ASSEMBLY
NATASHA BROWN
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Imprint: Hamish Hamilton
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
I would recommend this book with my last breath. A searing debut novella. It’s unreasonable how good Assembly is.
Penned by Cambridge-graduate Natasha Brown and condensed into a slim 112 pages. Our narrator, a woman of Jamaican descent prepares to spend the weekend at her boyfriends’ old money family estate. Through fragmented prose, we are guided through detached descriptions of socio-economic hierarchy, common-wealth and what it means to join the upper percentile as a black British woman. Our narrator grapples with the ruthlessness of a career in big finance. Her descriptions are distant, her perspective feels like disassociation. There is space she places between herself and her situation. Emulation, but never belonging.
“Their culture becomes parody on my body”
Her words become a brutal reflection of what it means to make it as a British person of colour. Our protagonist lives with amplified anxieties and dread in between spa visits and financial investments. There are soft detections of guilt for enjoying these privileges now afforded to her, further unravelling the insidious repercussions of colonisation. The plot stands on its own, following significant arcs, however it is the writing style of Natasha Brown that shines brilliantly and brightly in this book. Brown writes with an unmatched intellectual perspective. There is skilful use of literary techniques, most flying way above my head. The entire book left me feeling like a smooth-brained novice and I loved it.
Each sentence felt like someone shaking you awake. Begging you to see a reality you’ve ignored for years.
Choppy prose is a popular trope of modern literature. If quick is not your preferred pace, this novella will feel unbalanced. There are shifts in time, shifts in distance and technique. This book is an ‘on your toes’ piece. Off beat, quickening and slowing often. Full disclosure, I lap up a swift chapter; this is my bias.
Assembly is an incisive look at assimilation and meritocracy, filled to the brim with visual language. It is an education in equity and embarrassingly, it caught me off guard. This novella is small but complex. The writing is achingly beautiful and unbearably relevant.
I will recommend this book ‘till the very end. Read it.
Assembly by Natasha Brown is out now in hardback, ebook and audio.
