Babel by R.F. Kuang
It's the loveliest place on earth...imagine a town of scholars, all researching the most marvelous, fascinating things: science, mathematics, languages, literature. Imagine building after building with more books than you've seen in your entire life.
Babel
R.F. Kuang
•
There aren't a lot of novels I truly feel are suitable for just about any audience- from middle school readers through middle aged moms- but Babel is just that book. It has very strong Harry Potter vibes, complete with three main, best friend characters. It is set in the early 1800s and follows students who are attending a prestigious translation department at Oxford, known as Babel.
•
In the introduction, Kuang describes Babel as a work of "speculative fiction” which initially felt somewhat broad. I am not a reader who enjoys magical realism or fantasy, so I was worried those elements would spoil this book for me. However, when I was just a few pages in I knew this would be one of my top reads of 2022; I found sublime joy in the settings (most of the novel is spent in London and on the Oxford campus) and the academic vibe that Kuang so masterfully wove is intoxicating.
•
There is a lot to dissect here and I can’t begin to touch on all the layers to this novel, but what I feel is so unique to Babel is that it is a book that a young reader will enjoy for the sheer adventure of the story but older readers will marvel at the scope of this almost 600 pages. Kuang takes on some huge issues: Colonialism, power and inequality. She explores them by probing the very interesting question about the inherent power given to those who translate the written word. I am oversimplifying everything she delves into here because, suffice it to say, Kuang is one smart author and she is poking the bear.
•
Babel is layered, well written, has both a propulsive plot and well drawn characters. It takes on things in way that caused me to stop and think. If I had any issues at all, it was that I felt the three main characters were a bit too much like Harry, Ron and Hermione. But my guess is that that trio is very hard to erase from the consciousness of any reader her age and trios tend to make for interesting foils.
•
I won't lie - my favorite parts were the passages about dark rooms full of books and the Oxford campus, which Kuang knows from her own days being a student there and she portrayed so well for the reader. I was utterly absorbed in this story and it’s the perfect fall and winter novel.
