Babel

Yesterday I felt well enough to not sleep all day, but definitely didn't have much energy to do anymore than the absolute necessities. Which is why I found myself reading for three hours in the afternoon. (I'm 100% sure it contributed to my full recovery today.) 

Those three hours allowed me to finish Babel by R.F. Kuang. This is one of those books that I'm glad I have read, but equally glad to be done reading it. It is not a happy book. (Which is probably why it took me over a week to read.) It is incredibly well written and by the second half the story is compelling. 

A brief synopsis. This is speculative fiction, so the story is set in Victorian England in Oxford, but a Victorian Oxford where the burgeoning industrial revolution is powered by silver instead of steam and machines. The silver bars create a kind of magical power if two words (match pairs) are engraved on them. The two words need to be from two different languages and it is the combination of deeper meaning within the translation of the match pairs which gives them their power. Silver bars are behind everything in English society. They keep the roads from deteriorating, bridges from collapsing, trains to run, warships to sail, and looms to weave.  But as Western languages run out of match pairs, new languages are needed so nee translators need to be trained. Translators who speak non-Western languages as fluently as they speak English, Greek, and Latin. Many of these translation students were children in counties who were colonized by England and found to be adept at languages. They were then taken and trained for eventual enrollment at Oxford by their mentors or guardians. Given an incredible education, clothes, food, a place to live, a secure future as long as they continued to work on behalf of England creating the silver bars that slow England to colonize and rule over the counties they came from. I hope you can see where the trajectory of the book then heads. It is a challenging read.

I actually think it would make a useful, though not easy, choice as a book club selection for transracial adoptive parents. There are very familiar themes that are raised. A child taken out of poverty and given the world in a culture that doesn't always accept them. The lack of actual choice that these children had. And the biggest theme: why could they (the children raised to be translators) not be grateful for the advantages they were given. If you are a transracial adoptive parent and these themes don't give you pause, then perhaps you need to read this book. 

The author's take on the world is not ultimate optimistic. I think that is the thing that made it most difficult to read. But I believe it is still worthwhile even if it is not always easy.