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Such a Fun Age

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Such a Fun Age

By: Kiley Reid
Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
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Summary
 A Best Book of the Year:
The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • NPR • Vogue • Elle • Real Simple • InStyle • Good Housekeeping • Parade • Slate • Vox • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal • BookPage

Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

A Reese's Book Club Pick

"The most provocative page-turner of the year." --Entertainment Weekly

"I urge you to read Such a Fun Age." --NPR

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.

Alix 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. 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. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, 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 things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. 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.

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. It is a searing debut for our times. Coming of Age Genre Fiction Women's Fiction
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Very nice story, very nicely read!
Just one slight minus point: it's American English but after you're used to it it's really nice!

I'd like to have more of this!

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Very well read by Nicole Lewis. A pleasure to listen to her as she brings the various characters to life.
The story is however very disappointing, full of cliches about what the book actually wants to denounce.

Disappointing

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I was waiting for something to crescendo when it appears that the story is the opposite of that. This packed a little less punch than the synopsis let on (what's going on with blurb these days?), but it is good in a very subtle way. It reminds me of Kathryn Stockett's "The Help" at times, but where the racism in "The Help" is very glaring, the racism in "Such a Fun Age" is indirect, via micro agressions or behind-the-back comments. While I enjoyed this modern spin of a still very much important problem, I don't think I actually liked the plot itself or the characters. Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I had fun being in Alix's shoes, seeing how she justified her obsession of being perceived as open-minded when she was clearly being problematic. She felt more complex than others, although I fear the ending scratched that sentiment for me.

Racism can be subtle

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