Kipling’s Choice by Geert Spillebeen
Rudyard Kipling. The Just so Stories. Jungle Book. Mowgli. Stiff Upper Lip. WWI.
The year is 1915. This very compact fictionalized account of Lt. John Kipling’s WWI battle experience is difficult to read and yet touching in many ways. It is translated into English from Flemish and the tale is probably more common than a young reader could imagine which makes it all the more poignant, I guess.
John Kipling, son of the famous author Rudyard Kipling) desperately wants to go to war. Finally, his father finds someone willing to give this very privileged small, nearsighted, teenager a commission in the Irish Guard. And with that, John is set to go to war for Great Britain against the hated Germans.
The action of the story is told in flashbacks of September 26, 1915 and the fatal battle that ultimately claimed Lt. Kipling’s life. Along the way we learn about the “jolly” life of the very rich and privileged John Kipling and the years and events leading up to that fateful Sept. 26th.
We hear a first hand account from the young lieutenant as he lays dying in a trench in northern France. HIs body is never found, but the message - war touches all, the rich and the poor - is clear. Over a million young men gave the ultimate sacrifice in WWI.
It’s a bit difficult to read at first because it jumps from present to past with no warning other than a change in typeface. the story is gruesome, just as war is. You want John to be found and saved and yet, you know he will not be.
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