Kicking off this story about race in the modern day is an event that takes place in the supermarket: a young, black woman gets accused of kidnapping the white toddler she is babysitting. The child’s mother, a feminist blogger and influencer, is well-intentioned and determined to make things right.
At twenty-five, Emira is struggling with career aspirations, keeping up with friends who appear to have their lives together, and the looming knowledge that she’s about to lose her health insurance. On the other end of the spectrum is Alix — a self-made blogger and career woman, fighting to keep her sense of self as a mother of two young children, while living away from the bustle of NYC.
The novel raises questions around racism, but it’s also a story about privilege, social media, and managing life in your mid twenties. Reid expertly explores the nuances of everyday biases that remain ingrained in society, while also exposing the dangers of the white saviour complex.
Light-hearted elements, such as Emira's love interest and her female friendships, give the novel a contemporary feel, while cleverly using these storylines to elaborate on the story's key themes and the (not-so) subtle distinctions between Emira and Alix’s disparate worlds.
I found Alix’s friendship group less likeable, mainly because they acted under the presumption that they were always ‘in the right,’ and supported Alix’s questionable actions, which, looking back, helped drive Reid’s points home. I didn’t think it necessary that both friend groups consisted of four friends, and I found Emira's friends to be better distinguished, but perhaps this was a personal preference.
Overall, I loved this story and finished it in a matter of days. Briar, the adorable two-year-old, stole my heart, and I applaud Reid for tackling complex topics in an approachable, very readable contemporary novel.
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From the Publisher
'The Book of the Year' - Independent
'Couldn't put this down' - Jojo Moyes
'A new literary star' The Times
About the author
Hilarious and Honest!
It's 11pm when you're pulled from a girls' night out to babysit your employer's child. You accept: you need the money & taking this particular 2 year old to an all night grocery store is a more financially sensible way to spend the evening than indulging in $20 entreés & shots with your friends. At the grocery store, a woman smiles in your face & then proceeds to tell the security guard that you have kidnapped the child you are babysitting because the child is white & you are Black. And yes, *she* is. This is the situation that Kiley Reid's protagonist, Emira, finds herself in at the start of her novel, SUCH A FUN AGE. The novel is funny on two levels: firstly there's a hilarity in the way Reid paints certain characters, let's call them "well-meaning"; but the second layer of humour exists in the plane of "I had to laugh," that survival laughter we develop to combat the nonsense we experience on a daily basis. This reminded me of how I felt when reading MY SISTER THE SERIAL KILLER, not because they are at all similar in plot (they aren't), but because they have the same *can you believe this foolishness?*, *run to the group chat with snacks*, *girl I YELLED* energy. Emira is a frustrating character & I can't decide if she's young enough to be excused for the choices she makes. However, she lacks money as well as direction & this leaves her vulnerable to the contrived machinations of a host of white characters who range from "willfully ignorant" to "woke". Her boss, Alex/Alix (yup) is a White Feminist™️ blogger; her boss' husband is a news anchor who accidentally uses "racially-charged" language on air; her boyfriend is... smh. This is about more than just privilege, this novel also showcases how racism & capitalism are inextricably linked & how these structures impact Black women. As for the end of chapter 27 - Alix is mad. MAD.
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2020Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
It follows the lives of Emira Tucker and Alix Chamberlain. Emira is a 25-year-old black woman from Sewell Bridge, Maryland. She works part-time as a babysitter and a typist, but is struggling to find her place in the world. She often feels like every aspect of her life is moving forward without her, and lives with the everyday anxiety that many millennials endure.
A refreshing debut novel that explores privilege, racial biases and millennial anxiety.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2020
Alix is 30-something white woman from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Alix starts in New York City as a blogger and influencer, before moving to Philadelphia for her husband’s new job and hiring Emira as a babysitter to her 3-year-old daughter, Briar.
We also meet Kelley Copeland, a white man who is present when Emira is accused of kidnapping Brair at the local grocery store. He films the exchange between the security guard and Emira, before emailing the footage to Emira and deleting it from his phone.
After an incident in a grocery store, Alix become obsessed with making things right and equal with Emira. She wants justice, and overcompensates in trying to make her babysitter feel comfortable. She worries about coming across as a textbook white woman, to the extent of spending large amounts of her day wondering what Emira is doing or thinking. She becomes obsessed with Emira seeing the person beneath the privilege.
It became obvious from the beginning that both Alix and Kelley suffer from the white saviour complex. They both exhibit the behaviours of a white person who goes out of their way to help non-white people, but with the wrong motive. Both the characters constantly try to make decisions and share what they think is best for Emira, for self-serving reasons. It’s very much like celebrities who travel to underprivileged countries and snap photos with the locals to promote a more charitable image. The characters used their relationship with Emira to prove to themselves that they were just and upright people.
Alix was constantly reminding herself she was doing the right thing. At first, she seems well-intentioned but that quickly changed as more of her lunatic behaviour began to bleed through. Kelley surrounded himself with black people, only dated back women, and was almost over-supportive of that community. He clearly felt like that covered him from ever feeling like he was discriminatory.
Alix and Kelley seemed to compete with each other to see who could be the biggest ally to the black girl, or to see who was the most unprejudiced. Reading about their constant attempts to be impartial was exhausting, yet painfully realistic. The author’s intention was to highlight some of the racial prejudices and micro-aggressive behaviours that don’t make the news every day, and she did just that.
My favourite think about the novel was the light and easy writing, despite the book’s heavy themes. The characters in the novel are well-developed and skilfully used to move the narrative along while teaching the reader an important lessons on racial biases and stereotypes. The background and conversation between the characters fleshes out their personalities, which makes the book all the more compelling. The characters felt like real people, which is why it was so easy for me to relate to Emira as a 20-something black woman.
I absolutely loved the relationship between Briar and Emira. She may have only babysat for 21 hours a week, but for those 21 hours, Briar got to matter to someone. She’s an intelligent, observant and charming little girl, and her incessant babbling never failed to make me laugh. Briar’s parents may have not appreciated her adorable personality, but there’s no doubt that Emira did.
I wasn’t a fan of the ending. Just as I felt like the plot was becoming more and more exciting, the payoff was underwhelming. It felt like the story had been cut short. I would have liked a chapter or more to be dedicated to Emira’s development after the main events in the book. Everything that happened directly affected her life, and it would have been nice to see her mature from her experiences.
Overall, Such a Fun Age is the perfect book to construct diverse and interesting conversation. Its thought-provoking story, realistic themes and straightforward writing makes this debut an gratifying and compelling read.
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
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Top reviews from other countries
- Vlad TheladReviewed in Canada on 21 February 2020
Tackles the issues as fiction does best
-
Madre T.Reviewed in Mexico on 31 January 2021
Me encanta
Es un libro que se lee fácil, me parece que es del 2015/2016 pero justamente los temas que toca son muy relevantes hoy en día, entretenido y educativo al mismo tiempoMadre T.Me encanta
Reviewed in Mexico on 31 January 2021
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- SnapdragonReviewed in Australia on 26 January 2020
Interesting
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
