About how many books do you have? I used to have over four thousand, but I got rid of a few hundred. I so need to do a deep cleaning in the library. I figured I'd wait until we incorporated the library into a RUclips Studio. Right now I'm working out of the pod, which is a small closet converted into a professional audio station for narrating. At any rate, it's been a joy listening to you.
@@GuiltyFeat I really did not like it lol I read it last night. Agree with you. It attempts shorthand for complexities and it just does not pull it off. I can see why it’s structured the way it is, and it does communicate some interesting things. But I absolutely hated the experience of reading it. No idea what that drug was, or the brand stuff, or any other stuff, really. Did a roomba hit the stand of your recorder? Haha
I'm not sure I agree with you about class and brands, I think a version of that has always gone on in literature, just without the brand part of it (until "American Psycho" that is). Pinning a character by their clothes, or their physiognomy, or how they hold themselves, standard authorial practice
I thought it was ironic in American Psycho, like writing a chapter about the genius of Huey Lewis. There are dozens of ways stronger authors use a character's clothing, physiognomy, etc., to tell us something about that character without leaning on brand. I read "Primark" as lazy shorthand.
@@GuiltyFeat I dunno Daniel, if a 18thC French novelist remarked in passing on someone wearing sans-culottes, you know exactly what class point he's making. A brand without a brand name that's all. And yes Ellis was satirising the whole band culture thing, but my didn't it take up so much space in the novel that it became front and central so the satire withers away
a novel in power point 😂😂 i finished assembly earlier in the month and i think asking whether or not it's a novel is a really interesting question. it does feel like a bit of a writing experiment or a novella. but, there is something in the sparse writing style and the heavy topics that worked on an emotional level for me
Thank you for recommendation, I’ll check “Citizen” out. “Assembly” is a strange piece of work, as you said, to see a voice like this is amazing, but I still don’t get the character personally. She knows she’s been trapped by “reductive gaze” and “objecthood” why she can’t escape from her thinking. At the same time as a business student, I found some monologues are exactly like real-life reflections of many of my peers’ minds in business school. But funny thing is I read “The Pursuit of Love” at the same time and just feel bad for the character in “Assembly” really. Regarding the writing, along the reading I’ve got a feeling that writer can do more but somehow it didn’t. I love Toni Morrison’s non-fictions “Source of Self-Regard” and Salman Rushdie’s “Languages of Truth” and Roxane Gay’s podcast, and also Ocean Voung. In short, I expected to see more but the work lacks in-depth reflections or analysis, and more like a pure deliver of emotions. Still, a worthy read :) Also would like to know more about your opinions on Salman Rushdie, thank youuu.
Thanks Hazel. I think that's a better review of Assembly than I managed. I'm a huge fan of Rushdie's fiction and I've been on the lookout for an affordable edition of Languages of Truth. It's on my radar and I will get to it.
@@GuiltyFeat Thank you for your reply, recommend you to do a video for Rushdie only and rank/review his works from highly recommended to "I read it so you don't have to". 😃.
Haberdashers is well fancy btw. So many famous people went there (Mark Kermode and Jason Isaacs being 2 of my fave) and 20% Oxbridge acceptance is high. It has also been the best independent school and the best independent boys school fairly recently.
Hello to Jason Isaacs. Yes, they were both a few years older than me. I have a vague memory of Baddiel who is a year or two younger than Kermode. I do have a very clear vision of Sasha Baron Cohen walking around with a violin case, though.
I thought the fragments at the end reflected the narrator’s breakdown. That she realizes she sold out, leaving her cultural inheritance behind to “assemble” a ‘successful’ life.
Interesting. I think you are correct in acknowledging that perhaps you did not do the book justice given that you liked lots about it but are rather passionate about what you did not like. Similarly from what I've heard (I'm waiting for my library copy but it's been a long queue!) lots of other readers were left longing for more; same with Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water. I think that it is a novel in novella form. And I don't mind it especially given it's a debut (again, like Open Water). Frankly I'd rather have something like that from a new author than something bloated bombarding us with all their ideas at once because they got a publishing contract. I don't even think I'd mind the disintegration of the text into vignettes towards the end. Maybe the character has had enough by then during that hellish weekend and this is a signifier of her mental state. Maybe the similarities to Rankine are a clumsy meta reference to her sisterhood experiences as a woman of colour. I do get some of your points and your frustration seeing as Brown can write but I think maybe you were expecting something different altogether hence the disappointment? Or maybe it's been a case of bad timing for you wiith all the other millennial readings? Looking forward to your Saunders review!
I may well have made the age old mistake of reviewing the book I wanted or expected instead of the actual book in front of me. I would still encourage you to read it and I love the gentle but insistent pushbacks I am getting in these comments.
Hi Daniel, as writers we are taught details are always better than General terms. Supposed to bring the reader closer to the story. I don't know any of the terms you mentioned but it didn't bother me. I don't mind a slow story but character and plot must work together for me. I don't think this book is for me but maybe not for the reasons you mentioned. I always appreciate a good review. Aloha
I'm not sure I did it justice. The author can write, I just wanted her to commit a little further. Some of the reviews have been outstanding, so please don't take my opinion as worth anything.
I don't see those brand or drug names being dropped in as a trait of millennial writers or as lazy writing at all. There are so many other examples of this being done in work decades or even a century ago (Mark Leyner, James Joyce come to mind) and to me this is just part of painting a picture of the times the novel is set in. Whether or not the references make sense to every reader doesn't detract from the value of the writing for me, - again, I can't read Joyce without looking up lots of references, be that to political developments of the time or the title of some magazine I know nothing about. Leyner mentions several American brand names I didn't know, so I went and looked them up, but an American reader would've got it immediately. Why not Primark and M&S then? Incidentally, I did know Citalopram 😄 The school name meant nothing to me, but I just brushed past it assuming it's some UK public school. The question of whether it's a novel is an interesting one. If it's only down to length, would you have been happy with novella or would that also not work because of the fragmentary nature of the narrative? Personally, I don't think writing in vignettes or the element of prose poetry are detractors from the status of novel/novella/narrative fiction.
Mark Leyner! That takes me back. I read Et Tu, Babe 20 years ago and found it waaaay too quirky. It's possible that you've simply uncovered MY laziness as a reader. I want to understand all the references. Ulysses went completely over my head and I know I will probably never try to tackle Finnegan's Wake. "some UK public school"? Every Haberdashers' alumnus on the planet is fuming right now! It was not about length. The whole thing felt dashed off to me. Like the author was fitting a book into an otherwise packed schedule. I'm not sure we'll ever see another book from this author, although I'd be happy to read one.
Are you sure about Waters? I thought it was Rick Wright who was a Habs boy. I was in class with his nephew and I remember our history teacher asking him circa 1980 if he could get his uncle to sign his copy of The Wall.
@@GuiltyFeat reasonably sure Waters was kicked out and I also remember that 2 of Floyd were said to have gone to Habs, so Wight would fit with that too
How interesting, I thought it was an accomplished, carefully pared down work rather than "dashed off" in the middle of other commitments. What did I say to offend every Haberdashers' alumnus? 😄 I also like to get all (or most of) the references, but don't mind looking them up. I have a love-hate relationship with Ulysses, but I can't see myself ever tackling Finnegan's Wake either. Re Leyner: I've only read My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist. In fairness, I think he uses the brand names for another purpose than the one I mentioned above.
When I heard, “M&S slacks” I though, ‘ooo fancy’. What does that say about my class?! I thought you were done with millennial fiction, or is this a layover?
I like the weary tone paired with the sparseness provided to the reader! that act of refusal from start to finish worked for me
That was absolutely the most compelling element for me and the reason why I would come back for another novel from this author.
About how many books do you have? I used to have over four thousand, but I got rid of a few hundred. I so need to do a deep cleaning in the library. I figured I'd wait until we incorporated the library into a RUclips Studio. Right now I'm working out of the pod, which is a small closet converted into a professional audio station for narrating. At any rate, it's been a joy listening to you.
I believe there are around 2500 books in the apartment give or take. Cheers, Scully!
Looking forward to this! I am picking it up today from the library.
Really keen to hear what you make of it!
@@GuiltyFeat I really did not like it lol I read it last night. Agree with you. It attempts shorthand for complexities and it just does not pull it off. I can see why it’s structured the way it is, and it does communicate some interesting things. But I absolutely hated the experience of reading it.
No idea what that drug was, or the brand stuff, or any other stuff, really.
Did a roomba hit the stand of your recorder? Haha
I'm not sure I agree with you about class and brands, I think a version of that has always gone on in literature, just without the brand part of it (until "American Psycho" that is). Pinning a character by their clothes, or their physiognomy, or how they hold themselves, standard authorial practice
I thought it was ironic in American Psycho, like writing a chapter about the genius of Huey Lewis. There are dozens of ways stronger authors use a character's clothing, physiognomy, etc., to tell us something about that character without leaning on brand. I read "Primark" as lazy shorthand.
@@GuiltyFeat I dunno Daniel, if a 18thC French novelist remarked in passing on someone wearing sans-culottes, you know exactly what class point he's making. A brand without a brand name that's all. And yes Ellis was satirising the whole band culture thing, but my didn't it take up so much space in the novel that it became front and central so the satire withers away
Maybe it just fed into my perception that the whole book was written in shorthand - notes for a novel I intend to write one day.
a novel in power point 😂😂 i finished assembly earlier in the month and i think asking whether or not it's a novel is a really interesting question. it does feel like a bit of a writing experiment or a novella. but, there is something in the sparse writing style and the heavy topics that worked on an emotional level for me
It did resonate for me emotionally also. I think that's why I wanted more!
Thank you for recommendation, I’ll check “Citizen” out. “Assembly” is a strange piece of work, as you said, to see a voice like this is amazing, but I still don’t get the character personally. She knows she’s been trapped by “reductive gaze” and “objecthood” why she can’t escape from her thinking. At the same time as a business student, I found some monologues are exactly like real-life reflections of many of my peers’ minds in business school. But funny thing is I read “The Pursuit of Love” at the same time and just feel bad for the character in “Assembly” really. Regarding the writing, along the reading I’ve got a feeling that writer can do more but somehow it didn’t. I love Toni Morrison’s non-fictions “Source of Self-Regard” and Salman Rushdie’s “Languages of Truth” and Roxane Gay’s podcast, and also Ocean Voung. In short, I expected to see more but the work lacks in-depth reflections or analysis, and more like a pure deliver of emotions. Still, a worthy read :)
Also would like to know more about your opinions on Salman Rushdie, thank youuu.
Thanks Hazel. I think that's a better review of Assembly than I managed. I'm a huge fan of Rushdie's fiction and I've been on the lookout for an affordable edition of Languages of Truth. It's on my radar and I will get to it.
@@GuiltyFeat Thank you for your reply, recommend you to do a video for Rushdie only and rank/review his works from highly recommended to "I read it so you don't have to". 😃.
Haberdashers is well fancy btw. So many famous people went there (Mark Kermode and Jason Isaacs being 2 of my fave) and 20% Oxbridge acceptance is high. It has also been the best independent school and the best independent boys school fairly recently.
Hello to Jason Isaacs. Yes, they were both a few years older than me. I have a vague memory of Baddiel who is a year or two younger than Kermode. I do have a very clear vision of Sasha Baron Cohen walking around with a violin case, though.
I thought the fragments at the end reflected the narrator’s breakdown. That she realizes she sold out, leaving her cultural inheritance behind to “assemble” a ‘successful’ life.
I have heard many rave reviews of this one so this was a helpful dissenting view.
Thanks Ros. This kind of thing just makes me doubt my own critical faculties.
Interesting. I think you are correct in acknowledging that perhaps you did not do the book justice given that you liked lots about it but are rather passionate about what you did not like. Similarly from what I've heard (I'm waiting for my library copy but it's been a long queue!) lots of other readers were left longing for more; same with Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water. I think that it is a novel in novella form. And I don't mind it especially given it's a debut (again, like Open Water). Frankly I'd rather have something like that from a new author than something bloated bombarding us with all their ideas at once because they got a publishing contract. I don't even think I'd mind the disintegration of the text into vignettes towards the end. Maybe the character has had enough by then during that hellish weekend and this is a signifier of her mental state. Maybe the similarities to Rankine are a clumsy meta reference to her sisterhood experiences as a woman of colour. I do get some of your points and your frustration seeing as Brown can write but I think maybe you were expecting something different altogether hence the disappointment? Or maybe it's been a case of bad timing for you wiith all the other millennial readings? Looking forward to your Saunders review!
I may well have made the age old mistake of reviewing the book I wanted or expected instead of the actual book in front of me. I would still encourage you to read it and I love the gentle but insistent pushbacks I am getting in these comments.
Hi Daniel, as writers we are taught details are always better than General terms. Supposed to bring the reader closer to the story. I don't know any of the terms you mentioned but it didn't bother me. I don't mind a slow story but character and plot must work together for me. I don't think this book is for me but maybe not for the reasons you mentioned. I always appreciate a good review. Aloha
I'm not sure I did it justice. The author can write, I just wanted her to commit a little further. Some of the reviews have been outstanding, so please don't take my opinion as worth anything.
I don't see those brand or drug names being dropped in as a trait of millennial writers or as lazy writing at all. There are so many other examples of this being done in work decades or even a century ago (Mark Leyner, James Joyce come to mind) and to me this is just part of painting a picture of the times the novel is set in. Whether or not the references make sense to every reader doesn't detract from the value of the writing for me,
- again, I can't read Joyce without looking up lots of references, be that to political developments of the time or the title of some magazine I know nothing about. Leyner mentions several American brand names I didn't know, so I went and looked them up, but an American reader would've got it immediately. Why not Primark and M&S then?
Incidentally, I did know Citalopram 😄
The school name meant nothing to me, but I just brushed past it assuming it's some UK public school.
The question of whether it's a novel is an interesting one. If it's only down to length, would you have been happy with novella or would that also not work because of the fragmentary nature of the narrative? Personally, I don't think writing in vignettes or the element of prose poetry are detractors from the status of novel/novella/narrative fiction.
Mark Leyner! That takes me back. I read Et Tu, Babe 20 years ago and found it waaaay too quirky.
It's possible that you've simply uncovered MY laziness as a reader. I want to understand all the references. Ulysses went completely over my head and I know I will probably never try to tackle Finnegan's Wake.
"some UK public school"? Every Haberdashers' alumnus on the planet is fuming right now!
It was not about length. The whole thing felt dashed off to me. Like the author was fitting a book into an otherwise packed schedule. I'm not sure we'll ever see another book from this author, although I'd be happy to read one.
@@GuiltyFeat Damon Hill & Roger Waters were both kicked out of Haberdashers. Pink Floyd's "The Wall" must refer back to the school
Are you sure about Waters? I thought it was Rick Wright who was a Habs boy. I was in class with his nephew and I remember our history teacher asking him circa 1980 if he could get his uncle to sign his copy of The Wall.
@@GuiltyFeat reasonably sure Waters was kicked out and I also remember that 2 of Floyd were said to have gone to Habs, so Wight would fit with that too
How interesting, I thought it was an accomplished, carefully pared down work rather than "dashed off" in the middle of other commitments.
What did I say to offend every Haberdashers' alumnus? 😄
I also like to get all (or most of) the references, but don't mind looking them up. I have a love-hate relationship with Ulysses, but I can't see myself ever tackling Finnegan's Wake either.
Re Leyner: I've only read My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist. In fairness, I think he uses the brand names for another purpose than the one I mentioned above.
When I heard, “M&S slacks” I though, ‘ooo fancy’. What does that say about my class?! I thought you were done with millennial fiction, or is this a layover?
I try to keep my hopes up. It was a quick bit of fiction in the midst of non-fiction November. I like it, I just wanted more.