KIM

       Kimball O'Hara is an agent with British Intelligence.
       Kim, as he is known to most since he has no real use of his full name for most of his life, was born in India to an Irish soldier and an Irish mother living in India. Both spent their adult lives in poverty and that is all that Kim throughout his childhood. Both parents died when Kim was young and the lad was forced to eke out a survival by begging and running errands for whomever would toss him a coin. He also became quite good as a con man using his natural talents and hard learned experiences to glibly coerce what he needed from strangers and friends.
       Though he was of Irish descent, his years on the streets of Lahore, India under the harsh sun turned his complexion to a deep tan making him able to pass as Indian when it suited him. He was a handsome lad with a quick smile and a gleam in his eye that enchanted people. He also possessed a kind heart which was often put to a test when compassion collided with existance.
       The chapters in the one book, told initially in 11 serial segments, depict the life of a boy growing to manhood and his deep friendship with a Tibetan lama seeking enlightenment. It also tells of Kim's adventures in the "Great Game" as the espionage business is called in the days when Russia and Britain fought their own version of a Cold War seeking dominance in the India subcontinent. Kim did not choose to become a spy but his years on the streets taught him well how to make the best of any situation and that skill would get him noticed by those always on the lookout for a potential agent.

       When I was 16 I read Kim for the first time. I understood quite a bit of it and was totally snowed under by quite a bit as well. I read it because I was trying to be more "educated" in my reading. After a couple of years of Doc Savage and the Shadow and Tarzan, I wanted to "grow up" in my reading. I first went after Robinson Crusoe and The Count of Monte Cristo and others. I then tackled this book as well as others like Mutiny on the Bounty and The Grapes of Wrath. Many I enjoyed and many I just put down and shook my head in puzzlement.
       I next tackled Kim as a 30-year old and I got a whole lot more out of it. I also still had sections I scratched my head over. I also read the Classics Illustrated version of it and enjoyed that but there were huge sections (obviously) in the book not found in the comic.

       I decided to include this book in the compendium because of its great importance to spy series - to spy novels as a whole. I use as justification for a single book being in a fan site about spy series by the fact that it was originally released as a series of chapters and only subsequently as a collection. But that is just an "excuse". The "reason" is that it deserves mention.