Kim by Rudyard Kipling
I am not listing these books in the order I am reading them, I have a list of what I've read/listened to so far, which I peruse and then write about the one that I feel like.
This week it's another audio book. I use audio books a lot because I get to know some great books but can knit at the same time - win/win.
I am sure that I read Kim as a teen, I know I saw the film, but I am sure I read it but maybe I never finished it, because I was very dissatisfied with how it ends. It's a kind of nothing end - it builds up the spying nature of Kim's life and then fizzles out like a damp squib.The reading by Adrian Praetzellis was excellent, great characterisation again and there were portions of the book that I loved and was totally enthralled by. There were characters that I really enjoyed too - but the Llama drove me demented and IMHO way too much of the story was taken up with his speech and religious ideals. I understand it emphasised the whole 'enlightment' theme but there was just too much. You do get a great sense of time and place from the story telling and it has a wonderful alien feel to it but I just felt the story of Kim needed more depth and the whole book needed more Mahbub Ali and Lurgan Sahib.
Considering that Kipling spent time just down the road in Rottingdean and his name appears on quite a few local roads and the school just round the corner I haven't read that much of his. A few poems and The Just So Stories, which I loved from childhood to re-reading them more than once to J, I don't know if Kim is a good example of his longer works but it hasn't inspired to read more of his catalogue. Is that sacrilege?
No comments:
Post a Comment