A Black Woman in Finance Reclaims Her Agency


MEETING
by Natasha Brown

The narrator of Natasha Brown’s play “Assembly” is a Black English woman. The obedient daughter of immigrants, the obedient girlfriend of a smug liberal white man, and a docile employee at a soul-crushing corporate bank in London. He travels the world with the chilling observation that others live their lives with hope and enthusiasm.

Tightly conceived and distinctively written, the narrator of this first novel is insightful, precise, and ruthless in his words. Of a bitter colleague who washed up on the beach at work, he says: “It seldom appears before 11, as if every morning fresh mundane glides out of the ocean, glides over mossy rocks and sand, then sprouting sprouting appendages. The shape elongates as it travels inland until it is finally fully formed. changes and bends into limbs.” However, when it comes to his senses, the narrator is timid and refuses to give any information that might sharpen his pixelated self-portrait.No name, age, or preference.

Brown’s tense novel comes at a time of growing and anxious interest in stories about the realities of anti-Black racism. “Assembly” will no doubt satiate the Anglophone publishing industry’s appetite for both macro and micro narratives about Black’s experiences with white aggression. (Brown’s attention to detail, especially about office life, reminds me of Raven Leilani’s “brightness”, the creative structure of Claudia Rankine “citizen”) But this success should not overshadow the novel’s more interesting experiments with the flexibility of identity and the tensions between agency and powerlessness.

The novel begins with a familiar acknowledgment of the emptiness of narratives of racial victory. Standing in front of a group of enthusiastic young women during their school reunion, the protagonist inspires them with a well-known story about “working hard, pulling up the laces, rolling up your shirt sleeves, and pushing yourself.” Above. To overcome, to overcome, etc. Well-educated, stable job, new flat and money, he doesn’t believe his own words. But telling the truth is not an option; that is, he is lying, and these events, where his white male colleagues at the bank are never asked to speak, are successful.

The narrator of the “Assembly” as the face of diversity and progress of the company is subject to everyone’s projection. Jealous co-workers question his place in the company and in the country. Her boyfriend sees their relationship as evidence of a post-racial myth. She feels suffocated by her own world and falls deeper and deeper into depression every day. When a doctor diagnoses him with cancer, the narrator sees an opportunity to regain control of his life. She gently but firmly refuses treatment. “After years of battling, fighting against the current, I am ready to slow my arms down,” she thinks. “Stop kicking. Breathe in. I’m tired. Maybe it’s time to end this story.” A surprising move that momentarily shakes the credibility of the story.The reasonable person might wonder: Why would you refuse treatment?This is why Brown asks gloomily: Why not?

At the narrator’s decision, “Council” becomes a lamentable examination of a Black woman’s life and an acerbic analysis of Britain’s racial landscape. Brown’s rhythmic, economic prose presents with breathtaking clarity the narrator’s experiences, especially the constant, gnawing stream of racial and sexual abuse he encounters. At just 100 pages, the book moves at an almost dizzying pace. The vignettes are full of detail and a heavy dose of cultural criticism – the narrator read the bell hooks and is very knowledgeable in colonial and imperial language. At times, Brown struggles to balance narrative and criticism, preferring the still interesting but classic analysis to the more complex and powerful storyline. Still, “Assembly” is a smart novel that takes risks with the questions it raises. I look forward to the next work by which Brown can try to answer them – with the same uplifting conviction.



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