“Such a Fun Age” by Kiley Reid

Nightstands & Coffee Tables

REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE

“I think it would be best if we went our separate ways, and that those paths never again connected.”

This timely debut novel by Kiley Reid speaks to two different audiences simultaneously, exposing the truths we keep hidden from one another and the narratives we choose to believe. Emira is an African-American 25-year-old college graduate with no clue about where she wants her life to go and resents the insistence that she should. She is perfectly content working a babysitting job that affords her hours with a toddler she adores named Briar, despite the little girl’s parents she can’t quite understand. Emira slips in and out of two worlds, one with her semi-successful black girlfriends who rib her for her lack of professional prospects, and the other with the upper middle-class Chamberlain family, led by Alix, Briar’s mother. 

Alix is a woman who acknowledges her privilege, while desperately trying to hold on to it. Raised with new money parents and hating the people they became, Alix is determined to be something different. She seizes the opportunity to befriend her black babysitter as a way to prove she is not that kind of ignorant white woman. Alix is a successful businesswoman, struggling with her maternal responsibilities and her desire for freedom from the limitations of motherhood. When an incident involving a security guard racially profiling Emira while she cares for Briar is caught on tape, the seemingly ideal working arrangement for Emira is challenged and Alix is forced to face a man from her past that could complicate her present. Alix’s high school history serves as the backdrop for who Alix is and why she is so intent on her own version of doing the right thing. 

Reid writes seamlessly from both perspectives. Each chapter shifts from Emira’s view to Alix’s, and the weaving of the two women’s worlds with genuine care to each experience is compelling. The narrative is rich with a developing plot line and intriguing dialogue that sparks just the right tone. As readers, we identify with both Alix and Emira, recognize their faults and cheer for their triumphs. The author reminds us none are perfect, and the second we think we have it all figured out, life has a way of coming into focus and exposing the fragility of our assumptions about one another. This book speaks to the complications of race and its effect on our daily interactions, our perceptions of reality, and how we treat one another even when we think we are good people. Reid refuses to wrap her stories up in a bow, instead relying on readers to find themselves in her characters and challenging them to reconsider what they think they already know to be true. 

This timely debut novel by Kiley Reid speaks to two different audiences simultaneously, exposing the truths we keep hidden from one another and the narratives we choose to believe. Emira is an African-American 25-year-old college graduate with no clue about where she wants her life to go and resents the insistence that she should. She is perfectly content working a babysitting job that affords her hours with a toddler she adores named Briar, despite the little girl’s parents she can’t quite understand. Emira slips in and out of two worlds, one with her semi-successful black girlfriends who rib her for her lack of professional prospects, and the other with the upper middle-class Chamberlain family, led by Alix, Briar’s mother. 

Alix is a woman who acknowledges her privilege, while desperately trying to hold on to it. Raised with new money parents and hating the people they became, Alix is determined to be something different. She seizes the opportunity to befriend her black babysitter as a way to prove she is not that kind of ignorant white woman. Alix is a successful businesswoman, struggling with her maternal responsibilities and her desire for freedom from the limitations of motherhood. When an incident involving a security guard racially profiling Emira while she cares for Briar is caught on tape, the seemingly ideal working arrangement for Emira is challenged and Alix is forced to face a man from her past that could complicate her present. Alix’s high school history serves as the backdrop for who Alix is and why she is so intent on her own version of doing the right thing. 

Reid writes seamlessly from both perspectives. Each chapter shifts from Emira’s view to Alix’s, and the weaving of the two women’s worlds with genuine care to each experience is compelling. The narrative is rich with a developing plot line and intriguing dialogue that sparks just the right tone. As readers, we identify with both Alix and Emira, recognize their faults and cheer for their triumphs. The author reminds us none are perfect, and the second we think we have it all figured out, life has a way of coming into focus and exposing the fragility of our assumptions about one another. This book speaks to the complications of race and its effect on our daily interactions, our perceptions of reality, and how we treat one another even when we think we are good people. Reid refuses to wrap her stories up in a bow, instead relying on readers to find themselves in her characters and challenging them to reconsider what they think they already know to be true.