...Kipling’s American years make for a fertile foreign chapter. They yielded the bulk of his most popular work. Benfey eloquently argues not only that Kipling’s engagement with the United States made him the writer he became, but that he lavishly returned the favor ... It is not Benfey’s fault that Kipling flies about in reckless disregard of his subtitle, but it does at times make for something of a disjointed narrative. One gets the sense of a subject straining at his leash, unhappily confined, stubbornly untamed ... Benfey reminds us of our debt to a category-demolishing, globe-striding man who indeed contained multitudes...
Christopher Benfey, a professor at Mount Holyoke, writes that some of his friends, when they learned what he was working on, asked him what on earth he was thinking, and warned that he’d better be ready to defend himself. Benfey’s best defense turns out to be the book itself, which doesn’t attempt a full-throated rehab job ... Kipling’s American sojourn is hardly an 'untold story'—it figures in all the biographies—but Benfey tells it well, catching nuances that some biographers have missed.
Mr. Benfey, who clearly enjoyed the considerable research he put into this book, recounts the family’s time in New England rather well, including the unhappy end to the Kiplings’ American sojourn a few years later ... These years were joyous and then dire ones for Kipling, and Mr. Benfey recounts it all with a fine touch ... It has to be said, though, that both the subtitle and the title of Mr. Benfey’s book detract from his worthwhile effort. 'If' may be a nifty account of this period in the famous writer’s life, but this is hardly an 'untold story.'
Benfey strolls through Kipling’s American years with the sensibility of a flaneur, pausing here over particular points of interest, turning back there for another look. The approach delivers memorable insights ... But too often Benfey lets go of the bright ideas that bob through If like a fistful of balloons and allows them to float away ... If concludes with an unsatisfying epilogue on citations of Kipling during the Vietnam War, which feels both too little (in terms of what it says about Kipling) and too late (leaping straight from the 1910s into the 1970s) ... What If makes clear, however, is that Kipling’s offensive politics must be understood as a product of American influence as much as British ... Anchoring Kipling in American history and literature shows how much more extensive and complicated the legacies of empire actually are.
Benfey is deeply aware of such challenges with Kipling, who can sound contemporary in some ways, but dated in others ... as Benfey makes clear, he’s not writing in defense of Kipling’s cultural attitudes, but to explore his place in history.
Christopher Benfey reminds us of both the merits and demerits of both the man and work ... The studies of this writer’s life and work are numerous; yet taking his full measure remains no easy thing. Still, If offers compelling research, information, and speculative insight. It reminds us all that we should read Kipling again.
...fascinating ... [Benfey] has brought to light and deftly connected many lesser-known facts about Kipling ... And there is much to be discerned about the radical upheavals in current American culture from Kipling’s complex American engagement.
In this unusual biography, Benfey...persuasively argues that Kipling’s rarely discussed decade in America, from 1889 to 1899, made an indelible imprint on not only his writing but also American culture ... In slightly disjointed but nonetheless illuminating chapters, Benfey places Kipling’s work and often deplorable political views in the context of American society in the late nineteenth century, and he offers many insightful readings of Kipling’s enduring stories and poems ... [a] wonderfully approachable piece of scholarship...
Intelligent and well-researched, Benfey’s book accomplishes a delicate feat by highlighting the complexity of Kipling’s life and work without seeking to minimize his colonialist, racist views ... An accessible and enlightening biography.
