A review by mackenzi
Assembly by Natasha Brown

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

 Contemplative and sad. There are a lot of very relateable moments which made me feel hollow, though on some level much of Assembly seems so distant and out of reach. More than anything this book highlights the feelings I've had of trying to reach out and show my perspective, illustrate the magnitude of institutional racism, built into the system from the ground up, to people in my life, and have them unable to see beyond their individual selves, unable to see the systems that build every part of society. That gap sometimes seems insurmountable. And how do you construct an identity in that world, in their world, when you have that knowledge? Trying to force oneself into that worldview means you're sanding yourself down from a full human being into a shadow of one. Both pain and pleasure leech away until there's nothing of either. At their refusal or inability to see, you have to pretend along with them if you want to have a personal relationship. You have to pretend to enjoy being hollow. And Assembly is a story of someone who has done that for her whole life, even while feeling how soulless and impersonal it is, how deeply depressed she's become, while feeling how she's still a part of that imperialist, colonialist machine, be she successful or failing within it. 

It's prettily written and I enjoyed the style. The jumping between the present moment and thoughts of other events, the past, summarizing feelings, drawing conclusions, all in an uncertain voice which halts and interupts itself frequently. It's an easy style for my brain to read, very similar to my own thought process. And the style conjures a distant, detatched, anxious yet resigned perspective. It's very well constructed.

I thought it was funny how most of the top reviews for this book on Goodreads are white men. How they praise it. 
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