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Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid review – an essential new talent

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/02/such-a-fun-age-kiley-reid-review-white-liberals-black-people

A thrilling millennial take on the 19th-century novel of manners investigates race, friendship and privilege

US author Kiley Reid offers a refreshing take on an age-old question: can we connect across barriers of race, gender, wealth and privilege? Emira Tucker, who works in Philadelphia as a babysitter for news anchor Peter and lifestyle guru Alix, takes their toddler, Briar, to an upscale supermarket where suspicions are stirred because she is black and the child is white. The security guard accuses her of kidnapping, and is only appeased when Emira calls Peter. (Peter is “an old white guy”, she declares, “so I’m sure everyone will feel better”.) A lesser novel would have lingered here, in territory that’s painfully familiar from countless viral incidents. But in Reid’s debut the incident heralds a caustically funny skewering of the sort of well-intentioned liberal who congratulates themselves on having black guests at dinner.

The story toggles between Emira, offbeat, aimless and fresh out of college, and Alix, wealthy overseer of a woman-centric brand built on her knack for getting free merchandise by writing letters. Alix and Peter’s house gets egged after Peter blunders into a mortifying episode of on-air racism – while covering the story of a black boy inviting a white girl to prom, he blurts: “Let’s hope that last one asked her father first.” In the wake of her husband’s racist faux pas, Alix resolves to befriend her black babysitter: “to wake the fuck up … To get to know Emira Tucker.” This desire intensifies until it begins to seem like a kind of neurosis, leaving her in thrall to feelings that aren’t “completely unlike a crush”. She spies on the lock screen of Emira’s phone (“always filled with information that was youthful, revealing, and completely addicting”), traps her at the kitchen table for awkward chats and begs her to join the family for Thanksgiving, with disastrous results.

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