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THE JOURNEY OF AKBAR by Aline Glasgow

THE JOURNEY OF AKBAR

By

Pub Date: Oct. 25th, 1967
Publisher: Dial

Go through the Jungle to school terrifies thirteen-year-old Akbar, still suffering from the death of his parents in Calcutta, altogether scornful of the small village where his Aunt Parbati lives and ashamed of her poor, scratching existence, but the Jungle holds the monster Gumbharkarna... Quickly lost, hours pass for Akbar and then a python descends, gazes into his eyes and Spares him; it is Neogi, King of the Pythons, essence of contradictions--while he taunts, he praises, while he has no legs, he walks, while he has no arms, he embraces, while he has no heart, he helps Akbar to discover that his demon is the fear within himself. In this strange conjunction of local realism and legend, it is Neogi who matters, but not enough to assure an audience for a peripheral parable of an unsympathetic boy's fear.