A review by dkmorello
Babel by R.F. Kuang

dark reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Babel was recommended by another reader for its use of language as a weapon. Once I started reading Babel, I was alternately interested and bored. It starts with academia and moves into global revolution — with a point about the dissolution of the British Empire and the rise of the Global South and Asia. During the final quarter of the book, I speed-read the first sentence in most paragraphs, then filled in the gaps with Wikipedia and reviews. A very slow read, with only a handful of compelling characters. In the end, this seemed to be a preachy story that an academic aesthete may drunkenly relate over a glass of wine at a cocktail party at Oxford, but hundreds of pages too long.
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