Books: “Assembly” by Natasha Brown

Natasha Brown’s “Assembly” is a slight book about weighty subjects: diversity and tokenism in the corporate world. A British Black woman, who’s recently been promoted to a senior position at a bank, is plagued with doubts about her achievement. Was she really that talented, or is she being exploited as PR to portray  diversity to the outside world?

Those surrounding her reinforce the woman’s feelings of inadequacy. A white co/worker is miffed that he will occupy the same title as someone who is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants. The parents of her wealthy white boyfriend host her at a garden party, where she will be the only Black person present. They seem to treat their son’s infatuation with her as a “phase.”

Despite its length (under 100 pages), this sparsely written but searing novel skillfully depicts the woman’s growing outrage at a situation she regards as un-winnable. And Ms. Brown, a Cambridge graduate, knows of what she speaks, having spent a decade working in financial services. The Atlantic called this novel “a modern Mrs. Dalloway.” Virginia Woolf herself might well have called it great.

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