The scene is unnerving, devastating, and all-too-familiar, but rather than dwell on the racial and political implications of this terrible, defining incident, Reid almost speeds through it, and so does Emira, who chooses to give the whole affair the shake of the head she believes it deserves, and turns her mind to the far more preoccupying matter of her inching closer to her 25th birthday and towards the inevitability of being kicked-out of her parents’ health insurance. Narratives about race and privilege are not unfamiliar literary fodder, but in her novel, Reid takes on the monumental challenge of revealing the present state of the United States through what she calls the “everyday domestic biases that we don’t even know we have.” Reid’s exploration is a fresh and interesting look at the uneasy performance of “wokeness”-a paper-thin tissue of a word, so conspicuous that it now immediately breeds distrust.Īt the outset of the novel, Emira Tucker, a young Black woman, is accosted by a security guard in an upscale grocery store in Philadelphia and accused of kidnapping the white toddler she’s babysitting. 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. 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. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. Alix resolves to make things right.īut Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help.
A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar.
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. 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.Īlix 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.
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