I think my mixed feelings are going to come out so I’ll say up front that this is way outside of what I usually read, and while I appreciated that it is a very good book, I often didn’t enjoy reading it. I appreciate it more than I love it. But, I think it’s a worthwhile read. Maybe don’t pick it up right after you put down a book that owns your whole heart. This book is also in conversation with The Secret History and Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell, two books I’ve never read.
You should read this book if you want to be angry and burn it all down while also thinking thoughts about words and the power of language. Kuang is explicitly confronting the violence and horror of colonialism and the framework of racism necessary to justify empire.
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution is set in an alternate universe. The history, especially the history of conquest and colonialism, isn’t that different, except that there is magic, which is based in language and translation.
As cholera sweeps through Canton, a boy lays dying next to his mother. Professor Lovell arrives, cures him and carries him away. Professor Lovell is an awful person, and you will quickly come to hate him. The Professor makes himself the boy’s guardian and has him give himself an English name. He names himself Robin Swift. Professor Lovell intends for him (and has intended since his birth, yeah it’s gross) to attend Oxford’s Royal Institute of Translation, informally known as Babel. Initially, Robin loves it there. He meets Ramiz, his first friend. The moment in paradise is brief.
Babel is an engrossing read layered with details that become important later. It’s a chonker of a book and not an easy read, and yet, it is. It is hard to put down. It has characters who will absolutely break your heart. And characters who are hateful and terribly familiar.
Babel is a tragedy, but not the kind of tear-jerker that makes the suffering of others cathartic entertainment that lets the reader feel good about how much they care. It’s the kind of tragedy that leaves you feeling like you’ll never stop bleeding. Part of me thinks the ending is perfect and part of me wanted to see the aftermath. Was it worth it?
‘I don’t know,’ said Victoire. “At least, we say it when we don’t know the answer, or don’t care to share the answer.”
CW: Child abuse on page, death of parent, racism, anti-Asian racism, anti-blackness, violence, gun violence, murder, slavery, colonization, classism, sexism, death by suicide, grief, hate crime, murder, and microaggressions.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Harper Voyager and NetGalley. My opinions are my own and freely given.