Such a Fun Age
Author: Kiley Reid
Published by:Bloomsbury
Pages: 364
Format: Paperback (Proof)
My Rating ★★★★
More than the racial bias, the night at the supermarket came back to her with a nauseating surge and a resounding declaration that hissed, you don’t have a real job.
This wouldn’t have happened if you had a real fucking job, Emira told herself on the train ride home, her legs and arms crossed on top of each other. You wouldn’t leave a party to babysit. You’d have your own health insurance. You wouldn’t be paid in cash. You’d be a real fucking person.
Such a Fun Age will be released in January 2020!
My thoughts:
Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlain’s 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.
Such a Fun Age is a really great story about two very different women, all their quirks and habits, and what happens when their lives intersect. It’s a very engaging contemporary novel with a lot of nuance. But there is also much more to this book than just entertainment. It highlights a lot of racial issues, from two different points of view: Alix a successful, married white woman and Emira an “undecided” African American woman.
The book undoubtedly explores the issues of ‘white saviours’ in modern society, yet Reid is careful not to let the characters fall into one-dimensional stereotypes. She has created fully fleshed out characters which allow the story to explore the way well-meaning white people can often overstep and actually make black people’s lives harder.
With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the awkwardness of working 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.
I found this to be a really impressive and surprising debut novel. At a first glance Such a Fun Age might appear like a light read, but once you read the synopsis, you will realise that there is so much more to this book. The plot is smart, empathetic and compelling. A page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege. The last two chapters really clinched it for me, and I felt the conclusion to the book was handled perfectly.
I loved reading this one and swept through it in just a couple of sittings. A wonderful and important contemporary fiction.
Thanks again to Bloomsbury, who kindly sent me out a copy of the book to read and review. You’ll be able to pick up a copy for yourself in January 2020. Please do.
Overall reaction:
Published by:Bloomsbury
Pages: 364
Format: Paperback (Proof)
My Rating ★★★★
More than the racial bias, the night at the supermarket came back to her with a nauseating surge and a resounding declaration that hissed, you don’t have a real job.
This wouldn’t have happened if you had a real fucking job, Emira told herself on the train ride home, her legs and arms crossed on top of each other. You wouldn’t leave a party to babysit. You’d have your own health insurance. You wouldn’t be paid in cash. You’d be a real fucking person.
Such a Fun Age will be released in January 2020!
My thoughts:
Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlain’s 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.
Such a Fun Age is a really great story about two very different women, all their quirks and habits, and what happens when their lives intersect. It’s a very engaging contemporary novel with a lot of nuance. But there is also much more to this book than just entertainment. It highlights a lot of racial issues, from two different points of view: Alix a successful, married white woman and Emira an “undecided” African American woman.
The book undoubtedly explores the issues of ‘white saviours’ in modern society, yet Reid is careful not to let the characters fall into one-dimensional stereotypes. She has created fully fleshed out characters which allow the story to explore the way well-meaning white people can often overstep and actually make black people’s lives harder.
With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the awkwardness of working 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.
I found this to be a really impressive and surprising debut novel. At a first glance Such a Fun Age might appear like a light read, but once you read the synopsis, you will realise that there is so much more to this book. The plot is smart, empathetic and compelling. A page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege. The last two chapters really clinched it for me, and I felt the conclusion to the book was handled perfectly.
I loved reading this one and swept through it in just a couple of sittings. A wonderful and important contemporary fiction.
Thanks again to Bloomsbury, who kindly sent me out a copy of the book to read and review. You’ll be able to pick up a copy for yourself in January 2020. Please do.
Overall reaction: