Such a Fun Age

Book Review

Such a Fun Age is another book I entirely judged by its cover, along with its passionate praise from Reese Witherspoon. Although RW has let me down in the past... I'm talking about you, Daisy Jones. Her opinion mixed with a catchy title and a pretty cover, and I am all in.

Things I did not know when I sent my husband my Christmas book list this year.

-Kiley Reid is amazing
-This was her debut novel
-This book was a take on racial topics in such a satirical way that you had to uncomfortably look inward as a 'woke white person' while laughing pretty fucking hard.

Such a Fun Age is set in Philadelphia in 2016. It switches narratives between Emira, a 25 year old black woman who is just trying to figure her shit out, and Alix Chamberland, a white mom of two who newly transplanted in Philadelphia from her glamorous New York life. Emira ends up being a part time babysitter to Alix's oldest child Briar. The story starts when Emira is called to help take Briar at 10 pm while the Chamberland's deal with an emergency. This results in Emira being accused by a store security guard of kidnapping Briar, and thus the catalyst for a story about too many people trying to use Emira, as a black woman, to convince themselves and others about how not racist they are.

I found a Vox article by Constance Grady from January of 2020 whose headline summed it up best, "In Such a Fun Age, everyone wants the black girl's attention, but she just wants a real job".

Some things I loved about this book:

-the dialogue! I embarrassingly laughed out loud by myself. Then looked around to make sure no one saw
-The relationship between Emira and Briar. Briar, you lovely, weird, beautiful babe. I am a mom to an ASD girl who had a behaviour therapist that would come to the house three times a week and play/work with her. They were best friends, and the story of Emira and Briar brought me back to that time and filled my heart thinking of my girl and her 'Wisa'
-How, despite the ways Alix and Kelly used Emira, they were written with so much compassion and likability that I couldn't decide who was in the wrong, who I liked more. It wasn't until the end that I realized they were both wrong, and yet I was still secretly wishing for a different ending.

The characters of Such a Fun Age are so fully realized. They are three-dimensional real people. They do shitty things and great things. They are completely lost about who they are while staying completely true to who they are. They are complex.

I can not wait to read what Kiley Reid writes next. She has mastered character development and writing believable conversations, and this is only her first novel.

Such a Fun Age was awarded Best Book of the Year with:
The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • NPR • Vogue • Elle • Real Simple • InStyle • Good Housekeeping • Parade • Slate • Vox • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal • BookPage 

Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize
New York Times Bestseller
Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick Winner of the African American Literary Award 
Finalist for: 
The New York Public Library's 2020 Young Lions Fiction Award
The Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award
The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award
The NAACP Image Award

Synopsis from Amazon
Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, 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 things 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," and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.