Classics Narrated

It's been a week or so since I recorded the last chapter, so all I wanted to do was set down a few thoughts that may not be commonplace. The touchstone for this is the most recent novel in the great Tony Hillerman's Indian Country mysteries, "The Shape Shifter." (SPOILER WARNING!) Writing about a hundred years after Kipling, he turns the story inside out. Of course, the comparison between these two may be only coincidental. In Kim, the student or orphan/protege is white, and a master of disguise; he is educated, and even brought to salvation and holiness, by his mentor, the Tibetan Teshoo Lama. In Hillerman's "The Shape Shifter," the mentor is a white American psychopathic serial killer, who fancies himself a predator, and ordinary people nothing more than sheep to feed on. His southeast-Asian orphan/protege is trained only to cook and clean, being too decent to exploit others routinely. Justice, in the end, is meted out by people of color. That's really something both books share, and the reason Kipling's story goes beyond mere jingoistic "Rule Brittania" blather, though traces of it coming from the Indian characters do occur in the book, and may be wishful thinking on his part. In the end, the love the characters feel for each other, beautifully shown in action (the Sahiba, Teshoo Lama, Kim) and restraint (Mahbub Ali), pushes the issues of color, creed, and caste completely off stage.

Conclusion: Kim and the lama return to the plains, both ill. Rest and healing at the house of the virtuous (and garrulous) old woman of Kulu. The lama and Mahbub discuss Kim's future, and the transfigured lama brings Kim to the end of the Search.

After crisis, the Lama and Kim are welcomed in a small mountain village. There the lama teaches, meditates, and changes direction, though weak. Kim meets the woman of the village, and negotiates badly needed help.

The lama finds rejuvenation in the Hills, and crisis, when he and Kim encounter a team of foreign spies.

Lama and disciple take to the Road to visit the hospitable and sharp-tongued lady they met before. At her place, they encounter a hakim or healer, and arrange to return to the lama's beloved Hills.

Identity and talent are explored, as Kim rejoins the Lama in Benares, heals a child, and transforms a desperate colleague.

Mapping, disguise, danger, the intercession of friends and the supernatural form Kim's initiation into the Great Game: Britain's struggle to hold India, the jewel in the crown of Empire, against Russian subversion.

Kim meets the Healer of Pearls, his jealous apprentice, and the Babu. He learns of fear, illusion, memory, disguise, his calling, and a novel use of the multiplication tables.

Kim & Mahbub come to understand one another, and foil a plot against Mahbub's life. They then travel to Simla, where a unique teacher awaits Kim.

Kim is taken to his first term at St. Xavier's School by the mysterious Col. Creighton, is seen safely inside by the beloved Lama, and has his unusual vacation trip explained by Mahbub Ali.

Kim, as Indian street-smart as can be, is the subject of negotiation over his formal education.

Kim and the Lama stumble across his father's old regiment, and separate.

Kim, an orphaned Irish beggar boy in 19th century India, meets an ancient lama, and becomes his pupil. He also carries a dangerous message from the horse-trader, Mahbub Ali.

Kim and the lama take the train for the first time, and meet a cross-section of India. Kim delivers a message.

The lama and Kim enjoy 'hospitality' at a village. An old veteran of the Indian Mutiny travels with them briefly, to set them on the Grand Trunk Road.

The lama and Kim fall in with the retinue of a widow of a certain age, as they follow their road.