Assembly

By: Natasha Brown

Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner

Length: 1 hr and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

This blistering, fearless, and unforgettable literary novel finds a woman with everything on the line and a life-or-death decision waiting for her—perfect for fans of Claudia Rankine and Jenny Offill.

Come of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Go to college, get an education, start a career. Do all the right things. Buy an apartment. Buy art. Buy a sort of happiness. But above all, keep your head down. Keep quiet. And keep going.

The narrator of Assembly is a black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend’s family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can’t escape the question: is it time to take it all apart?

Assembly is a story about the stories we live within—those of race and class, safety and freedom, winners and losers. And it is about one woman daring to take control of her own story, even at the cost of her life. With a steely, unfaltering gaze, Natasha Brown dismantles the mythology of whiteness, lining up the debris in a neat row and walking away.

"Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway meets Claudia Rankine's Citizen...as breathtakingly graceful as it is mercilessly true.”—Olivia Sudjic, author of Sympathy and Asylum Road

A woman confronts the most important question of her life in this blistering, fearless, and unforgettable literary debut from "a stunning new writer." (Bernardine Evaristo)

“A quiet, measured call to revolution…This is the kind of book that doesn’t just mark the moment things change, but also makes that change possible.”—Ali Smith, author of Summer

"Brilliant. Brown's gaze is piercing."—Avni Doshi, author of Burnt Sugar

©2021 Natasha Brown (P)2021 Little, Brown & Company

Critic reviews

“Natasha Brown’s exquisite prose, daring structure and understated elegance are utterly captivating. She is a stunning new writer.”—BERNARDINE EVARISTO, Booker Prize-winning author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER

“Bold and original, with a cool intelligence, and so very truthful about the colonialist structure of British society: how it has poisoned even our language, making its necessary dismantling almost the stuff of dreams. I take hope from Assembly, not just for our literature but also for our slow awakening.”—DIANA EVANS, author of ORDINARY PEOPLE

“Mind-bending and utterly original. Assembly is like Thomas Bernhard in the key of Rachel Cusk but about black subjectivity.”—BRANDON TAYLOR, author of REAL LIFE and FILTHY ANIMALS

You gotta read it more than once

This book is a wow. One of the few about race and sex, where every word counts. And the bitter truth of our paradigm is raw and exposed.
You want to know how people of color and female people, in a place which reeks of the stench of institutionalized hatred, feel. Wanna know what goes on inside a brilliant mind when you are being stupid? Well, read this book! If you’d rather stay unconsciously ignorant, don’t come near this book.

Dark and inconvenient truths

A must read to glimpse the perspective of a black woman living in modern England. An important read. Especially for an English white person.

Amazing

It’s rare a book touches me as deeply as this one did. Beautiful work. I hope the author writes more in the future.

Excellent eye opening read

I was not expecting to walk away with a greater understanding of the daily, hourly, sometimes minute by minute racism faced by black Americans. This writer describes it so well you experience what this woman is going through. And it’s a great story well written and well read.

Uncomfortable and riveting

Clever and exquisite prose, exceptional narration. A sobering glimpse into otherness. Those who've given this book poor reviews seem to have missed the point entirely.

CLIFFHANGER!!

My father recommended this book! Said it was BRILLIANT! Best he’d read in ages! Will read again soon! On and ON! Gave it a chance because I adored my last Black Brit Book “Girl Woman Other”
It took me a while to warm up to it because I was a bit put off by her time jumping style, however it picked up when she started talking about the colonial history of Britain (I am a history teacher so this spoke to me) and got more into the complicated and performative dynamics with her Wealthy White Political boyfriend!! Just as I was hooked and committed to the characters it ended ABRUPTLY!!
Superbly written and Wonderfully narrated!!
I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment!!

Inspires contradictory reactions

This is an interesting, quick listen, written by a talented and erudite writer.

And as a liberal, middle-aged white male I... well... wonder if my voice is even allowed to critique aspects of this short story/novel, particularly realizing some of my other reviews have dwelled on similar issues.

But... I get hung up on parts of this novel and parts of the bio of the writer.

Here is her description in "Assembly" of a white male co-worker who takes pride in his elevating himself from a working class background:

“He rarely shows up before 11. As if each morning, fresh mediocrity slides out of the ocean, slimes its way over mossy rocks and sand, then sprouts skittering appendages that stretch and morph and twist into limbs as it forges on inland until finally, fully formed.”

First, it's mean and funny and well-done.

Second, however, there exist no mid-level person of any gender or race who "rarely shows up before 11" who works in banking/finance. Period. It's an entirely false character, created only to cast scorn upon a type -- entitled white male.

Here's a quote from Brown about this book:

"Nothing bad happens to any of the characters, none are subjected to harsh criticism or even unkind dialogue. Instead, the narrator emphasizes how much she understands the people around her. "

Hmm.

The central idea of the narrative is the narrator/main character has followed the rules, excelled, overcome overt and subtle institutional racism that slams into her daily and now stands at the brink -- an upperclass white collar, just promoted worker who is apparently about to be invited by marriage into the gentry of English society. (There's a existential twist I'll not spoil).

And she's incredibly ambivalent about it. She doesn't like her work. Assimilation into a culture she finds ugly and duplicitous vexes her. She feels like all she sees is hypocrisy, though one might argue she's using racism as a blanket term to describe her depressive solipsism.

What is she to do?

Well... she could break up with a boyfriend she doesn't seem to like or even respect, quit her job and pursue something more fulfilling, knowing she has a great nest egg to sustain her during the transition.

Or ... she could do as the author, who worked 10 years in finance before taking a break, winning a significant writing grant without having published anything previously and then earned six figure advances for this very book.

She's 31. Rich. Celebrated. And, please forgive me, really, really good looking.

I know. Just because she's on top of the world in every respect doesn't eliminate the racial aggressions -- micro and macro, which are vividly shown in the novel -- that do damage, even to the strong.

I guess what I always seem to want is us to fight racism, celebrate incremental societal improvement and not go off the rails with the "tear it all down" "math is racist" "punctuality is racist" "capitalism is racist" super-left woke stuff.

But, hey, what do I know.

At first I Thought This Was Not Best in Audio

but, once I got the rhythm I cannot imagine it any other way...the reader is perfect.

Portrays Uncomfortable Truths

This is beautifully written. Interwoven between multiple stories are the uncomfortable Truths that some will be unwilling to accept. As an Afro-Caribbean immigrant to the US, it's an uncomfortable reminder that these issues occur throughout the world, not just in the USA.

Interesting premise

Just okay. I think that I was frustrated with the story and really felt unsympathetic to all characters. This a good story to listen to if you want background noise while doing household chores.