Often regarded as an early YA novel,Kim appears to be a simple coming-of age epic, until you inaugurate to notice the unobtrusive brilliance of the craftsmanshipMore from the Guardian reading groupMany of the pleasures of Kim are straightforward, or direct and easily absorbed – much like Rudyard Kipling’s prose. Indeed,his writing is probably chief among those joys. It’s a book where moving through the sentences is its own reward. Few novels have such beguiling rhythm, imagery and vocabulary.
The very words are fun to read, or fun to say out loud: “Wonder-House”,“Zam-Zammah”, “Kimball O’Hara”, or “Sind,Punjab and Delhi railway” and those are just from the first page. But it’s what Kipling does with them that really counts, in prose so perfect you barely notice how clever it is when you first read through. It’s only when you discontinue to analyse that you notice how well everything is constructed:Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com