Babel-R.F.Kuang (Spoilers Free)

 Some time ago, I finished reading and writing a review for R.F. Kuang’s trilogy ‘The Poppy Wars’ where I have said that she is slowly becoming one of my favorite contemporary authors. There were not enough words to describe how much I loved her writing style, use of historical fiction, honest depictions of her characters and the unapologetic and unwavering criticism of war and human greed. One good thing about discovering her work quite some time after ‘The Poppy Wars’ have already been published is that I did not have to wait too long to get my hands on ‘Babel’. In fact, this was the first book I have decided to pre-order as I could not wait to read it. I must admit that I had really high expectations for this book and to my relief and absolute enjoyment, it not only met but exceeded them.

‘Babel’ follows the story of a young Chinese man, who is only introduced to the reader by his English name that he has to take-Robin Swift, who is taken under the wing of a rich Oxford professor and taken to England. Here, through often brutal means, Robin is taught the art of translation from Mandarin to English and classical languages at the college’s institution of translation with his cohort of Letty (white British woman specialising in German), Victorie (black woman from Haiti specialising in Creole and French) and Ramy (Indian boy specialising in Urdu). As their time and studies in Oxford progress, the four young people start discovering that this promise of a better life and great future is far from it and they get intertwined in intrigues and mysteries that could potentially change the course of the British empire as such. 

Without spoiling too much, I will say that R.F. Kuang is a master of setting up suspense and of well

deserved plot twists and outcomes of mysteries. Every plot and subplot in the novel had its place and

was well developed, all contributing to the main story and the grand finale. Just like in ‘The Poppy Wars’,

the author uses the historical circumstances of 19th century Britain as a wonderful starting point to

honestly and brutally discuss the issues that unfortunately still plague modern Britain and its former

colonies. The fictionalized account of silver work and its connection to translation, serves as a perfect

metaphor for the relationship between Britain and her colonies, that of taking but not giving back,

looking down upon ‘the other’, fetishization and racism. Empire is represented in professors at Oxford

choosing their pick of the litter and essentially gaslighting them into being grateful that they were taken

from their homes to be treated as second class citizens and replaceable by others. This is a novel that

spans across several years, but the pacing was seamless, definitely helped by the passage of

semesters during the studies of the protagonists. However, even within those days, I never felt like the

story was dragging or going too fast. In fact, I spent many a night reading this novel, as I have always

wanted more. 

I cannot decide if I like the plot and the original idea of using translated words and pairs to run the entire empire and keep Britain on top or the characters more. At first, I was a little bit afraid of the characters falling into tropes, especially racial ones. However, the main cohort has been given plenty of room to develop and grow in front of the readers, whether through their monologues and insights into their thinking or through their relationship with others. Of course, in such a time and space, the fact that Robin (who is Asian) passes as a white man sometimes, while Letty is white but a woman definitely plays a huge part in their friendship. Their relationship is full of love and respect, but also incredibly high wired at all times because of these apparent and some not so apparent differences. While I did relate more to some characters than others, I did understand where all of them were pulling their ideas from and in that sense they were quite realistic. Other characters beyond them are sufficient, I would say. Robin’s father is a typical example of a racist colonial man, but he definitely feels like men like him would exist. For such a massive book, both in terms of scope and the sheer volume, I did expect a lot of characters, some of which are not given too much space, but there were a lot of them that I feel could have been given more space on the page. I would be the first one to buy a book about Anthony, who is, with Victorie, one of the only black people at Oxford and definitely has a compelling story.

R.F. Kuang is a translator herself and that influence is definitely visible here. Throughout the novel, there are numerous examples of etymologies of words in English and their equivalents in foreign languages. The author also included plenty of humorous and sharp notes at the bottom of the page, adding more historical context to this fictionalised story and thus giving it more legitimacy. Just for that, if not for the fact of supporting an incredible author, you should think about purchasing a physical copy of the novel. I am not sure how well they have been included in other formats, and you would definitely be missing out on them.

The ending was not surprising, especially after reading ‘The Poppy Wars.’ Again, I will not spoil too much, as it is worth reading this novel going in as blind as possible. I will just say that it is a very typical R. F. Kuang’s ending and that I expected nothing less than an absolute heart break from her.

I must say that I have grown more attached to the characters from ‘The Poppy Wars’, than here but that could also be attributed to the fact that ‘Babel’ is a stand alone, while ‘The Poppy Wars’ is a really long and developed trilogy. Both stand in their own right, with Kuang’s distinct voice echoing through them, but with enough substance to make them different.

I am definitely very excited to read whatever Kuang publishes next, with even more expectations. Did you read this book? Did you read anything else by Kuang? What did you think?

source: literaryhub.com