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A review by terranstorm
Babel by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
“That’s just what translation is, I think. That’s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they’re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”
The messy, flawed characters moved me. As did their struggle against power and entitlement, but nothing quite as much as the ways they clung to each other and hurt each other and tried to make sense of each other. More plot-driven than character-driven on the whole, and the cleverness (academic and otherwise) of the world the author created is really something special, but it was the main characters' difficult decisions and personal griefs that kept me dialed in.
The message(s) of this book are not subtle. It got a bit heavy-handed for a while (especially during the strike), but then the character relationships would save it again. I'll also add that I was not on board with the footnotes at first... not until about halfway through. It had to grow on me, needed time to develop the sense of that narrative frame and what it was for (other than either over-explaining or making smart-ass quips). But I think the footnote device earned its keep in the end. I felt it played a strong part in the unfolding commentary on translation/betrayal, colonization and extraction, even on how western scholars typically annotate eastern texts half to death... as a way of co-opting the narrative, the Englishman staying in frame. So chalk one up to the author for pulling it off.
The messy, flawed characters moved me. As did their struggle against power and entitlement, but nothing quite as much as the ways they clung to each other and hurt each other and tried to make sense of each other. More plot-driven than character-driven on the whole, and the cleverness (academic and otherwise) of the world the author created is really something special, but it was the main characters' difficult decisions and personal griefs that kept me dialed in.
The message(s) of this book are not subtle. It got a bit heavy-handed for a while (especially during the strike), but then the character relationships would save it again. I'll also add that I was not on board with the footnotes at first... not until about halfway through. It had to grow on me, needed time to develop the sense of that narrative frame and what it was for (other than either over-explaining or making smart-ass quips). But I think the footnote device earned its keep in the end. I felt it played a strong part in the unfolding commentary on translation/betrayal, colonization and extraction, even on how western scholars typically annotate eastern texts half to death... as a way of co-opting the narrative, the Englishman staying in frame. So chalk one up to the author for pulling it off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Xenophobia
Moderate: Confinement, Death, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent