“Babel” by R.F. Kuang

This is a book that my sister bought me for Christmas, and I’ve slowly been making my way through the stack of books I acquired around then, so I just finished it. And honestly it’s a book that just hit right for me, felt like it was the right time in my life, the correct topics and ideas, and really well done writing. I cannot say enough good things about it, I’ve recommended it already to a bunch of people I know. 

The story follows Robin from when he’s a child in China watching his mother die while he is rescued by Professor Lovell. Lovell takes Robin to England where he is taught Latin and Greek and is funneled into the Babel school at Oxford. There Robin meets Ramy, a similar student who hails from India, and Victorie and Lottie, the other two students in his class. Victorie is a Black woman from Haiti while Lottie is English. Both have to jump through several hoops to be there, the rest of the university doesn’t take women.

Over the course of their studies the four become incredibly close, but Robin harbors a secret that he doesn’t dare share with the others. He met his half brother in town, turns out that his brother (Griffin) was also a student there. He faked his death and now works with the Hermes society to bring Babel down from its colonial purpose. Robin helps him for a while, but they break when Robin demands more information on what he’s doing. Later on Robin learns that Ramy and Victorie were separately recruited and things get tense in their group. They head off to their fourth year trip with Lovell to China, where Robin is devastated to learn that England, and specifically Babel/Lovell are behind it. Robin accidentally kills Lovell, and the coverup that ensues results in all four of them returning to school and reuniting with the Hermes Society.

While at their hideout, they discuss how to stop this war. Anthony, an older student in the Society, serves as a polar opposite to Griffin with his advocacy for swaying public opinion. However, Lottie betrays them and brings the police to the hideout. She shoots Ramy, and the other students are killed as Robin and Victorie are captured. They endure some torture before Griffin breaks them out. Griffin is then shot by a former classmate of his, and Robin and Victorie head back to campus. They hatch a plan to take the tower and call for a strike. As they stop all language work, London starts to grind to a halt. The army is sent in, but unions in the area show up to help them. When it becomes clear that the army cannot be held off any longer, Victorie escapes and heads to America while Robin stays behind to bring the building Babel is in down on his head.

The focus on language in this book I think hit the perfect amount of meta within the story. Of course it is a book, and it’s a written work about the power of language, so there’s a sense of a writer talking about writing and translating. But since language is more so a tool of writing, it doesn’t feel like a direct connection and it allows the story space to make its point. And that’s largely that language is a tool of colonialism that is directly driven by academia. The scholars in Babel are responsible for exploitation of other cultures indirectly and directly as students like Robin, Ramy, and Victorie are brought in from elsewhere. The main magic framework has to do with the power of translation where silver is engraved with 2 words in different languages with imperfect translations. When those two words are spoken, the difference in the words is manifested. London runs on silver, as the strike drags on carriages stop, sewage is stuck, and Westminster Bridge eventually falls.

I found the discussion of academia here really interesting. As someone trying to organize academics right now, so many of these issues are true to life. It is hard to get people to organize when they are told how lucky they are to be there, and how grateful they should be to the school. Lottie betraying the group demonstrates this perfectly where she is discriminated against as a woman, but she also firmly believes in their mission as an English citizen. Leading to her killing Ramy and selling them out. That point of view was such a great inclusion to show that not all marginalized experiences are the same.

The tension between Anthony and Griffin is also interesting as Victorie and Robin take up those places. Robin becomes more convinced that violence is the only way to persuade people, while Victorie wants to succeed but also wants to survive. And I love that it’s the Black woman who manages to make it out and continue the work going forward. I don’t think either stance is totally right, it does require violence but also swaying hearts and minds. It requires thinking about how to act fast and break things and how to plan for the long term.

This is almost certainly going to be one of my favorite books going forward. Tragically it isn’t a series with most of the characters dead, but I do want to read other things by Kuang as well, this is a writer who can speak to the current moment so well that I want to see her capture it again.