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A review by rwalker101
Babel by R.F. Kuang
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I remember the first time I glimpsed the scaffolding that is colonialism, how I first realized that the attitudes that drove and stole people from their homes. that I had always heard of in history classes and condemned as evil, were still alive and well today. It happened as I composed a paper for my college "Intro to Macroeconomics" class. There was an underlying assumption that increasing profit, above all, was good. There was no consideration for those who didn't participate in the system, those who could not (or more often, would not) participate were written off as "outliers", with the not-subtle insinuation that they were stupid, and did not deserve to exist in the system.
And it clicked. I saw, for the first time in my privileged, white, middle-class upbringing, the way the system is rigged against those who cannot compete in it. I began to extrapolate that understanding to other issues, began to see the way people of color are disadvantaged from birth, how the system purposefully turns a blind eye to its own weak spots so that it will not have to change, how it will make any excuses it needs to in order to continue believing its own narrative. Yet, because I was still white and middle-class, I still only ever caught glimpses of it. Because I lived on the "right" end of colonialism's consequences, I had to make an effort to see it. I needed to squint to see the subtext.
In Babel, R.F. Kuang takes the subtext and turns it into pure text.
Kuang is far from the first person from putting these struggles into words. She borrows from a long list of anti-Imperialist texts and ideals, deftly weaving together threads of identity, knowledge, and friendship to built an iron-clad case against colonialism. Kuang lambasts systemic racism and all arguments for it, simultaneously emphasizing the need for intersectionality and debunking the idea that just "loving" someone is not enough to topple racism as an institution. Many of these are themes Kuang addressed in her Poppy War trilogy, but they have been honed to a knife's point here.
This book is tender, and dear, and sharp, and needfully unforgiving. It is a skewering of colonialism, a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, the warm glow of a fire on a cold winter's night. I loved this book. I devoured this book. If it sounds even remotely interesting to you, you'll love it too.
And it clicked. I saw, for the first time in my privileged, white, middle-class upbringing, the way the system is rigged against those who cannot compete in it. I began to extrapolate that understanding to other issues, began to see the way people of color are disadvantaged from birth, how the system purposefully turns a blind eye to its own weak spots so that it will not have to change, how it will make any excuses it needs to in order to continue believing its own narrative. Yet, because I was still white and middle-class, I still only ever caught glimpses of it. Because I lived on the "right" end of colonialism's consequences, I had to make an effort to see it. I needed to squint to see the subtext.
In Babel, R.F. Kuang takes the subtext and turns it into pure text.
Kuang is far from the first person from putting these struggles into words. She borrows from a long list of anti-Imperialist texts and ideals, deftly weaving together threads of identity, knowledge, and friendship to built an iron-clad case against colonialism. Kuang lambasts systemic racism and all arguments for it, simultaneously emphasizing the need for intersectionality and debunking the idea that just "loving" someone is not enough to topple racism as an institution. Many of these are themes Kuang addressed in her Poppy War trilogy, but they have been honed to a knife's point here.
This book is tender, and dear, and sharp, and needfully unforgiving. It is a skewering of colonialism, a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, the warm glow of a fire on a cold winter's night. I loved this book. I devoured this book. If it sounds even remotely interesting to you, you'll love it too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Racial slurs