Title: Babel
Author: R.F. Kuang
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Historical
Pages: 560
Publication Date: August 29, 2023
StoryGraph* Moods: Dark, Emotional, Challenging
How I Stumbled Upon This Book: Book Club
Other Books by Kuang: The Poppy War Trilogy, Yellowface
*StoryGraph also offers content warnings.
Description: A young orphan boy is taken from his home of China and brought to England to study translation (which is the magic system of this world). Told his name is unpronounceable, he takes an English name – Robin Swift. These are the first in a string of events meant to strip him of his identity for the purpose of serving the empire. From StoryGraph: “Babel — a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell — grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of translation as a tool of empire.”
Why I recommend this book:
Ok. If you always wanted to read Fantasy but perhaps have been put off by the notions of an epic world and new languages and creatures not of this world, well, this would be a great introduction. Listed as Fantasy, I’d offer Magic Realism as an apt sub-genre. The world in this story exists in 1800s England – with a really cool (and geeky) system of magic thrown in. (And I say geeky with the utmost respect here – I’m a word nerd/language geek, so a system of magic based on translation? Sign. Me. Up.)
The story itself was engaging. At its heart, we have a story of friendship and seeking to belong, with an overarching look at our real-world issues, such as colonialism and racism. (Though this story takes place in the early 1800s, we can apply it to what we see in today’s world.) The writing is easy to consume, and by that, I mean it is accessible (or made so with the footnotes) and well done (I forget who it was that said “Easy reading is damn hard writing”?).
I also really enjoyed the use of the footnotes. At first, I was distracted by them – but when I realized they were not all fun/fictional ones (because why couldn’t that info just be in the story), there were legit ones. A number of times, Kuang mentions someone and something they said – and it’s legit. It added another layer/connection to the ‘real’ world.
Something missing:
There are a couple moments that do feel too fast, though they are spoilers, so I will resist writing about them here. For a book that is 544 pages (in the hardcover at least), it could have been longer, and I wouldn’t have blinked at it if these moments were built to in a way that felt more natural to the story. The ending is also kept from the reader (and rightly so), but as we are in Robin’s thoughts, it felt strange that he never alluded to this final move (perhaps give us something we might not notice on a first read but would pick up on a second).
“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.” ~ R.F. Kuang
“English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods.” ~ R.F. Kuang
Ami Maxine 