Babel: Great promise, disappointing execution

What is Babel about?

The story follows Robin Swift, a Chinese orphan from Canton (ie. China), who was raised (the word “raised” is used very liberally here) by a British Professor named Richard Lovell. Robin’s upbringing was strict. He attended private Greek and Latin classes. His knowledge of these languages along with his mother tongue, Mandarin, would grant him a spot in Babel ie. The Royal Institute of Translation in Oxford.

A good portion of the book describes Robin’s life in Oxford with his 3 friends: Ramy (a witty and charming Indian man who was shipped away from Calcutta to York, much like Robin), Victoire (a Haitian girl, often the mediator of the group, whose parents escaped to France only to be servants for a French family) and Letty (a rather spoiled and stubborn girl from Brighton who misogynistic father gave her major inferiority complex). We learn about the dynamics of their friendship, the discrimination faced by the foreign students, and the lives of the Oxford scholars which consisted of a lot of reading and intense exams. 

The themes of colonialism and racism persist throughout the novel. Despite being set in the 1800s when slavery and blatant racism were rampant, Babel was one of the few institutions that welcomed foreigners as knowing multiple languages is an asset. Multilingualism translates to literal magical powers that drive the world's economy. I genuinely find the magic in this book cool. The more Babel can tap into “exotic languages”, the more money it can make. For this reason, Babel opened doors to foreigners such as Robin and his friends.

It was naïve of the British to think that these foreign scholars, some of which are former slaves or young children stripped from their motherland, would bore loyalty to England. When opportunities to revolt arose, many took part.

Robin was reluctant. As he admittedly has grown fond of the comfortable and lovely life he lived in Oxford. He wanted to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed by Babel. But when he was forced to see Babel's true intentions, he turned a new leaf.

My thoughts on Babel.

Hm. I really liked the book.

Two common criticisms that this book received were 1. the characters were one-dimensional, and had no development, and 2. the exploration of colonialism/racism in this book was very shallow - mainly that white people are evil. These are valid criticisms but I still think the positives of the book outweigh its negative. Perhaps we had too high of an expectation for this particular book. Probably because of all the hype surrounding it.

Let me address 4 things about this book. And I will start with the positives.

Linguistics theme.

First of all, I loved the linguistic theme which permeated the book. As a linguistics student (once upon a time), it was cool to see linguistics, and linguists in general, depicted as a powerful tool that drives the world.

The idea of translation being an act of betrayal... there's just so much potential in that premise.

Unfortunately, this was not the point of the novel. There were some awesome etymology knowledge nuggets and bits of historical linguistics, but that was about it. "Language" and "translation" were not as big a theme as I wished they would have been from a book called "Babel".

Characters.

I actually liked Robin. I related to some parts of his story. Personally, I felt that he did undergo a character development, albeit not an incredibly fascinating or well-thought-out one.

He went from being afraid of stepping up and fully joining the revolutionary cause, to basically going all-in. A little to all-in. Granted, it was not truly a voluntary, free-willed choice for Robin. One might say his hand was forced. But I ended up appreciating this turn of events for his character. I respected his development, but I just wish there was more to the ending.

This leads me to my second point. Kuang definitely dropped the ball when it came to the remaining 3 main characters: Ramy, Victoire, and Letty. I can excuse Ramy and Letty because there is an argument that their characters were there to serve a particular purpose. But given how interesting their backstories were, they both deserved to have more light shone on their past. Even side characters deserve some love too!

My biggest problem was with Victoire. Victoire was supposed to be an important character that we love and relate to. Most importantly, she was supposed to continue carrying the torch of the revolution. Yet it was hard to connect with her because we know so little about her. Her character was so underdeveloped.

The same goes for the other Babel students who were part of the cause. It was important to create and solidify a deep connection between them and the audience. But this was done quite hastily. Griffin was the one that pained me the most. So much could have been do to flesh out the details and the personalities of these characters. It would've made this book so iconic and special.

Exploration of racism and colonialism.

I thought this take on racism and colonialism was surprising. Kuang went all out in showing all of colonialism's atrocities. There was some nice exploration of how colonialism and Britain's greed impacted China, particularly in relation to the opium trade. But that portion was short and sweet. It came towards the end and it kickstarted the action-packed part of the book. It definitely felt a bit rushed and could have been explored in greater detail and with more nuance.

Kuang used a lot of words to explain colonialism and racism to us. But it may have been a more effective strategy to show this through the events in the book, rather than straight-up... for a lack of a better word, preaching it to us. It felt quite dry, and almost patronising when she dove deep into the academic aspects of the theme.

This is not to say that the points Kuang made were not interesting or enlightening. But at the end of the day, it's a fictional book. Given the medium, this is not the right way to highlight and deliver such poignant and heavy themes.

I saw comments which stated that the book was written from a place of hate. A place of hate for white people to be exact. I can see why people would think that. There were lines that I had to bookmark and show to my family because of how unbelievably heavily loaded they were. Given that there is still ample racism in today's world, I wouldn't be surprised if these dialogues were realistic back in the day. But I still don't think it is as black-and-white as Babel made it out to be.

The book touched on some real history. I assumed that over the course of the story, Kuang would explore the themes of racism, imperialism, and colonialism in a deeper and more nuanced way. But this was never the case.

Kuang briefly introduced the idea of social classes triumphing over race when it comes to uniting and separating people. I loved this theme but Kuang never properly explored it, which is such a shame.

The ending.

The ending was bleak.

I do not have a problem with bleak.

But I have a problem with how anticlimactic the ending felt, given how severely underdeveloped the plot was.

I got the impression that the ending was made bleak just to give the readers a shock factor. The book wanted so badly to be real, gritty, and dark. To achieve this, Kuang opted for a shocking and tragic ending. But ironically, it felt like an "easy way out." It was not creative or revolutionary. The narrative up to this point also did not really support this ending.

Final remarks, 7/10.

Overall, I did enjoy this book a lot. I would give it a 7/10. I adored the characters' interactions and their dynamics. I wished so much that their friendships and personalities were fleshed out more. I shared the same sentiment for the heavy themes that were explored in the book.

Contrary to many's opinions, I found the book exciting. I found myself looking forward to the ending, even if that excitement and anticipation were misplaced.

Yet it is the kind of book that sparks conversations and I can never fault that.