Assembly: Pride and Prejudice

- a novel by Natasha Brown.

A thin, thin book, but boy was it packed!! Taut and concise, every sentence had a meaning, every word was deliberate, no alphabet went to waste. I was left with a longing for more, to read more. Not only was the narration style poetic, the story and the way of writing that story was immensely gripping. A 5 star rated read, without a doubt.

The book follows a young black British woman, who on paper seems to have it all: a successful career, an interesting life, a potentially upcoming engagement with a partner who's white and comes from a privileged, old money English family.

The plot of the story, though, is that it doesn't really have one. It's a stream of thoughts captured within a span of 1-2 days. It is detached to mimic the thought processing and recollections any person conjures up regularly. Assembly deals with racism, micro aggression, being stereotyped and never fitting in

The book, it's smart, clever and touches upon a wide range of issues ingrained in Britain today. So much of the narrator’s life is about how she compares the standard of whiteness, she can never be unique, or truly herself. There is an exhaustion that emanates from the narrator, she is tired of working this job, tired of being quiet, and tired of being a symbol.

Assembly isn’t a fairytale. At its core, is the question of assimilation. Can a black woman be successful in a corporate world, dominated by white males? Can she find acceptance in her privileged family and still stay true to who she is?

And you know how I feel about debut novels by now, and you've probably hit it right on the nose, yes- Assembly is a debut novel by Natasha Brown. It holds so much literary excellence. Eloquent, arresting and beautifully crafted. A definite recommendation for ALL.