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Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

While my initial reaction to the first few chapters of this book was a bit blasé, I found the ending so jaw-droppingly satisfying that it actually changed my perspective of the story.


*Content: This book review is going to discuss race. If that is something that makes you uncomfortable, I highly suggest you keep reading.

 

This story focuses on a young black woman named Emira, who works as a part-time nanny for a successful business woman. Like most of us did around the age of 25, Emira is starting to worry about what she will do once she is kicked off her parent's health insurance. She has none of the benefits of a full-time job and keeping up with her rent and bills is already laborious. Immediately, Kiley Reid puts the main character in a position that any millennial could understand and quite honestly, has probably lived through. It's a shit situation, and Emira is understandably anxious about her future.


Conversely, Emira's boss is a wealthy, self-made (by that I mean, her parents were rich) white woman whose idea of a 3-year-old's birthday party is inviting grown adults to mingle in their designer clothes, while tossing out or donating almost every gift given to her daughter. Alix, (pronounced AYY-lix) possesses so many symbols of white privilege that even as I type this review, I am still discovering the nuances of this character.


Let's start with the fact that Alix has made an entire career out of asking for free stuff. She writes handwritten letters to companies asking for free products in exchange for press on her blog. Her business turns into a brand, and soon she is supporting herself and her family with a very respectable income. Alix's career is a commentary on the idea that her asking for free stuff was never branded as being a "freeloader" or lazy, but instead presented as a feminist and empowering feat. This is the type of complimentary lighting that is so rarely afforded to people of color. Instead, when communities of color need subsidies for basic life necessities (not, as in Alix's case things like perfume and makeup) they are labeled as being unwilling to work, or even entitled. Yes, the welfare system is this country is complicated, and there are people who take advantage of it, but the overwhelming mentality is that people of color receive the most benefits and are therefore the least diligent. In actuality, just about 40% of welfare recipients are white.


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As the relationship between Alix and Emira is revealed, we start to see that in an attempt to prove her compassion for her black babysitter (but totally not because she's black), Alix succeeds triumphantly in building an altruistic vision of herself to her peers based solely on her compassion for her black babysitter. Alix cares very little for Emira personally, but cares very much about her reputation, which can be built on Emira's back. And oh boy, if this isn't one of the greatest metaphors for white feminist privilege I have ever read.


While this cringe-worthy relationship is happening, Emira also happens to be dating a white man with the same proclivity for being the "white hero." Kelley is the type of man who insists on rescuing women who don't need rescuing and then demanding that they thank him for it. In an attempt to rescue Emira, Kelley tries to convince her of Alix's insincere intentions while pretty much being guilty of committing the same crime. He criticizes Alix for her wealthy upbringing and her insincere concern for Emira, but Kelley is also wealthy, privileged, and under the impression that his abundance of black friends and self-immersion into black culture means he understands what it is to be black, which of course he doesn't and can't.


What culminates is a view of two relationships between Emira and her employer and Emira and her boyfriend which seem uncomfortable and jarring to some, but probably all too familiar for black women. What's even more brilliant about Reid's telling of this story is that it told mostly from the perspective of the white characters. The entire novel is a metaphor for the complexities of race relations.


Overall, the book was an interesting and thoughtful read. Without spoiling it, I must also mention that it has quite possibly one of the most satisfying endings I have ever read. When I say my draw dropped, I don't just mean it metaphorically. My mouth hung open for several minutes and in that time, I deeply hated not having someone to share this reaction with. So please, read it so we can gasp together.














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