Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid is a novel that had a lot of buzz around it, especially after it was chosen as a selection for Reese Witherspoon’s book club. The story revolves around two female characters, Alix, a 30 something wealthy white woman, and Emira, her 25-year-old black babysitter. It’s a book that promises to deliver insights into the transactional relationship between wealthy white people and the women of color often hired to love and care for their children. Exploring that complicated relationship and getting the point of view of both of these characters seemed promising. There was no reason that I didn’t think I would love this book.
The book opens with a scene that has become all too familiar. A young black woman is in a Whole Foods-ish type grocery store with her young charge. The security guard questions why this black woman would be with a white child late at night and accuses her of kidnapping. The entire thing is filmed by a bystander on his cell phone. If you thought this incident would drive the plot of this book you would be mostly incorrect.
Emira is mortified by the interaction and even more disgusted at the thought of posting it on social media which was suggested to her by the good samaritan. It does, however, set off some internal conflict in Alix. She becomes terrified that Emira, the only one who seems to be able to connect with her 3-year-old Briar, will quit or even worse, think they’re racist! In order to keep Emira happy, Alix decides to learn more about her and immediately and awkwardly begins to ask Emira all manner of personal questions- about friends, nights out- and when she can’t get more info without seeming entirely too obvious, she takes to gleaning info by checking Emira’s lock screen on her phone. She’s able to learn more about the babysitter’s taste in music, the relationship she has with her sibling and the flirtation between Emira and a new guy.
This is my first issue with this book. Alix is awful. I don’t think that all protagonists need to be good people. In fact, I find women characters who are emotionally complex and even unlikeable often make for compelling reads. Alix is not complex. She has imposter syndrome. Who doesn’t? There is a bit of background story given to make us more empathetic to her internal struggle. However, Alix is in her mid30s and I don’t think that high school drama would impact someone’s behavior so completely. I never understood why she was doing the things she did.
And there was Emira. This character and the scenes where she interacts with her girlfriends are so stilted and seem so inauthentic, I double-checked to see if the author was black. I have a 25 year old daughter and those conversations sound nothing like the snippets I hear when my daughters are hanging out with their friends. Other than the dread Emira feels about her upcoming birthday because she’ll be kicked off of her parents’ insurance and her romance with the bystander of the grocery store incident, we don’t learn much about Emira. We never learn why she hasn’t let her parents know she babysits for extra money especially since it’s not only a job she loves but it’s actually one she excels at. We never learn why she doesn’t want that moment to go viral. And, other than the white lady white ladying notion, we never really learn what she thinks about her previously detached employers suddenly taking a keen interest in her life. I just wanted more from this character. I think that if we’d been given more it would have made the story much more interesting.
And now we come to the reason I ended up hating this book. Alix has a group of girlfriends. Tamra is the “black friend”. She is the point person on blackness for these women. Tamra is the new model for wokeness. She sports her hair in shoulder-length locs. She is well educated and the principal of a prestigious prep school in Manhattan. Her twins sport full, curly afros and speak fluent French. Despite her perceived “wokeness” she exhibits so much antiblackness towards Emira that I was legitimately pissed by the end of the book.
There is a scene toward the end of the book where Alix is unsure about her perception of a situation. She looks to her friends for their opinions and when one of the other women implies( in the nicest possible way!) that Alix’s whiteness may be contributing to how she’s perceiving the issue, Tamra steps in and co-signs Alix’s garbage choice! Really, girl! I have amazing friendships with white women and I think one of the reasons is because they know I will call them out on their privilege in a heartbeat. When you love people you want them to be better, to know better and to do better. Tamra became the black friend white women will use to excuse their behavior and I could not believe she was written by a black author.
The only thing I liked about the book was the relationship between Emira and the little girl she babysits, Briar. I loved the way Emira was able to see the person Briar was and give her what she needed. Riley was able to portray the conflict some of the women hired to care for children may feel. Perhaps the situation is not the best for them but a lot of them will ultimately stay on longer because they feel a responsibility to those kids.
I really wanted to love this book, perhaps that’s why I was so deeply disappointed by it. Have you read it? What did you think?
