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A review by bekkah_co
Babel by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Babel was a book I had heard about rumbling around when I was completing my undergraduate degrees and again when I was working on my postgrad. I remember taking a look at this book, saying "That's too many pages right now." and never going back to it. Until last month. I had been wanting to read it for ages at this point, and I finally found myself in a pocket of time where I could just read. Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of Oxford Translators’ Revolution was one of those books that needs serious dedication. It's a slow, meaty text, rich with interesting, magical twists on 19th Century England and British Colonial/Imperialism. R.F. Kuang succeeds at shifting the known notions of this time period to fit the magic system she created. Kuang balances complex characters, academia, translations, and the Oxfordian Superiority Complex (/hj) to create such a compelling narrative of pushing against institutionalized racism and exploitations caused by centuries of imperialism and colonialism.
This book is almost completed experienced through the perspective of Robin Swift, a Cantonese boy taken from Canton following his mother's death due to cholera. Robin is raised by Professor Lovell and a host of tutors that prepare him in languages like Classic Greek, Latin, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Lovell's training and tutelage is solely to make Robin a tool of Babel at the Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford. Lovell's goal is to make Robin a translator and silver-worker, creating the magic that helps their world run. It isn't until Robin attends Oxford where we met the other primary characters: Ramiz Rafi "Ramy" Mirza (Indian - from Calcutta), Lettica "Letty" Price (British, specifically English), and Victoire Desgraves (Haitian-French). These four form the cohort we spend the bulk of the narrative with. It isn't until this group is entrenched with the lifestyle Babel offers with riches and devotion to academia, that the aspects of colonialism and exploitation begin to shine through.
I am in love with the footnotes. I spend a lot of time going over nonfiction texts and historical documents. This book, for all of these reasons, fascinated me. There is an intense focus that Kuang places on blending historical accuracies with fictional-historical accuracies. You would not believe the amount of time I spend with translations and translating for my dissertation and on-going academic research. The translations provided in Babel, how the words link together is fascinating. Kuang balances the need for translation within the narrative by providing the concise etymology for the words that hold significance in the narrative and to Robin.
[The match-pairs and etymology reminded me of my early days in linguistics courses, trying to figure out where our English words derived from and how those words came from other words that came from sounds that, as a species, we arbitrarily assigned meaning to. (Nothing beats a breakdown in linguistics for an English Literature major trying to figure out how words are just sounds that mean nothing and everything all at once.)]
The characters in Babel are very compelling. There are points where they feel like simply foils to push the plot along. (Howdy, Griffin!) Yet, when a book is this long and this complex, this is almost a necessity. Robin had, by far, the most interesting character arcs as he began to understand the systematic issues and how it pertains to the colonies and him. It was fascinating to watch as he began unfolding these deeply rooted issues. Ramy, Victoire, and Letty were perfect to demonstrate the imbalance of racial issues in 19th-century England. Major Spoiler Warning. And let me tell you, Letty's character arc? A fucking doozy. Going from white friend who doesn't get it to white friend who is trying to get it to WHITE FRIEND WHO KILLS FRIENDS BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T FUCKING GET IT is insane. I get why Ramy had to die, truly, but his character could have done so much good. I think his death is really what set Robin off on his crusade. It's understandable, it's traumatic. The way Robin and Victoire simply don't have time to understand the gravity of this murder is heart-wrenching.
As I parsed through the GoodReads and The Story Graph reviews of this book, I found myself shocked at some of the lower ratings. The plot is, truly, in the expanded title of the novel. Of course there is revolution with violence. Kuang does not hide that from us. It is apparent from the very first page we open to. It is this violence, this reconciliation that demonstrated the necessity of violence in revolution. It was gut-wrenching and I cried at least twice.
I feel like I need to end with this: Babel did not take me a month to read. It was my "read at work" book, and then I couldn't just "read at work". I finally had some down time today to just sit and read. My god am I glad I finally finished this book.
This book is almost completed experienced through the perspective of Robin Swift, a Cantonese boy taken from Canton following his mother's death due to cholera. Robin is raised by Professor Lovell and a host of tutors that prepare him in languages like Classic Greek, Latin, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Lovell's training and tutelage is solely to make Robin a tool of Babel at the Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford. Lovell's goal is to make Robin a translator and silver-worker, creating the magic that helps their world run. It isn't until Robin attends Oxford where we met the other primary characters: Ramiz Rafi "Ramy" Mirza (Indian - from Calcutta), Lettica "Letty" Price (British, specifically English), and Victoire Desgraves (Haitian-French). These four form the cohort we spend the bulk of the narrative with. It isn't until this group is entrenched with the lifestyle Babel offers with riches and devotion to academia, that the aspects of colonialism and exploitation begin to shine through.
I am in love with the footnotes. I spend a lot of time going over nonfiction texts and historical documents. This book, for all of these reasons, fascinated me. There is an intense focus that Kuang places on blending historical accuracies with fictional-historical accuracies. You would not believe the amount of time I spend with translations and translating for my dissertation and on-going academic research. The translations provided in Babel, how the words link together is fascinating. Kuang balances the need for translation within the narrative by providing the concise etymology for the words that hold significance in the narrative and to Robin.
[The match-pairs and etymology reminded me of my early days in linguistics courses, trying to figure out where our English words derived from and how those words came from other words that came from sounds that, as a species, we arbitrarily assigned meaning to. (Nothing beats a breakdown in linguistics for an English Literature major trying to figure out how words are just sounds that mean nothing and everything all at once.)]
The characters in Babel are very compelling. There are points where they feel like simply foils to push the plot along. (Howdy, Griffin!) Yet, when a book is this long and this complex, this is almost a necessity. Robin had, by far, the most interesting character arcs as he began to understand the systematic issues and how it pertains to the colonies and him. It was fascinating to watch as he began unfolding these deeply rooted issues. Ramy, Victoire, and Letty were perfect to demonstrate the imbalance of racial issues in 19th-century England. Major Spoiler Warning.
As I parsed through the GoodReads and The Story Graph reviews of this book, I found myself shocked at some of the lower ratings. The plot is, truly, in the expanded title of the novel. Of course there is revolution with violence. Kuang does not hide that from us. It is apparent from the very first page we open to. It is this violence, this reconciliation that demonstrated the necessity of violence in revolution. It was gut-wrenching and I cried at least twice.
I feel like I need to end with this: Babel did not take me a month to read. It was my "read at work" book, and then I couldn't just "read at work". I finally had some down time today to just sit and read. My god am I glad I finally finished this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Racism, Colonisation, Racial slurs, and Sexism
Moderate: Slavery and War