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As we are quickly approaching our next Virtual Book Club on Friday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. CST, I am loving my latest adventure through Prythian (and also still questioning if I’m going to get through a full reread before book club).  Some days, let’s be real, most days, I wish I could stroll through the streets of Velaris and experience the vibrant, joyful nature of that beautiful city.  During this season of the virus that shall not be named, I find my (introverted) self longing for a similar experience, to feel again what it’s like to be lost in a crowd, one among many, yet I’m trapped in the house in pursuit of protection (and also warmth, as winter in the mortal world is more brutal than the north of Prythian).  If you, like me, feel the need to be among people more, sign up here to join us as we have a spoilery discussion of  Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series and prepare our readerly hearts to receive the gift that I’m convinced A Court of Silver Flames will be.  

Sometimes we make plans ages in advance and they turn into happy little accidents.  The alignment of the stars and plots are with us, as last week Jane Re was a nanny, and this week Emira is.  Both women are minorities who find themselves working for affluent white families, and both are young women seeking to find their place in the world, something they can do to pay their way and bring them joy, and both love their little charges so very much.  Both books are debut novels, and I am HERE. FOR. THESE. AUTHORS.  In Re Jane, Patricia Park teaches readers about Korean culture, and the experiences of families who immigrate and their children.  In Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid teaches us (read me) about intersecting  cultures, perceptions, and how nothing is as simple as it seems.  

On the surface, Such a Fun Age is the tale of two women, Emira is a young Black woman who is trying to find her place in the world, one that includes health insurance and enough money to live comfortably, without wondering where her next meal and rent check will come from.  She has close friends who love her and support her, but, to her at least, they seem more successful, or at least they have comfortable jobs and don’t have to worry about money.  Alix is a bit older, a married mother of two young girls, a small business owner who’s made her mark on the world and is trying to stay relevant even though she’s no longer living in the city that inspires her and she’s struggling to find new friends since her family moved from NYC.  As with many a book, there is so, SO very much more to this story!  

I want to say so much about Such a Fun Age, but also, I don’t want to spoil this gem of a book.  The journey of Emira and Alix is an interesting one, and Reid’s writing brings both to light in a gorgeous way as we shift back and forth from on perspective to another seamlessly.  Here’s what I do want to say though, Emira gets it, she understands the way the world works and we see her code switching, becoming who she needs to be as the situation changes, and also trying to find what brings her joy and pays her bills, and y’all, isn’t that the dream!  Alix only sees part of the truth.  She doesn’t understand Emira, and even as much as she wants to be friends with her, I don’t think she really wants to know her as much as she wants to be known herself, and that doesn’t really feel like friendship to me.  Also, Alix only sees what she knows, she doesn’t understand how to translate that to a larger context or how to consider a perspective other than her own.  Such a Fun Age brings to the forefront issues of privilege, understanding, and perspective as well as friendship, transactional relationships, and domestic help.  As usual, I wanted to dive deeper into these issues and this story, but readers, while I’d love to spend more time with these characters, especially Emira, I didn’t want more epilogue.  Reid’s ending was perfect.  I’d love to chat with you more about this book in the comments if you’ve read it.  I’m likely to reread this four-star title and I’m looking forward to learning more from Reid as she continues to find herself, and hopefully writes many more books so readers can grow with her.  

~Nikki

Such a Fun Age is a debut novel with style, wit, and poignant clarity on the lines between race, wealth, and gender in society.  There is also a dearth of information on the author excepting that Kiley Reid began writing the novel in 2015 while working on her MFA at the Iowa Writers Workshop, was recipient of the Truman Capote Fellowship, and currently lives in Philadelphia, the setting of the novel. The book was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, debuted at number three on The New York Times Hardcover Best-Sellers List, and was Reese’s Bookclub Pick for January 2020. I know I had been playing the holds game since then because I was HERE. FOR. IT. I am also here for anything else Reid publishes and can’t wait for more laugh out loud moments equally interspersed with groans of frustration at the easily understood and yet often-terrible decisions each character makes. 

As Nikki mentioned above, Such a Fun Age is more than a story about race. It is also the story about the privilege of wealth and gender. The story opens with Emira being called by her employers, the Chamberlains, as she is out celebrating a friend’s birthday. She’s in her mid-twenties, living it up, and is asked to take 2-year-old Briar out to the grocery store for double pay while the cops are at the Chamberlain house to investigate a broken window. Emira explains that she is not dressed for babysitting but can be there in just a few minutes to which Alix Chamberlain agrees. Briar and Emira are walking around the grocery store, doing the same things that entertain the 2-year-old during the daytime hours, but this time it’s after 11pm and a white, female customer involves the security guard by saying she thinks Emira kidnapped Briar. The altercation is filmed by a white male customer, from the beginning of the security officer speaking to Emira and through Emira calling Peter Chamberlain and his subsequent arrival to prove Emira’s innocence and collect his daughter. Emira allows the videographer to email her the video but makes him delete it from his phone. She’s too shaken up to make a decision on what she wants to do about it at the moment. This entire incident sets the stage, introduces the characters, and prepares us for an awkward story that could be experienced by most any of us from one character’s point of view or another’s. My inherent bias as a middle-class white woman makes experiencing this incident through Emira’s point of view as an eye-opener. What have I been complicit in thinking/assuming about people because of how they look in any given situation? And how can I check myself in the future from allowing it to happen again? We’re reading fiction to be entertained, yes, but there’s always the benefit of becoming more socially and relationally aware of how other people – especially those who don’t look or act like us – move around in the world.

What I really loved about Reid’s writing, however, is her ability to make me laugh out loud at something I’ve totally thought or said to my friends but would feel awkward if it were said in public, or when reading it in a book. And then on the next page make me cry in frustration at how these characters can have a miscommunication so life-altering you want to smack them over the head. According to Goodreads, I read it in a day. I’m not ashamed or proud of that fact, it’s just a testament of how amazing of a book this is on every level. Such a Fun Age is a 4.5 star rounded up to 5 for me, and I want to discuss more but it would end up being spoilery. So, go and read some fiction and learn yourself something about other people’s struggles.

~Ashley

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