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Such a Fun Age
320 pages
A sharp, compulsively readable social comedy that skewers performative allyship and the messy realities of transactional relationships.
What it feels like
Reading this feels like watching a slow-motion car crash at a high-end farmers market. It is compulsively readable, driven by razor-sharp dialogue and an almost uncomfortable level of social observation. The narrative moves at a brisk, engaging clip, wrapping biting satire in the accessible, familiar packaging of a coming-of-age story. You are constantly shifting allegiances as the book exposes the cringe-inducing realities of performative allyship, white saviorism, and the transactional nature of domestic labor. The prose is crisp and unpretentious, letting the characters' deeply flawed, painfully recognizable behaviors speak for themselves. It will absolutely delight readers who crave smart, contemporary fiction that makes them laugh, wince, and immediately want to text a friend to discuss the messy, brilliant climax.
- Mood
- tense
- awkward
- contemporary
- cringe-inducing
- Tone
- wry
- observant
- satirical
- empathetic
- sharp
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- performative allyship · transactional relationships · quarter-life crisis · class and privilege · white saviorism
- The writing
- Crisp, dialogue-driven, and highly observant of modern social nuances and microaggressions.
- The arc
- Moves from relatable twenty-something aimlessness into a slow-burn realization of insidious social dynamics, culminating in a satisfying, boundary-setting release.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love sharp social commentary wrapped in highly readable, character-driven contemporary fiction.
Content notes
- racism
- racial profiling
- microaggressions
- toxic relationships
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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