It will come as a surprise to all but the most devoted Rudyard Kipling fan to discover that “The Jungle Book” and “The Second Jungle Book,” stories of Mowgli raised by wolves in the jungles of India, was created in the distinctively American surroundings of Brattleboro, Vt. Victoria Vinton, who will appear with two other debut authors Tuesday in the Tattered Cover Book Store’s second annual First Fiction event, uses this nearly forgotten historical footnote as the seed for “The Jungle Law.”
Vinton tells a circuitous story, focusing on a growing relationship between Kipling and a local 11-year- old, Joe Connolly. Kipling, the well- schooled world traveler has come to roost in Brattleboro because it is the home of his American wife, Caroline. He’s also drawn there because it’s a place with few distractions, where he can let his imagination roam free.
Joe is as naïve as his hero is world-wise. While Kipling spent his early years in India, before being placed in what essentially was a foster home with his Aunt Rosa in England, Joe’s world is circumscribed by life on a hardscrabble farm. His days start early, helping his father with the milking and mucking in the dairy barn. But it is in helping his mother that he finds his life changed.
Addie Connolly has been hired as a laundress by the Kiplings. The extra income is a boon for the Connolly family, but the job raises issues. For Jack Connolly, always moody and often resentful, the need for his wife to take in washing reflects poorly on his ability to provide for his family. For Addie, the work is a welcome window into a lifestyle she can only imagine.
Kipling was in his late 20s, newly married, when he settled in Brattleboro in 1892. The man Vinton paints is not weighted with gravitas. In his enthusiasm he seems little more than a boy himself. Joe first sees the author when, delivering a load of laundry, Kipling flies past him on a bicycle. Joe has heard of this new invention, but never seen one. Kipling ignores the bundle the boy is wheeling; it is not the thing of the moment. He instead pulls Joe into the excitement of discovery, teaching him to ride the bike.
Joe has never been invited into the world of an adult as a peer. His excitement escalates when Kipling asks what a boy his age, living in a cave, might play with. It is the first, but hardly the last, look at Mowgli and the developing “Jungle Book” stories.
As Kipling tells of the world he is inventing, Joe’s fascination grows. He loves the tales of a boy raised in the jungle, and the jungle laws themselves. This is a world unlike his own, where that which is permitted (or not) is perfectly clear and where one who follows the rules can prosper. It is also a world in which a boy his age has power and strength, qualities he finds both foreign and inviting.
As Joe is pulled into Kipling’s world, his father realizes that he’s losing his son. Jack is poorly equipped for a battle for his son’s heart, but his position as Joe’s father gives him all the edge he needs. Ensuing events place Joe squarely in the middle, driving him to want to escape everything that is making his life painful: his father’s darkness, his mother’s solicitude and the inviting fantasy of Kipling’s world.
“The Jungle Law” is a slow, but not a plodding, novel. Its first focus is on the evolution of character, followed by the events that arise. Vinton writes with particular effect when she imagines Kipling’s creative process; the reader is just as engaged as Joe is by the man. It’s easy to see how Joe can be caught up in Kipling’s world.
What’s difficult, and what stands as the conflict at the center of the story, is trying to figure out how a boy will survive the forces competing for his heart.
Vinton will appear with Lisa Selin Davis (“Belly”) and Karen Olsson (“Waterloo”) at the Tattered Cover’s second-annual First Fiction event Tuesday at the Wynkoop brewery (1684 18th St). This event is part of a six-city tour showcasing first-time novelists.
Robin Vidimos is a freelance writer who reviews books for The Denver Post and Buzz in the ‘Burbs.
The Jungle Law
By Victoria Vinton
MacAdam/Cage, 312 pages, $25
