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My expectations were set so high for this; I really wanted it to be another five-star favorite of mine from R.F Kaung, and while I did love most of this book, it just didn't hit that perfect mark for me.
In Babel, we follow Robin who, after the death of his sick mother, is carted away from his home in Canton by a professor to study at Oxford for translation. Robin must learn multiple different languages to prepare for his studies at Babel- Oxford University's Institute of Translation. Robin is awed by Oxford, but soon becomes disenchanted with his scholarship and studies as he learns to truth about London's silver-trade- enchanted silver bars which use the power of translation to power them for many different purposes.
I absolutely loved the language aspects of this book (it is quite literally the main theme of the book.) The philosophizing on language and linguistics had me enamored. I'm an aspiring polyglot (only on two languages now), and am obsessed with language, it's inner-workings, translations, and all the like, so the overall premise of this book really worked for me. I tabbed whole pages in this book that just truly spoke to me. Linguistics tied in perfectly with the themes on colonialism, classism, sexism, and racism also present in Babel. Like silver-working, our real world truly does run on language and all it's meanings. All of these themes concluded well in the suspenseful and climatic ending. While it was sad, and a bit disturbing, it was also realistic. One of my particular favorite parts of this book (aside from the linguistics) was the inner-workings of the Babel translators friend group. It was heartbreaking, developed nicely, and was deeply relatable for those who are marginalized and have friends who might not understand them.
While all of these aspects of the book were quite profound (at least to me. I did see many say that they found the themes to be quite rudimentary for their liking), I couldn't fully connect to it. At certain points, the book made me feel like I was in an Oxford lecture hall, which I did not want to be in. It could feel quite boing, over-explanatory, and info-dumpy when a new concept or theme was introduced. The silver-working concept, while useful to present the themes in the book, confused me at times, and I wish that part of the world developed a bit more. I also felt as though the plot developed much too fast for my liking, with whole years passing in only a few pages at a time. While I understand these narrative choices, I wish we had more development with the plot and/or characters during this time instead of it being glossed over.
Babel is an extremely thought-provoking and insightful book that I loved, but also wish I got more from.
In Babel, we follow Robin who, after the death of his sick mother, is carted away from his home in Canton by a professor to study at Oxford for translation. Robin must learn multiple different languages to prepare for his studies at Babel- Oxford University's Institute of Translation. Robin is awed by Oxford, but soon becomes disenchanted with his scholarship and studies as he learns to truth about London's silver-trade- enchanted silver bars which use the power of translation to power them for many different purposes.
I absolutely loved the language aspects of this book (it is quite literally the main theme of the book.) The philosophizing on language and linguistics had me enamored. I'm an aspiring polyglot (only on two languages now), and am obsessed with language, it's inner-workings, translations, and all the like, so the overall premise of this book really worked for me. I tabbed whole pages in this book that just truly spoke to me. Linguistics tied in perfectly with the themes on colonialism, classism, sexism, and racism also present in Babel. Like silver-working, our real world truly does run on language and all it's meanings. All of these themes concluded well in the suspenseful and climatic ending. While it was sad, and a bit disturbing, it was also realistic. One of my particular favorite parts of this book (aside from the linguistics) was the inner-workings of the Babel translators friend group. It was heartbreaking, developed nicely, and was deeply relatable for those who are marginalized and have friends who might not understand them.
While all of these aspects of the book were quite profound (at least to me. I did see many say that they found the themes to be quite rudimentary for their liking), I couldn't fully connect to it. At certain points, the book made me feel like I was in an Oxford lecture hall, which I did not want to be in. It could feel quite boing, over-explanatory, and info-dumpy when a new concept or theme was introduced. The silver-working concept, while useful to present the themes in the book, confused me at times, and I wish that part of the world developed a bit more. I also felt as though the plot developed much too fast for my liking, with whole years passing in only a few pages at a time. While I understand these narrative choices, I wish we had more development with the plot and/or characters during this time instead of it being glossed over.
Babel is an extremely thought-provoking and insightful book that I loved, but also wish I got more from.