Tag: rfkuang

Oh R.F. Kuang

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There is so much discourse surrounding R.F. Kuang at the moment and the word I have to say about it all is: disappointed.

In case you were unaware about what is going on, R.F. Kuang has included a minor character in her upcoming book Tapei. Why would this cause controversy? Because that character is Israeli. Now this character does not add anything to the story. Nor does this character appear again (according to the ARC readers).

I LOVED R.F. Kuang. Her writing style, her narrative style, the themes she writes about, the passion and conviction that she puts into every book. Babel is a book I have recommended to everyone, a book that is a 6 star read for me. And I just can’t understand why she has done this.

One of my favorite books ever.

By including this character she is perpetuating a narrative that is normalised. And she has stood up for the plight of Palestianian people so how can she then perpetuate this normalised narrative? It really had disappointed and baffled me. If you want a full read and understanding of what normalisation is, please check out the BDS movement guidelines. But essentially the incorporation of Israel in media and communities is allowing them to continue the oppression of the Palestinian people. It’s comes part and parcel of boycotting the big corporations amongst other things.

R.F. Kuang has gone from writing books about colonisation and genocides, the long lasting impact and  effect this has on societies, individuals and generations to then including a a genocidal, colonising nationality in her book? A throwaway word? Something that never had to be included? And that’s what makes this SO frustrating, for somebody who is extremely intelligent I do not for one second believe that she did not know what she was doing. This was a choice. A conscious choice. R.F. Kuang has always been a very intentional writer, so the incorporation of this is very intentional. And then the writing that follows is so jarring. I’ve read the pages that have been shared online and it is just so confusing. The religious imagery that is used to describe the transcendental emotions and feelings that are caused by the Israeli pianist are so coincidental with Zionist propaganda that it really threw me.

I had preorderd Tapei and a special collectors edition of Babel and I have now cancelled both of them. As someone who is pro-Palestine and has boycotted massively over the last 10 years, who has been on demonstrations and who has been extremely vocal about the suffering and oppression of Palestianian people I just cannot sit here and condone this and normalise it myself.

R.F. Kuang. Do better. Be better.

Book review: Katabasis

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Hello!

This is going to be a tough one.

Let me start with saying that I LOVE Kuang’s prose and her story building, her meticulous attention to detail through research and her character building – Babel, for me, is just sublime and a 6* read – and it pains me to say this, but Katabasis just fell flat for me.

I was lucky to attend an evening with R.F Kuang as part of Manchester’s Literature Festival and it was a joy to hear her speak about her influences, research and love of literature.


I was so excited for Katabasis off the back of Babel and maybe these high expectations are what let me down somewhat.

Kuang writes so beautifully and the English Literature student in me loved all the classical references to Dante, Virgil and Eliot and their works on Hell, their descriptions, their analogies – she borrows from them and weaves it all together giving the beginning of the novel a gorgeous mystical feeling. And yet…Hell is inherently religious, morality and steeped in culture and Kuang strips Hell of this core factor which, I think, removes the imagination and nuances which the classical stories delve into.


The premise of the story is obviously what drew me in and sounded so intriguing, but, for me, the full potential wasn’t reached and I think it’s because I felt a constant sense of disorientation rather than clarity at Alice and Peter’s descent into hell. The plot jumped from bit to bit, the levels of hell all felt separate rather than being cohesive and feeding into each other – the description and prose of each was beautiful, but at times became nonsensical – massive amounts of exposition – and the narrative amd plot became lost in it. I did like the structure it gave the story and I liked that as they went further into hell the prose took on a darker tone.

The characters. I liked Peter. His story, his silent struggle and his need to keep Alice safe. But his relationship with Alice just lacked…everything. I didn’t feel any chemistry or intimacy between them. I wasn’t invested in their ‘love’ story. To me it didn’t feel anything like a love story – just two people forced to be with each other due to proximity.

Alice. Oh Alice. I don’t mind an unlikeable character with flaws – for me they make a story – I just felt like Alice thought so much of her self, that self arrogance linked to Grimes and then right at the end the romantic feelings for Peter. I couldn’t sympathise with her and by the end I just disliked her. Her acknowledgement of misogyny but refusal to do anything, instead to benefit from it and use Grimes’ attraction to her but then cry when he behaves the way he’s expected. Double standards. But because of this flip/flopping between thoughts and opinions I just couldn’t warm to her.

I appreciate what Kuang was trying to do, it just didn’t work for me 😔

3.5 ⭐️