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Babel
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[Subdue] Babel by R.F. Kuang -4.5 stars
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Great review and nice to know it is time consuming so that I can plan accordingly!
I won this in a giveaway last year and have put it off because of the length but it sounds great. I don't think I put it on my Subdue list because of the length, but I hope I'll get to it anyway.
Great review! I so want to read this soon!
I just purchased this with a Christmas gift card. I'm looking forward to eventually reading it and but your review made me push it a little higher on the TBR.
Great review, with food and wine pairing tips! Start with scones. And kudos for picking a challenging book when you have to read two for your roll. I got this in audible’s 2 for 1 sale, partly because of the tournament of books. It looked a little outside my comfort zone, but not as much as her Poppy War books. Brutal and dense scares me, but I’m going to give it a try. The linguistics part sounds fascinating.
Thanks for a great review, Tien. I'm really curious about this book now and want to eat a scone.
Great review! I agree the research that went into this book must have been formidable. And also agree that fresh scones should be on-hand for the first part of the book!
Robin P wrote: "I won this in a giveaway last year and have put it off because of the length but it sounds great. I don't think I put it on my Subdue list because of the length, but I hope I'll get to it anyway."It's #83 on your list, Robin, so who knows... you may or may not get to read it yet :)
BUT I'm so thankful that it is on your list! I was rather overwhelmed by the many lists and grateful for the familiar (albeit long title) ha ha - and having the book on hand made it so much easier to decide this is it.
Olivermagnus wrote: "I just purchased this with a Christmas gift card. I'm looking forward to eventually reading it and but your review made me push it a little higher on the TBR."you'll probably read it in a single sitting!
I've a friend who started reading 2 days after me and finished hers the next day (she read 400+ pages in one day). It's just... mindblowing lol
I don't know if people feel like this but each time there is a rather prominent food in a book I'm reading, I crave for them so badly! One time I was reading a Korean historical fiction and all I wanted to eat was kimchi! even at 9am lol -luckily I love kimchi so that's ok.I also love scones so this was more than ok ;)
Tien wrote: "I don't know if people feel like this but each time there is a rather prominent food in a book I'm reading, I crave for them so badly! One time I was reading a Korean historical fiction and all I w..."Pretty often the same for me. After finishing Black Water Sister I had to order dinner delivery of Malaysian food! Fortunately living in NYC, I can pretty much 'feed' such cravings easily either from a restaurant or sourcing ingredients to cook myself.
This was a little older series, but the main character in the Kinsey Millhone series was always, always eating egg salad sandwiches. I had to have one with every single book in that series.
Sue wrote: "This was a little older series, but the main character in the Kinsey Millhone series was always, always eating egg salad sandwiches. I had to have one with every single book in that series."LOL - oh that's good! Is there a special way for the egg salad sandwich (mayo? curry powder? etc)
The character did in fact have a special way to make her egg salad. She would boil one egg, then mix and eat the egg salad while it was still warm.
Sue wrote: "The character did in fact have a special way to make her egg salad. She would boil one egg, then mix and eat the egg salad while it was still warm."I have always prefered my egg salad sandwiches warm and made like that. I was thrilled the first time I read that in the series!
Professor Lovell liked plain scones the least, though, so sultana scones were the staple of their afternoon teas
...
[Robin] knew he didn't like sultanas in his scones; when Professor Lovell wasn't looking, he picked out his sultanas, slathered the denuded scone in clotted cream, and popped it in his mouth.
Ok so the above quote doesn't really have anything to do with the plot in the book but seriously, all the mention of scones made me crave for some so what does one do but bake some! I'd suggest some fresh scones ready for reading the first part of the book but after that, I really needed wine. A. Lot. of. Wine. Honestly, I was wary of this book after The Poppy War trilogy. I mean that trilogy was violently brutal! And seriously, R.F. Kuang does not hold back her punches. Babel is excruciatingly brutal. I find that with The Poppy War trilogy, there is that veil of fantasy but in Babel, while there is still that fantasy veil, it is ever so sheer.
It should have been distressing. In truth, though, Robin found it was actually quite easy to put up with any degree of social unrest, as long as one got used to looking away.
I find the protagonist, Robin Swift, to be a character I can empathise with deeply. His fears and his way of burying his head in the sand when the problem is glaringly in front of him is exactly like mine. His cohort is only made up of 4 including him; 2 being persons of colour (Ramy & Victoire) and 1 being an "English Rose" (Letty). While Ramy & Victoire are great foils of Robin in their different approaches to the issue of acceptance, nationality, etc, Letty's portrayal presents the other side of the fence. I loved that Robin isn't an angry character per se (doesn't mean he doesn't get angry), the author still got her point across. There were racist moments in the book where I could just cry imagining my boys facing the same sort of thing and yet, I wonder if they'd touch some people at all.
The great contradiction, of course, is that there is no such thing as humane colonization.
Babel is a very dense reading. The amount of research must have been astounding. There was so much in this book from general history to linguistic ones. As the author has noted, however, certain things were fudged a little bit to fit because, after all, this is a work of fiction. I can't tell you what's been fudged but I'm still so very impressed with the meticulous details presented in this novel. The read will take a lot of focus and time but hoowee, it's absolutely worth IT!
'...And we're asking you now to finally, please, hear what we're trying to tell you. Please believe us.'