Such a Fun Age

Can I just say this is the book that kicked me out of my pandemic reading slump. It was just the page-turning, thoughtful and funny read I needed, in part because of how warm the relationship between Emira and Briar was. Writing kids is not easy but Kiley Reid is clearly drawing on her six years of taking care of rich Manhattanite children. Briar is a wonky, thoughtful, panicked little 3 year old that loves to smell tea bags, and is Emira's favourite little human. So when she's called in the middle of the night to come and get Briar out of the house for an emergency - Emira is there to take her to an upscale grocery store.

Emira is black and dressed for clubbing. Briar is a white 3 year old. So it's only a matter of time before someone goes full Karen and calls security over. Things escalate until Emira manages to get Briar's dad to come over and be reassuringly white for everyone.

The whole incident is recorded by Kelley Copeland who is completely affronted for Emira's sake. He wants the recording sent to the news station, the security guard to get fired, free groceries for Emira. This is a travesty. You know he's ready to post a hot take on Twitter or upload it to Reddit as soon as possible but Emira insists he delete the file.

So one hand you've got the “woke” white guy that exclusively dates black women and on the other, Briar's mom Alix. She's an upper middle class influencer whose schtick is handwritten notes on fancy paper asking for things, with the perfect little hastag #LetHerSpeak. After the market incident she's intent on connecting with Emira. She LOVES Toni Morrison, she has black best friends!

And it's here that Kiley Reid just has so much fun. It's an examination of fetishization, micro-aggressions, virtue signaling, white-knighting along with the story of how one is supposed to adult in this world. This is meaty fodder for any book group without getting weighted down with it's own self-importance. Just a fun read that you can feel a tiny bit smug about being in on the joke and on the right side of cringe. I mean how do you pronounce SZA?