For our book club meeting in April we read Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid. This book was also on Reese’s Book Club List. We had an interesting discussion.
“What happens when you do the right thing for the wrong reason?
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 aisle of her local high-end supermarket. The store’s security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accused 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 goes public and 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 Fine 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.
We had an interesting discussion and look forward to our next book club in June.