too surreal for my taste, too difficult to follow actual plot events at times. Annoyed that actual secret was never explained – all implications and unspoken understandings. Felt like I was missing something. Also super uncomfortable with racist language used. Effective rendering of grief, though, the mood definitely came through. Not sure I would have gotten as much without the intro from Niffenegger which mentioned Kipling’s loss, though, which is a point against it – should stand on its own. Was the narrator meant to be Kipling himself? Unclear. ( )

Of course I had 'The Jungle Book' and 'Rikki Tikki Tavi' as a child, but I'd never read this Kipling tale before. It unfolds as a man, driving aimlessly in his motorcar, comes across an estate tenanted by a lonely blind woman... and, it seems, several children, who are strangely elusive. The setting is vivid and lush, the language evocative - it's more of a musing of life and loss than the ghost story it might seem to be. However, the ending is peculiar and rather unsatisfying - I'm not sure what to make of it.

What I didn't understand, in the context of the text, is why the narrator feels, suddenly, that he must never return. One analyst explained it so: "Even if the dead is very young and much beloved, one must turn one’s back on that road and return to the living world to which one belongs." Having learned that Kipling wrote this after the death of his young daughter, it makes sense in that he's trying to convince himself to move on - I guess it also makes sense that as a reader, I didn't find the effort fully compelling.

(re-read 11/9/15) ( )