Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
“You’re not better than anyone,” says the main character of Such a Fun Age, Emira, “when you hang up your own coat and take your plate to the trash. I’ve been those girls helping out tonight…it’s like eating everything on your plate ‘cause you think someone else won’t go hungry if you don’t. You’re not helping anyone but yourself.”
With such impactful dialogue just as an example, it’s undeniable that Kiley Reid knows how to pack a punch between the covers of a seemingly easy read. Upbeat, original, and painstakingly reflective of Western society, Such a Fun Age is more than just another contemporary author looking to draw hype through an exciting plot that has Netflix potential. It is a piece of work that is highly in-tune with our current reality, and as we head into a new decade, it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Emira is a 20-something African-American who finds herself in the employment of Alix Chamberlain, a white mother-of-two who, upon moving to Philadelphia, struggles to balance writing her “history of self” book alongside caring for her young daughters. Following an incident at the Chamberlain home, Emira is called on to leave a party and take care of the eldest child. They head to the grocery story which she has frequented countless times while the situation is dealt with. It is here, in the cool and usually eventless aisles of the store, where she is accused by another shopper of kidnapping the child. The situation escalates, and a man begins filming the altercation as the security guard calls for back up.
The events that follow this major opening are just as, if not more, gripping, clearly demonstrating the intelligence that Reid possesses as a writer. Most notably, her ability to accurately observe and re-construct daily events makes the reading experience of Such a Fun Age one that is not unlike what we see on the news. We have heard these stories before. We know these people or are these people, who are called out on no more than our existence. We are familiar with the narrative and yet, no amount of repetition makes it less dreadful.
Reid takes this heavy, leaden topic and through the perspective of her young protagonist, transforms it into a fuller experience. We are able to see Emira as more than just a victim of a horrible situation, which racially, speaks volumes as depicting POC’s as multifaceted (just as all people are in real life). Her reaction to the situation and the equal emphasis placed on other aspects of her story shifts the perspective from a white lens. She becomes more than “just another POC victim”. She is depicted as a complex person like you or I, and because of that, to the reader, she becomes just as real.
Adding to this distancing of characters from 2D figurines is the author’s replication of a millennial attitude and dialogue. Despite being set in 2015 in a pre-Trump world, it still maintains the essence that makes up the language of our times. And unlike many other attempts by contemporary writers, no part of it, not the colloquial speech, nor the detached boldness of the characters, feels forced. Reid proves herself to be an insider, making the book effortlessly relatable no matter who is reading it.
Addictive and stirring, Such a Fun Age is likely to do for 2020 what THUG did for 2017: make moves as a modern book on POC’s that will no doubt be looked back on as freeze frames of our current world. If there is one hyped up read you pick up this year, let it be this.
Roumina Parsamand
Roumina is a journalism and finance student from Melbourne, Australia. She is a filler of journals with words and drawings, and an obsessive reader. Always happy to chat books, pet dogs, and drink tea. You can find her on Instagram at @nami.reads
