In a literary landscape often characterized by safe bets and predictable formulas, Natasha Brown’s sophomore novel “Universality” arrives as a thrilling disruption. Following her critically acclaimed debut “Assembly” (2021), Brown solidifies her position as one of Britain’s most intellectually ambitious and stylistically daring writers with this multi-layered exploration of truth, narrative, and power.
“Universality” presents itself as a compilation of interconnected stories centered around an alleged attack at a Yorkshire farm where a young man named Jake is nearly killed with a gold bar during an illegal rave. But this seemingly straightforward mystery quickly transforms into something far more complex—a hall of mirrors examining how stories are constructed, manipulated, and consumed in our media-saturated world.
Structure and Style: Literature That Knows It’s Literature
Brown’s novel is structured as a series of distinct but interconnected sections, each employing different stylistic approaches:
- “A Fool’s Gold” – A magazine article investigating the gold bar attack
- “Edmonton” – A dinner party unraveling social and racial tensions
- “Weybridge” – A banker’s reflection on his public shaming
- “Cartmel” – A controversial columnist preparing for a literary festival
- “Showtime” – The columnist’s onstage interview performance
This fragmented structure brilliantly serves Brown’s thematic concerns. Each section provides a different lens through which the same events are viewed, distorted, and reinterpreted. The result is a narrative that constantly undermines itself, forcing readers to question what—if anything—constitutes objective truth.
Brown’s prose shifts effortlessly between journalistic detachment, intimate psychological exploration, and biting social satire. Her ability to ventriloquize different voices—from the self-important journalist Hannah to the defensive banker Richard Spencer to the cynical columnist Lenny Leonard—demonstrates remarkable technical virtuosity.
Characters as Vehicles for Ideas
Where “Universality” by Natasha Brown excels is in its characterization. Brown has created a cast that functions simultaneously as believable individuals and as emblems of larger social forces:
- Hannah – The ambitious journalist whose career revival comes at the expense of ethical considerations
- Richard Spencer – The banker whose public persona is crafted by others rather than himself
- Lenny Leonard – The opportunistic columnist who adapts her views to whatever will gain her the most attention
- Jake – The hapless young man whose actual experience becomes secondary to how others use his story
Brown avoids the common pitfall of creating characters who merely serve as mouthpieces for ideological positions. Instead, her characters embody conflicting impulses and contradictions. Lenny Leonard, for instance, espouses working-class solidarity while exploiting her own son and fabricating parts of her background. These complexities make the characters feel authentic even as they function as archetypes within Brown’s larger thematic framework.
Thematic Richness: The Currency of Words
At its core, “Universality” by Natasha Brown is concerned with language—how it shapes reality rather than merely describing it. Throughout the novel, Brown returns to the idea that words are “weapons,” “tools,” and “currency.” This is explicitly stated by Lenny in the “Showtime” section: “Language is your interface to this world, Amanda. Words are your weapons, they’re your tools, your currency.”
Brown explores several interconnected themes:
The Construction of Truth
The gold bar attack that opens the novel serves as the perfect vehicle for examining how “truth” is manufactured. Hannah’s article reshapes events to fit a compelling narrative arc, altering details and emphasizing certain aspects while minimizing others. When confronted by Richard about these inaccuracies, her agent dismissively refers to “plurality” of truths.
Class and Privilege
Brown incisively dissects the British class system, showing how economic inequality colors every social interaction. The dinner party scene in “Edmonton” brilliantly illuminates the subtle power dynamics between the working-class Hannah and her more affluent friends, while Lenny’s “common-sense” populism reveals itself as a calculated performance.
Race and Identity Politics
Questions of race hover beneath the surface throughout the novel, occasionally erupting into explicit discussion. John’s company “GenetIQ” uses DNA to “predict” job suitability, while Lenny rails against “woke capitalism” and “identity politics” while simultaneously exploiting those very frameworks for her own gain.
Media Manipulation
Perhaps most powerfully, Brown examines the media ecosystem that incentivizes distortion, sensationalism, and manufactured outrage. When Hannah learns that Jake will be portrayed as Black in the TV adaptation of her article, she justifies it with the cynical explanation that “it works, actually.”
Strengths and Weaknesses
Brown’s greatest strength lies in her intellectual ambition and her refusal to offer easy answers. “Universality” by Natasha Brown operates on multiple levels simultaneously, functioning as a compelling character study, a sharp social satire, and a philosophical inquiry into the nature of truth and narrative.
The meta-fictional aspects are particularly well-executed. The novel begins with an “Author’s Note” stating “This book is a work of fiction” followed by an epigraph declaring “I, in fact, am the only fictional character in the book until I catch up with myself.” This playful self-referentiality continues throughout, culminating in Lenny’s observation that “The truth, more often than not, benefited from the techniques of fiction. Every hack knew that.”
However, the novel’s fragmented structure occasionally works against its emotional impact. By constantly shifting perspectives and styles, Brown creates a certain intellectual distance that can make it difficult for readers to form deep attachments to the characters. This appears to be a deliberate choice—the novel is more concerned with ideas than with emotional resonance—but it may leave some readers feeling detached from the human drama.
Additionally, while the thematic connections between sections are clearly intentional, they sometimes feel more intellectually satisfying than narratively cohesive. The transitions between sections can be abrupt, requiring readers to reorient themselves each time.
Comparison to “Assembly” and Contemporary Literature
“Universality” builds upon themes introduced in Natasha Brown’s debut “Assembly” while expanding her artistic range. Where “Assembly” was tightly focused on a single protagonist’s experience of racial and class dynamics in modern Britain, “Universality” takes a wider view, examining how stories about these experiences are packaged and consumed.
The novel situates itself within a tradition of meta-fictional works that examine the relationship between narrative and reality, recalling authors like Rachel Cusk, Tom McCarthy, and Jenny Offill. Brown’s particular contribution to this tradition lies in her emphasis on the political dimensions of storytelling—how narratives shape our understanding of class, race, and power.
Final Verdict: A Provocative and Vital Addition to Contemporary Literature
“Universality” is not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one. Brown demands intellectual engagement from her readers, asking us to question our own assumptions about truth, media, and the stories we consume. The novel resists simple interpretation, instead opening up spaces for reflection and debate.
What makes “Universality” particularly impressive is Natasha Brown’s ability to balance intellectual complexity with readability. Despite its experimental structure and philosophical preoccupations, the novel remains accessible, driven by vivid characterization and Brown’s gift for incisive dialogue.
At a time when discussions about “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and the reliability of media narratives dominate public discourse, “Universality” feels not just relevant but essential. It doesn’t offer solutions to these problems, but it helps us understand their complexity in ways that simplistic political commentary cannot.
For readers willing to engage with its challenges, “Universality” by Natasha Brown offers a thought-provoking examination of how stories shape our world and our understanding of ourselves. It confirms Natasha Brown as one of the most exciting and intellectually rigorous voices in contemporary British literature—a writer unafraid to ask difficult questions and explore uncomfortable truths.
