In between long, sad strokes, she told herself to wake the fuck up. “As Peter gave two policeman a statement, Alix scooped up the glass with a hand towel in the glaring light from the chandelier.

In Kiley Reid’s brilliantly engaging and illuminating debut novel, Such a Fun Age, what we think is true and what turns out to be actually true are two completely different things, something that becomes confrontingly clear, to the protagonist and by extension to readers, by the book’s end.Įmira Tucker is a 26-year-old black woman living in Philadelphia, the holder of a four-year-degree from Temple University and a member of a Maryland family whose other members are all accomplished in their particular field of interest.īy way of contrast, Emira feels a little lost, uncertain of what her next step to adulthood is, a confusion compounded by close friends, Zara, Josefa and Shaunie, all of whom seem to know seem to know what they want and what they need to make it happen. You have ideals, you act them with nobleness of intent and efficacy of action, you witness injustice, you stand up against and hopefully right the wrong, you get to know someone, become their friend and possibly even more, only with the most altruistic of intentions and certainly with no drive or desire to benignly exploit them in any way.īut what seems simple and straightforward in theory, especially when you are part of the social or racial group that calls the shots in that society, is often anything but, especially for the people who live outside your cosy bubble where up is up and down is down, or at least that is what you tell yourself to sleep soundly at night. On the surface of it, society looks a fairly straightforward set of exchanges.

Such a fun age review