Babel

Babel sounded very promising - (post-) colonialism, racism, linguistics, dark academia. The novel started promising, although the linguistic explanations started getting on my nerves. With my Master's degree in English studies, I have a linguistic background, but I am pretty sure that a reader without this background would have understood it very fast, as well. No one needs the 1643rd example on etymology. On the other hand, Kuang likes to use linguistic terminology not every reader might be familiar with without any further explanation. Here the book is not very balanced.But there are other things that were quite striking to me: I see what the author tried to do here, but this whole magic thing could have been left out, as it is just a fictional retelling of the British empire with its industrialization and some events leading to the Opium Wars. Kuang just includes language by doing this, but real fantasy is not what this book is. Furthermore, her intention to reflect on British colonialism and racism is quite obvious on the first pages already. But just in case the reader is dumb, Kuang repeats her statement for the rest of the book, preferably in dialogues. The characters are very stereotypical, meaning all the Whites are evil and the Non-Whites are good and very aware of the racism they experience and almost everyone is a victim to racism. I am pretty sure this was not always the case in Victorian England. So this repetitiveness and the didactic elaborations became quite boring over the time, the plot itself became more and more unbelievable, almost ridiculous. There was a lot "tell, don't show" and I am glad that I have finished the book now.I am not sure who the target audience is here, to be honest. Colonialism and racism are important topics, but more subtlety would have been appropriate, and there are better books which have dealt with this. Kuang seems like she couldn't really decide how to spin together a novel and an academic text. This is indeed an ambitious task, but in my opinion she failed here. 2-2.5 stars

Babel is absolutely gorgeous. There’s no better way to describe it. R.F. Kuang's writing is fluid and easy while descriptive and emotive. It’s one of the most raw and heartwrenching books I’ve ever read. But let’s go into a little more detail.Everything I just described can only be attributed to R.F. Kuang's writing. I've not been this absorbed in a book for a long time. Some moments within the book, moments of joy, are so beautifully written and in such contrast to the rest of the story that they really stand out. Similarly, moments of trauma and adversity are so stark they feel gut-wrenching.The depth and complexity of the characters within the book are a highlight. It dives deep into the psyche of the main character. You get what he’s thinking and feeling in perfect detail for each and every moment.The journey the main character goes on throughout this book is complex, emotional, confusing, and incredibly human. It's written so well and clearly comes from a place of emotional experience. Something white people can only understand or try to understand through the written experience of characters in a book like this.Babel addresses some really important themes throughout the book. One of which is the complicated nature of loving something beautiful that simultaneously profits from the suffering of you and your people. Or the idealistic nature of academics that speak words of peace and equality while ignoring acts of injustice and erasing past history to suit a pretty story. Or the illusion of and beauty of academic things. How they seem grand and spectacular, but underneath is a history of pain and suffering that was used to fund it.I’ve not even talked about the magic system. While, in reality, this takes a backseat to the politics of the story, it slots right in. It also makes explaining the depth of corruption in the British Empire graspable. In general, it's incredibly hard to balance a wealth of academic knowledge about language in the plot of your book while also making it interesting to non-language aficionados. But boy has R.F. Kuang done it! Babel is an emotional, absorbing ride, but boy, is it worth it.For more reviews and book recommendations, check out my YouTube channel

my babies. both my favourite characters died