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In a Nutshell: A literary fiction novella with a great concept but unfortunately, it didn’t work for me in the audio format.

Story:

The unnamed narrator, a Black British woman, is on her way to attend her wealthy boyfriend’s garden party at his family estate. On her way, her mind lingers on various factors of her life. The titular ‘assembly�� refers to the parts of herself that she has pieced together in order to cater to the diverse expectations of the people in her life: societal, personal, professional, romantic, and so on. As her train takes her closer to her destination, she reaches closer to a dilemma: Is the assembly of herself, a façade for others while she herself is lost somewhere deep inside, worth it? Is it time to challenge the status quo, even if it means the loss of everything that she has worked so hard to achieve, possibly even her life?

Within its limited pages, the book attacks one social construct after another. You feel the helplessness and the underlying anger of the narrator as she details her justifications for keeping quiet about the sexism in her workplace, or the silent antagonism doled out by her boyfriend’s family. Don’t consider this book yet another feminist attack on society; it goes much beyond that. Colonialist thinking, class hierarchies, societal norms, racism,�� all find a mention here. It’s a very thought-provoking look at how even supposedly successful women have to wear masks in order to fit in society. Somewhere deep inside the fictional content is the actual voice of every woman who has had to mould herself to fit into outdated social mores.

I can’t help but feel that I would have loved this book a lot, lot more had I read it. With a writing style that is almost stream-of-consciousness in its approach, I found my attention diverting repeatedly from the audio. Though this was not even a 2 hour audiobook, I must have spent double the time listening to it, just because my mind strayed away. This is not to take away anything from the narrator Pippa Bennett-Warner, who was incredible. The frustration and determination of the lead character came out wonderfully because of her brilliant narration. It’s just that the writing style is more conducive to a reading experience than a listening one.

Regardless of the less than satisfactory audio experience, I will still rate it 4 stars because I know that the book is power-packed, the content is hard-hitting, and the issues it raises deserve to be heard. This is a book I will surely try once again for the bravery of its themes; of course, I will be reading it next time. Maybe then I can provide a more accurate and elaborate opinion. Until then, this is it.

Thank you, Hachette Audio and NetGalley, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.


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