Kim, Rudyard Kipling’s epic rendition of the imperial experience in India, is arguably his greatest piece of long prose. Kim, a boy growing into early manhood & the lama, an old ascetic priest
- are fired by a quest. Kim is white, a sahib, although born in India; while he wants to play the Great Game of Imperialism, he is also spiritually bound to the lama & he tries to reconcile these opposing strands. The lama, meanwhile, searches for redemption from the Wheel of Life. Viewed by some as a piece of children’s literature, Kipling’s intended audience was never verified before his death & many literary academics argue that it is a piece of adult literature- either way, what is clear is the book appeals to many ages, perhaps having a greater effect on the older reader. A celebration of their friendship in an often hostile environment, Kim captures the opulence of India’s exotic landscape, overlaid by the uneasy presence of the British Raj- like Forster`s A Passage to India, this is a book that still has profound echoes with today`s multicultural society.