Babel, or The Necessity of Violence

Wow wow wow, what an incredible book. The magic system of language is so clever and creative, easily one of my favorites I've ever read. Admittedly I did get a little bored in the middle section of their first years at babel but once the trip to China happened this book took off and never looked back. I loved the cast of characters, the problems they faced, the solutions they came to and the parallels this book has to so much going on in current day society. The incredibly powerful themes of colonialism, capitalism, racism, sexism and any other -ism you can think of are done so well that no review I can write will do this book justice. The pain and yet completely obvious betrayal from letty, so so many deaths of the overlooked and underappreciated students/translators, the strength to stick with a relaistic end to this protest instead of simply finding a conflict-free resolution makes the ending such a powerfully poingant and inspiring ending that few other books have accomplished


 You simply must just read it for yourself.