The characters didn't really draw me in until about the 3rd chapter. Too much of the reading is descriptions of the locals, the castes, the dress, the customs, the food, etc... providing excellent color and firmly planting the imagination within Kipling's India. But still... I wished the plot would get a move on, instead of wasting time describing characters we never see again. (Much like Dickens in that respect.)



However, by the 3rd chapter, the action began to outweigh the descriptions, and our characters gained a little depth. The rest of the book was fabulous. Excellent writing, of course. The suspense and poignancy of each little move forward in the life of Kim was perfectly timed.

I loved it!



Some of the dialogue was oddly spoken or disconnected, but I chalked it up to Indian forms of speech being translated, or some kind of British-Indian slang. Or it may just have been the fault of the culture, the era, and the expanse of years and experience that separate me from Kipling and his glorious India.