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A review by bahareads
Babel by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I read Babel as a buddy read! This is my second Kuang book.
I read Babel over about three months. It was stop and go because I wanted to sit what I was reading. Kuang's writing is so tangible. Readers will feel like they're at Babel. The vibes reminded me of Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House. The plot unfolds very well for the first 150 pages of the book. Certain events create drama and suspense but it is not until the last 200 to 150 pages of the book that the pace of the plot picks up to a runaway freight train. I ATE UP the stylistic choice of footnotes in the book. The Historian in me was geeking.
Kuang's themes are overt and constant. Readers may feel like they are being hit over the head with colonization, what it means to be colonized, and how colonized people feel in their colonized state; but that dear gentle reader is the entire point. Readers know what it is like to be a half-white, half-Chinese boy turned man or a Black young woman or an Indian young man pushing boundaries in spaces where you are only tolerated for your skills.
I read Babel over about three months. It was stop and go because I wanted to sit what I was reading. Kuang's writing is so tangible. Readers will feel like they're at Babel. The vibes reminded me of Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House. The plot unfolds very well for the first 150 pages of the book. Certain events create drama and suspense but it is not until the last 200 to 150 pages of the book that the pace of the plot picks up to a runaway freight train. I ATE UP the stylistic choice of footnotes in the book. The Historian in me was geeking.
Kuang's themes are overt and constant. Readers may feel like they are being hit over the head with colonization, what it means to be colonized, and how colonized people feel in their colonized state; but that dear gentle reader is the entire point. Readers know what it is like to be a half-white, half-Chinese boy turned man or a Black young woman or an Indian young man pushing boundaries in spaces where you are only tolerated for your skills.
How does all the power from foreign languages just somehow accrue to England? This is no accident; this is a deliberate exploitation of foreign culture and foreign resources. The professors like to pretend that the tower is a refuge for pure knowledge, that it sits above the mundane concerns of business and commerce, but it does not. It’s intricately tied to the business of colonialism. It is the business of colonialism.
The dynamic between Letty, Victorie, Ramy, and Robin was fascinating. The levels between friendship and romance, jealousy and familial love are all bound up together. They do not get sorted out, even at the end of the book. There are hints of queer love here and there that are not explicitly spoken upon. Letty got on my nerves with her inability to try to understand her peers. She does not seek to try to understand them at all, instead placing them inside her shoes but never the reverse. She cannot admit when she is wrong. However Letty is also unable to see all the micro-aggressions her friends face because she is not trained to see them.
(obviously) Language is a big theme in the book. All the white/native English speakers see other languages and the people who speak those languages as interchangeable. Professor Lovell sees English as the superior language above all others. They see the English upbringing as better than others, which is why Lovell “creates” his own personal Chinese translators and takes them back to England. Kuang has so many sprinkled instances of racism throughout the plot it can be overwhelming. The reason why Victoire can’t study West African languages is an extremely layered example.
“You see?” Asked Anthony. “Languages aren’t just made of words. They’re modes of looking at the world. They’re the keys to civilization. And that’s knowledge worth killing for.”
Professor Lovell's character growth towards the end of the book is wild. It makes me think that Kuang wanted to (finally) give depth to his character while allowing Lovell to assuage his guilt about being a terrible guardian. Lovell hoped that Robin would be only an extension of him and his Englishness, leaving the Chinese language to be the only thing from Robin's mother.
“Violence shows them how much we’re willing to give up,” said Griffin. “Violence is the only language they understand, because their system of extraction is inherently violence. Violence shocks the system. And the system cannot survive the shock.”
The ending had me in shock!! I enjoyed that we were able to see another point of view at the end. I wanted to cry though. In some ways, it makes one feel hopeless about situations like the ones that are being addressed in the book.
I found the stylistic choice of never letting readers know Robin or his mother's Chinese names very intriguing. I wonder why Kuang did it.