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Babel Tower
Babel Tower | A. S. Byatt
7 posts | 12 read | 5 to read
The Booker Prize-winning author of Possession presents a stunning, contemporary story set against the clashing politics, passionate ideals, and shifting sexual roles of the early 1960s. In Byatt's vision, the presiding genius of the day seems to be a blend of the Marquis de Sade and The Hobbit. Peopled with weird and colorful characters, charted with brilliant, imaginative sympathy, Babel Tower is as comic as it is threatening and bizarre.
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review
ElaineR
Babel Tower | A. S. Byatt
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Pickpick

In this, the third book in Byatt's quartet, we find Frederica fleeing an increasingly abusive marriage and trying to find a life in a 1960s world that recognises her as a mother/wife only, never flesh and blood. Woven in between Frederica's story is a grotesque, fantasy, novel which will later be tried for obscenity.

As with all Byatt, the writing is as literate and rich with cultural references as you could hope.

Just magnificent.

ElaineR Worth noting that although there is a Frederica quartet all of the books can be read independently. 5y
20 likes1 comment
quote
ElaineR
Babel Tower | A. S. Byatt
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'Everything in England', this journalist writes, 'comes back to the inextricable links between our educational system, privilege, or lack of it, and sex...'

There is truth to these words yet!

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ElaineR
Babel Tower | A. S. Byatt
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'I feel I'm on trial for reading books.'
'You are. Partly.'
'I wouldn't be if I were a man.'
'Perhaps not. I know a couple - early thirties, can't have children, desperate to adopt. The social worker concerned in vetting them sent in a report saying "Plausible couple, well-intentioned. Too many books in the house. Wife reads." '

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ElaineR
Babel Tower | A. S. Byatt
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"It might begin:" #firstlinefridays

ElaineR Then follows 4 potential "beginnings". Very intriguing way to open a book. 5y
ImperfectCJ It's been ages and ages since I read this one. I read it shortly after it came out, and I liked it then but wasn't near ready to appreciate it. I should give it a re-read now that I'm older and (maybe) wiser. 5y
ElaineR @ImperfectCJ Always very excited to meet another Byatt fan! I love her writng, so I'm biased, but truly loving this. There's something so satisfying about a slow, challenging, monster of a book. Definitely worth a re-read I say if older and wiser ;-). There's a surprising amount of humour in it that a younger me simply wouldn't get. 5y
13 likes3 comments
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ElaineR
Babel Tower | A. S. Byatt
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Here we go. Over 600 pages of magical, literary fiction It's been a while since I last read Byatt but that feeling is still there. In fact she is one of my favourite authors. The beauty and richness of her writing is unmistakable. #asbyatt #literaryfiction #longread

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Lesliereads
Babel Tower | A. S. Byatt
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Sometimes I see big fat books and wonder "Hm. If I read more of these would my litfluence number be higher?" #bigfatbooks #chunkers #litfluence

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FirstOfAutumn
Babel Tower | A. S. Byatt
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Language rustles around her with many voices, none of them hers, all of them hers.