But that's where Kim is better that the rest of his writing. He actually does a very good job making you think he really is a product of India, though of English birth. The boy Kim is an orphan of mixed English and Indian descent. He grows up wild in the streets, but has some magical quality that allows him to seemlessly travel between the normally rigid Indian caste system. He is known as the "Friend of All the World". A Lama (a wise-man from Tibet) stumbles upon him and takes him on as a "chela", a servant. The Lama is looking for the place where the legendary arrow of the Buddha fell to earth and a river sprung up (the River of the Arrow). The boy becomes his guide through India. They travel the Grand Trunk, the great highway of India, and here Kipling shines. His descriptions of the personalities of various castes met along the road and in camps in the evenings are priceless. Human nature on display. Beautiful. It makes you feel like you are there, in that time. And you realize that people never really change, even acrosse generations and cultures we are the same.
Eventually the plot thickens. Too bad. Kim is found to be English and sent to the finest school in India for English boys. The rigidity and cleanliness (not to mention the stiff collars) stifle him, but it is paid for by the Lama, and he has his summers free to roam with the Lama. Then deeper plots surface. The English army recruits him to spy on native enemies -- very dangerous. At this point the plot becomes jumbled and confusing. It's no longer the joyous trip of life, but has disjointed forces, meanings and dangers. Not sure what the author is trying to prove here. There is resolution, but it is not satisfactory. The mystical Lama does eventually find the River of the Arrow, but it is purely figurative, and found only upon the threshold of death. As for Kim, he is wiser, sadder and I don't remember what happens to him (other reviews say he finds his humanity).