The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
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Assembly
The Goldsmiths Prize
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2021 Goldsmiths Prize Shortlist - Assembly
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Hugh, Active moderator
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rated it 5 stars
Oct 06, 2021 12:12PM
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Assembly by Natasha Brown
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Assembly was described by judge Johanna Thomas-Corr as a small but blistering take on the British elite and its poisonous relationship with immigration, work and sexual politicsWithin a 100 neat pages, this non-linear, stream-of-consciousness narrative follows a young Black woman who has invested everything in transcending her race, class and gender to attain a high-paid position in a cut-throat bank. She is even invited to share her success story with eager young women at a school assembly. So why does her life feel so unbearable? What comes next? And do her achievements represent progress?"
We've said a lot about this one already. But suffice to say it's quite brilliant and very important.
I am still intrigued how many people who read this get one of the attacks on the elite and who it is squarely aimed at. Really hope this wins
Coincidentally, I re-read this last night, mainly because I thought it wouldn't be on the list but that it did deserve a re-read. It is remarkable and, in the absence of Radio Joan, I hope it wins.
Natasha Brown was on the Seth Meyers show a couple of weeks agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t8YW...
NB is anyone aware of any other videos/audios of Natasha Brown talking about the book. Running a D&I book club at work and I'd picked Assembly to talk to and we usually like to send people a video to watch (given most don't read the book!)
Yes and at a London indie bookshop (the one whose bestseller lists I think you posted about earlier in the summer?) https://pagesofhackney.co.uk/event-ne...
Ali Smith on the bookBooks, and all the arts, naturally and endlessly inspire change because they free up the possibilities between reality and the imagination, and the possibilities for change in us. They never stop doing this. It’s one of the reasons the current powers that be are hellbent on controlling the arts, devaluing them, removing easy access to them and controlling history’s narratives. Last week I read a debut novel called Assembly by Natasha Brown. It’s a quiet, measured call to revolution. It’s about everything that has changed and still needs to change, socially, historically, politically, personally. It’s slim in the hand, but its impact is massive; it strikes me as the kind of book that sits on the faultline between a before and an after. I could use words like elegant and brilliantly judged and literary antecedents such as Katherine Mansfield/Toni Morrison/Claudia Rankine. But it’s simpler than that. I’m full of the hope, on reading it, that this is the kind of book that doesn’t just mark the moment things change, but also makes that change possible
It is a perfect book for diversity, Paul, if it’s widely available. I thought about suggesting it to our diversity person when I read it, but it wasn’t released until mid-September.
Its I think even more of a perfect book for diversity for Paul - as its (a) British focused and (b) Financial Services focused - in fact of course quite a bit of the book is about Inclusion/Diversity efforts in Financial Services firms
Goof week for Assembly - just been shortlisted for the "Books Are My Bag" awards which are a series of book awards run by booksellers and bookshops nationwide and which include a public vote run online and via bookshops themselvesInteresting fiction shortlist as it includes Ronan Hession's Panenka also
An extremely important book, a book that you have to read at least twice (which is not hard to do) and a book that I want to win a bunch of awards so that more and more people will pick it up. So glad to see it on this shortlist.
What Cindy said (which is normally what Gumble Yard says!)
I will raise you - as I just got a hardcopy so I could read it the third timeQuestion for the fans - what did you think of the title and its multiple meanings?
Did you associate it with the erection of the marquee which for the author is I believe one of the key images of the text.
It is a signed first first hardback though?The title generally does seem very important to her from when I've heard her speak
Hi, I've seen some pretty strong feelings about podcasts on here, but I wanted to flag our chat on Unsound Methods with Natasha Brown back in August. (and I'll add September's chat with Rebecca Watson in the relevant thread). https://audioboom.com/posts/7922254-n... - and in all the places you find podcasts.
Thank you, Jaimie! I will look for those.
The Assembly one was also very good. Unsound Methods is very much my favourite podcast. The only thing that makes me switch away from death metal on Spotify!
The Booker shortisted thors were each asked to recommend a book. Patricia Lockwood recommended Assemblyhttps://uk.bookshop.org/lists/recomme...
And Damon Galgut recommends "Burntcoat" (arty but fundamentally flawed)I rest my case on both the Booker and the Goldsmiths rankings.
Lockwood is a very good judge of books. Just awful at writing them.
I would love to see Lockwood as a future Booker judge.
I finished Assembly last week and haven't much to add to the conversation. It is a perfect blend of subject, story, and style for one of the ten best reads of the year. I wonder whether people saw it more as a novel or short story, since it exhibited some of the qualities I like best in a short story like unity and a mostly rising dramatic action till almost the end.
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Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer
(last edited Oct 11, 2021 06:13AM)
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rated it 5 stars
The author has said she has borrowed extensively from different areas (short story, novel, non-fiction)I just hope this makes the Women's Prize list as it deserves more publicity than the Goldsmiths or Books-Are-My-Bag
Yes, it should have made the Booker, but the Women's Prize would be a help, since the book should also do well in North America. I know some readers members of the group that reads the Morning News tournament of books. It would be a good title for them as well.
I hadn’t really thought of it as novel or short story. It felt more like an intensely personal memoir, which we know it’s not, I was so swept away by it. Even now while considering what form it took, it doesn’t feel like fiction, but more like a manifesto, eloquently written.
One comment I loved - which I know will mean more to only a few of us on here - was on an interview with Sara Collins (author of Costa Prize First Novel winning Confessions of Franny Langton) where she asked her how her Mathematical degree helped her workShe emphasised her love of elegant, concise proofs in pure mathematics and how she had tried for something similar in her writing.
I would say her writing is elegant and concise.
I think this may hit on what a perfect novel should be like. Like a perfect mathematical proof - concise, elegant and without unnecessary padding. Perhaps at least one pure mathematician should serve on all book prize juries - last time someone tried a few mathematicians it produced a very good shortlist.
Yes, the shortlist those mathematician guys came up with was excellent. Sounds like a good plan.
I thought of you last night after finishing Empty Wardrobes, Paul; I was trying to settle on my next book, picked up This One Sky Day and thought Paul is right, this book is too long. Of course it was 1am, I was tired and needed sleep.
Finished this one now - here's my review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm a fan of short and sharp books, so this was very much up my street. I particularly appreciate the way it's structured and changes shape depending on what the protagonist wants to say - she's finding the form for her story as she goes along.
Thanks! One of my favourite podcasts - and well timed as I have to give a talk on Assembly at work next week as part of a social diversity discussion.
Literary Fiction is a good podcast. Let us know how the talk goes, Paul. Will the other participate read the book?
Almost certainly not!
Too bad. I work for Cuyahoga County and we are required to get a number of Diversity Training points every two years. Reading select books, writing a brief paragraph to establish that one had a fully read the book, and engaging in a discussion of the book was a way to get points.
That's a thought provoking interview
Foyles have made this their Fiction Book of the YearAlso selling a signed, numbered limited edition - which they will mail overseas (albeit postage at 12.50 is the same as the book cost)
https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fictio...
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Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer
(last edited Dec 03, 2021 12:05AM)
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I am thinking they did the Gold Edition specially to celebrate it being the inaugural Golden Reviewer Book of the Year for 2021
Woke up to that news from Foyles, which made for an excellent start to the day.
Also winner of the inaugural Golden Reviewer Book of the Year for 2021
GY, it was weeks before I realized that your new name is Gumble’s Yard-Golden Reviewer. When I first noticed the new suffix I thought it said Golden Retriever, which I thought was cute, but odd.What prize is Natasha Brown receiving as winner of the inaugural Golden Reviewer Book of the Year? As the first winner of the first year of this prestigious prize it seems it should be something really special. Ooh! I know-a golden retriever puppy! Who wouldn’t love that?
Having been snubbed by the Booker, shortlisted by the Goldsmiths but unlucky to be up against SKG, allegedly deemed too short for the Costa, and deemed not even to be a novel by the Women's Prize for too-long Fiction, Assembly has finally made another prize list.This time up for best debut novel in the British Book Awards (aka Nibbies), which is an award we often discuss but never get round to setting up a thread.
Strong list - also includes Luster, Open Water and I'm delighted to see Mrs Death Misses Death (plus two that are new to me)
I like that shortlist and the fiction shortlist. I’m a little bemused by the pageturner shortlist. Perhaps we have different ideas of what that means.
We should start a thread for this prize if those are the quality of the books nominated.
Its a complex prize which is aimed at the Book Trade and seems to look for books which got critical and commercial successThere are a number of other familiar to this group books on the other lists
There are lots of prizes for book shops, publishers (including a small press category where many familiar names were finalists), marketing campaigns etc
The Mookse and the Gripes
Books mentioned in this topic
Mrs Death Misses Death (other topics)Empty Wardrobes (other topics)
Assembly (other topics)
