Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Such a Fun Age (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) by Kiley Reid follows the story of two women in modern America from different races and socio-economic levels. Alix Chamberlain is a successful white businesswoman who is struggling with a move from New York City to an affluent suburb of Philadelphia. With a deadline looming, Alix hires a young black woman, Emira Tucker, to babysit her two small children.
Late one night, an act of vandalism sends Emira and Alix’s toddler, Briar, to the grocery store. There Emira is confronted by a security guard who accuses her of kidnapping Briar. The incident is caught on video, but Emira has no interest in becoming an internet sensation, so she chooses not to make waves by releasing it.
Alix is overcome with guilt and vows to do better by Emira. This begins with an attempt to get to know Emira better. However, Emira isn’t interested in building a friendship with Alix. Therefore, in order to carry out her mission, Alix turns to snooping on Emira’s phone. Over time, Alix’s curiosity turns to downright obsession. Their relationship gets even more complicated when Emira introduces Alix to her boyfriend only to discover that Emira’s boyfriend and Alix have their own complicated history.
Alix becomes determined by any means necessary to save Emira from the boyfriend, from racism, from life itself, whether Emira wants her help or not. Emira doesn’t, and things get messy.
The highlight of the novel is the character of Briar, who is quirky, smart and funny. Her naturalness is a lovely counter to the adults in the novel, who carry the effects of a lifetime of subliminal racial programming. The relationship between Emira and Briar is refreshingly absent of racial bias and serves as a beacon of hope.
Reid’s writing style is engaging, making Such a Fun Age a compelling read. Her style eases readers into the heavily charged topics of race and privilege in modern America. Readers will find much to wrestle with, whether in their literary evaluation of the book, its social commentary, or their own place in the racial framework as depicted by Reid.
This thought-provoking novel would encourage a great discussion within a book club, as members will likely have a wide variety of reactions to the book. The novel is rife with opportunities to consider what racism looks like in the modern day; transactional relationships and racism; the role of social media in perpetuating and stopping racism; examples of and the problem with “white savior” mentality; the appropriateness of separating intentions from consequences; and how this book reflects the broader context of race-related issues. Whether readers ultimately love the novel or not, the value of this conversation cannot be overstated. Such a Fun Age provides a ready platform for just such a conversation.
RELATED READING
See what Jen Blankfein thought of this book on her blog, Book Nation by Jen
I read this, too, and I admit, I did not expect to like it. I thought it was a book that concentrated on racism, which every-other book seems to be about lately. So I would have passed it by if my book club hadn’t chosen it. I understood the story a bit differently than you did. Did I misunderstand?
Emira is a 25-year-old black college graduate, part-time typist, part-time babysitter, who longs to be more adult with a job more like her friends’ jobs. But she loves the little girl, Briar, she takes care of three days a week. The mother, though, is pretty hard to figure. (By the way, they’re white. But Kiley Reid, the author, seems to make pains to NOT concentrate on anyone’s race. That’s part of the reason I liked it.)
First of all, the mother calls herself Alix, which she pronounces “aa LEEKS,” even though her name is actually Alex. Sound pretentious? But nothing says that’s because she’s white.
After Alix hired Emira, their relationship was impersonal, limited to comments, questions, and instructions about Briar’s care. That changes after a late-night incident in a grocery store. Emira is there with Briar when she is stopped by a security guard. He and another customer are suspicious that she has kidnapped Briar, a little white girl. This problem is straightened out, and nowhere does Reid say this is racially motivated. It’s just understood.
Now Alix is determined to become Emira’s friend. I think that is probably because of a racist comment that her husband made on TV during a newscast. (Speaking of which, this is the reason Emira and Briar were in the grocery store. Some junior high school-age boys threw an egg at their window because of the comment, so Alix and her husband called the police. They didn’t want Briar there when the police came.)
That’s certainly questionable and detracts from an otherwise good story. Why would someone call the police because boys threw an egg at their house? And why would they get their toddler from her bed at 11 p.m. so she could get out of the house? And why would they call their babysitter at 11 p.m. for such a ridiculous reason?
While Alix is determined to be Emira’s friend, Emira begins dating Kelley, another white customer in the grocery store that night. Kelley filmed the incident with his smartphone and wants to publicize it but doesn’t. Emira doesn’t want to and insists he delete the video from his phone. Kelley is a character I couldn’t understand. It appears that all his friends are black and so have been all the girls he’s dated. Why? Reid doesn’t say. If I should have assumed the answer, I couldn’t.
As the story continues, we see more and more the kind of person Alix really is, especially after Emira introduces her to Kelley. After this, Alix does her best to break them up. And that’s not because she “loves” Emira but because she is jealous of Emira, although Alix professes otherwise.
SUCH A FUN AGE is very good. It didn’t offend me and shouldn’t offend anyone, if that is your concern. Reid writes such great dialog, especially that of little Briar, who the reader will love, and Kelley. The end, though, is too rushed. For that and the above-cited reasons, it doesn’t get a five-star rating.