If you have any interest at all in books (and of course you do – you’re here), you have heard of this one. It was released just as the clocks turned to 2020, and has been talked about everywhere since. It has been getting positive reviews by everyone from The Guardian to The Atlantic to The Oprah Magazine. It was even January’s pick for Reese Witherspoon’s book club. It is, on the surface, a predictable account of racial prejudice and misunderstanding, of bad communication and assumptions, and of lots and lots of coincidences and poor decisions.
The novel starts with Emira Tucker, a floundering woman in her mid-20s who is struggling to figure a way into adult life and babysitting in the meantime. One night she is called by her boss, Alix, and asked if she can come over (even though it’s past 10pm) and take Alix’s oldest daughter out of the house while the police fill out a report after their house was vandalized. Emira, desperately in need of the extra cash, agrees. She arrives straight from her friend’s birthday party (and dressed accordingly) and takes Briar to a local grocery store where the toddler enjoys looking at the selection of bulk nuts.
At the grocery store an overly concerned white woman notices Emira, who is black, with a small white child, and reports her observations to security. The security guard approaches Emira and confronts her, demanding to know her relationship with Briar, why they are out so late and where Briar’s parents are. Emira is incensed by the blatant racism of the situation and the fact that the security guard’s demeanor is upsetting Briar, who she adores. Briar’s dad eventually arrives and explains the situation to the guard and Emira is allowed to leave without further incident. But this episode triggers several dominoes that will change the lives of everyone involved. A man who witnesses and records the exchange approaches Emira outside the store to share the video with her. The two later meet again, and this unlikely interaction leads to more. Alix, Emira’s boss and a professional social media influencer, feels so guilty about the trauma she imagines her employee feels, and decides that she needs to “fix” Emira. Not just make up for the unpleasant situation, but make sure she deals with the fall out in what she considers to be the “right’ way – a way that will ensure Emira’s public image.
What follows is a true comedy of errors – misunderstandings, misinterpretations, lies and deceit, with a lot of ignorance and relative privilege and lack thereof thrown in. The book deals with all the shades of grey in the relationship between Alix and Emira. Their races and how that affects their opinions of one another. Alix’s wealth and privilege set against Emira’s poverty and lack of any type of social equity. Controlling behaviour masquerading as concerned guidance. History repeating itself. Lots of self-involvement and complete lack of self-awareness. Emira isn’t perfect – she’s young, inexperienced and lacking in direction and motivation. But Alix’s outward perfection masks even deeper flaws in her life and outlook on the world.
I’ve been putting off writing this review because I am having such a hard time figuring out what I think of this book. I think the biggest thing was that it wasn’t what I was expecting. It was much more nuanced, and the characters were not easy to peg. I’d find myself sympathizing with a character, understanding where they were coming from, then a few pages later rolling my eyes and feeling like I just couldn’t with these people anymore. None of the characters are very easy to like. Emira, though smart and perceptive, lacks confidence and constantly keeps her thoughts to herself to a degree that is alienating to those around her. Alix means well, and is struggling to come to terms with her move out of New York and the shift to being a mother. I get that, but she’s also steeped in the type of privilege that is completely lacking any self awareness at all. And it’s worse, because she thinks she gets what is going on for Emira, but is completely oblivious.
What makes this book hard to dissect, however, is also what makes it so compelling a read. It’s not easy. It challenges the boxes you want to put people in, it shows that even the assholes sometimes mean well and even the victims can have bad judgement and terrible interpersonal skills. It also highlights the complexity of navigating employee-employer relationships, particularly when those relationships involve caring for wonderful and blameless kids and have multiple layers of vastly different relative privilege and social power. It brings up a lot of important topics that readers will have a whole range of experience (or lack thereof) dealing with. It’ll be a great book for book clubs and online discussion because everyone will bring something different to the conversation.
And yet… I can’t say I loved the book. It has value, definitely. But I didn’t really enjoy the reading experience much. So much of it made me cringe, so much of it made me wish people would just goddamn talk to one another honestly, and so much of it made me sad. The hardest part for me, and what really made it so I couldn’t give it full stars, was the way the children in the book were used as props to create drama, complicate relationships and pull on heart strings. But at the end of the day, those two kids were more real to me than any of the other characters. I hate the effect all the adults’ constant mistakes have on Briar’s life, and there’s one incident of neglect that is never addressed past some regret on the part of the perpetrator and being used to help that character come to some realizations. There are no consequences, and it just made my heart stop. The kids. The poor kids in this book. They are stuck in the middle, and no one really seems to be looking out for them except Emira, who isn’t in a position to really make anything change for them. I can’t come to terms with that, particularly since there isn’t really any resolution on their future. You’re left with some hope that they’ll be okay, but none of the issues that directly affect them are confronted, and they’re the only ones I really cared about.
So where does all this leave me with this book? It’s yet another example of a book that, had it not dealt with some really important issues in a way that I haven’t encountered before, wouldn’t have stood out that much. I wanted to know what was going to happen, but didn’t feel satisfied when I did. The characters were realistic but not that interesting – and definitely not sympathetic, with the exception of Briar. I get why this book is being heaped with praise – it’s a social satire that deals with some of the most pressing social issues facing us (and women in particular) today. And it does so with finesse and attention to the complex nature of these issues and the ways in which they intersect with and exacerbate one another. So is it worth reading? Definitely. You will get something from the experience, and if nothing else, it will bring up some important ideas to consider. But is it going to be a favourite of the year for me? Nope. I’d say it’s good, but not great. As a debut I think it has enough promise that I’ll be interested to see what Kiley Reid comes out with next, but I won’t be pre-ordering her titles or rushing to the store to pick them up.
A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.
Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living showing other women how to do the same. A mother to two small girls, she started out as a blogger and has quickly built herself into a confidence-driven brand. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night. Seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, a security guard at their local high-end supermarket accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make it right.
But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.
With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,” the complicated reality of being a grown up, and the consequences of doing the right thing for the wrong reason. – Goodreads
Book Title: Such A Fun Age
Author: Kiley Reid
Series: No
Edition: Hardback
Published By: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Released: December 31, 2019
Genre: Fiction, Race, Class, Parenting
Pages: 320
Date Read: January 8-13, 2020
Rating: 6/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.96/5 (15,493 ratings)