Shakespeare and, after a bit, my mind kicks over and I don't have to mentally translate. Face it - like Lord of the Rings, this is a story of people just walking.Colloquial language made the story valuable to its contemporaries and brings out the characters, but kills it for modern readers. This vividness maintains the high sense of motion, even though most of the novel had very little real action. Some will find the characters overdone, others will find the color highly pleasing. Others may have a similar take.This book is well-written and the characters are vividly created. This is a more personal review rather than a larger overview of the work.
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