What I'm Reading

Yes, yes, Kipling is super colonial and there's a certain amount of 🙄 when he talks about the "natives" vs the "good white men" who took over this country. Kipling supported the British rule of India like someone who truly believed in it, mixed into his mother's milk or something. But, but. In these stories, mostly stories of love, there's a point of view given to the Indians who waited on the British, a sympathy, an idea of them as people that I find lacking in his contemporaries. Also this is an India I seldom read about, the days of the Raj, that isn't just beautiful women and soldiers against the background of India as it were. India is in these stories as alive as any of its characters, which I think is his great gift. Have you read The Jungle Books? Actually read them, not just watched the Disney versions? They're among my favourite books of all time, and while some of these stories are a little trite, they still offer the same joy of sharp observation and keen wit. #bookstagram #mrmbookclub #121in2021 #rudyardkipling #plaintalesfromthehills