Scan barcode
A review by nprtotebag
Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang
4.0
I’ve been incredibly conflicted on whether I should give this book 3.5 or 4 stars.
This book felt like the author really wanted to write a textbook about colonization, linguistics, philosophy, and history, but realized no one would read that, so packaged it into a magical realism fiction book instead. The care and research that went into those aspects of the book are palpable. I recognize that therefore this book won’t be for everyone - I loved it, personally, but it was a double edged sword. It’s very clear that the conversations about colonization, linguistics, and so on were at the expense of well rounded and nuanced characters.
Aside from robin maybe, all of the characters feel pretty one note, like author picked a single adjective to describe them and didn’t go much further. I was especially disappointed with how she wrote the two female characters. Victorie was by far the most level headed, but she really only got her time to shine in the last third. Otherwise she felt sidelined.
Letty, on the other hand, oh boy. I liked what author was trying to say about white women, and I like what she was doing with the character for the first 2 thirds. Until she has Letty betray and KILL one of her friends. Suddenly Letty is a Big Bad, and the nuance of her character is lost. I’m not sure how to put into words my other thoughts on this character so I’ll stop there.
I’m criticizing this book at a lot, but to be clear I thought it was mostly amazing, and I want to see more books like it.
This book felt like the author really wanted to write a textbook about colonization, linguistics, philosophy, and history, but realized no one would read that, so packaged it into a magical realism fiction book instead. The care and research that went into those aspects of the book are palpable. I recognize that therefore this book won’t be for everyone - I loved it, personally, but it was a double edged sword. It’s very clear that the conversations about colonization, linguistics, and so on were at the expense of well rounded and nuanced characters.
Aside from robin maybe, all of the characters feel pretty one note, like author picked a single adjective to describe them and didn’t go much further. I was especially disappointed with how she wrote the two female characters. Victorie was by far the most level headed, but she really only got her time to shine in the last third. Otherwise she felt sidelined.
Letty, on the other hand, oh boy. I liked what author was trying to say about white women, and I like what she was doing with the character for the first 2 thirds. Until she has Letty betray and KILL one of her friends. Suddenly Letty is a Big Bad, and the nuance of her character is lost. I’m not sure how to put into words my other thoughts on this character so I’ll stop there.
I’m criticizing this book at a lot, but to be clear I thought it was mostly amazing, and I want to see more books like it.