Babel
R.F. Kuang · 2022
An Oxford translation institute powered by silver magic is revealed as an engine of British imperialism. Kuang's novel is a furious, meticulously researched attack on the violence embedded in language, empire, and academic institutions. Its anger is coherent and its scholarship is real.
The case against
Kuang does not trust you to draw a conclusion. Footnotes interrupt the story to explain that racism is bad, characters pause to deliver seminar papers, and the subtitle announces the thesis before page one. The silver-magic system is clever and the rage is earned; the lecturing wears the novel down anyway.
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