Assembly - Natasha Brown: Review

I struggled reading and understanding this one, because it isn‘t written in prose but in a more lyrical way. It read a bit like a big poetry slam. And the vocab was very advanced which for me - a non native speaker - was a challange. But worth every struggle.

This is about a young, black women in Britain‘s finance circle. It is about her obstacles and the subtle racism that she faces, not only in her work environment but also in her personal life. She narrates the book in a very cold manner, little to no emotions are involved in the narration and yet it is packed with it. When I read the almost analytical descriptions I had two monitors in my head. One that matched the narration, which was her inner voice and one that showed her exterior. It felt like she had built that wall to protect her from her own feelings. 

It is about an environment that is still drilled to distinguish race and social class. It is about trying to overcome this. And it is also about giving up to overcome it. Everything in me wanted to scream to read because frustration was piling up. So much passive agressiveness and fake smiles and fake attitudes disguising racism in todays day and age. 

It is a book about subtle rage and injustice. I can‘t describe it in a better way honestly. There is so much packed in it. The question what one lets to define oneself and what one. And how much you can define yourself and how much other people are defining yourself. And how sometimes you can‘t distinguish who you really are and what you really believe in. It is a book dense in complexity and topics.