From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …
Content warning minor spoilers for book 1 / the first 4 chapters
I'm thoroughly enjoying this book so far, including among other things the descriptions of Oxford through the eyes of some new students. It's clear that Kuang has a lot of affection for the place even as she's setting the story up to be very sharply critical of it in important ways. And that's striking a very personal chord with me.
I interviewed at Oxford as a potential undergrad, and didn't get in. It was the one university I applied to that required an interview, and even though the interview itself was frustrating [I seemed to be evaluated on prior subject knowledge, for a subject they advertised as not needing prior background to study], the 3 days in Oxford in an autumnal fog around it were lovely. Looking back I'm reasonably confident that I was better off studying elsewhere, but every now and then I do get some longing for the place because it is so beautiful, and it is possible to fall for the illusion it has of itself as a town-sized temple of pure learning.
I think Robin and Rami's 3 days of freedom before term starts managed to capture a lot of that feeling. It's already clear the place isn't going to be as good for Robin as he thinks, but oh it's such a beautiful place it's easy to be charmed by it.