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A review by joepyeweed
Babel by R.F. Kuang
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
I can’t write about this book without spoiling it. Go away if you haven’t read it yet. I highly recommend the audiobook.
This is the first thing in a very long time that makes me imagine that radical change could actually be possible. It begins with a scenario somewhat like now, where the entrenched institutions have so much power that they seem impenetrable and unstoppable. But the slightest glimpse of a crack is forced open by collective effort until the current structure topples. This doesn’t feel possible in the world as it is today. But I imagine it always feels this way to those not in power. This has happened many times before. Maybe it could actually happen again.
One absolutely masterful moment from the book that I keep returning to: the night after the return from Canton that Robin & co spend planning revolution with the Hermes society, followed by a betrayal and a brief switch to Letty’s perspective.
We see this night initially through Robin, where everything feels exciting and the world is spread out before them and all the possibilities (even violent ones) are worth it; then experience Letty’s betrayal and Robin’s utter bewilderment; followed immediately by a truly sympathetic and logical look into Letty’s experience of the same night.
In this and the Poppy War trilogy, RF Kuang perfectly balances betrayal and disaster in a way that, in the end, makes both sides feel fully justified and reasonable in their own way. This is the moment that turned the rhetoric from the British imperial side from a bit of a straw man into something that actually explains what kind of thinking drives regular people to be complicit in imperialism.
The conclusions Letty reaches are short-sighted and morally wrong, but the excellent writing here made her into a real person whose actions make sense, not the villain that she might otherwise have been. This is how you change people’s minds. There are people who think like Professors Lovell and Playfair, and they’re unreachable because they clearly and directly benefit from the system. But many more people are like Letty.
Well, you can tell I wrote this review a bit before the end, when Letty turns up with a white flag and it seems like they must have won. The ending still has some hope, but. Fuck.
One absolutely masterful moment from the book that I keep returning to: the night after the return from Canton that Robin & co spend planning revolution with the Hermes society, followed by a betrayal and a brief switch to Letty’s perspective.
We see this night initially through Robin, where everything feels exciting and the world is spread out before them and all the possibilities (even violent ones) are worth it; then experience Letty’s betrayal and Robin’s utter bewilderment; followed immediately by a truly sympathetic and logical look into Letty’s experience of the same night.
In this and the Poppy War trilogy, RF Kuang perfectly balances betrayal and disaster in a way that, in the end, makes both sides feel fully justified and reasonable in their own way. This is the moment that turned the rhetoric from the British imperial side from a bit of a straw man into something that actually explains what kind of thinking drives regular people to be complicit in imperialism.
The conclusions Letty reaches are short-sighted and morally wrong, but the excellent writing here made her into a real person whose actions make sense, not the villain that she might otherwise have been. This is how you change people’s minds. There are people who think like Professors Lovell and Playfair, and they’re unreachable because they clearly and directly benefit from the system. But many more people are like Letty.
Well, you can tell I wrote this review a bit before the end, when Letty turns up with a white flag and it seems like they must have won. The ending still has some hope, but. Fuck.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Torture, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction and Slavery
Minor: Suicide