Such a Fun Age

September 2, 2019
In her debut, Reid crafts a nuanced portrait of a young black woman struggling to define herself apart from the white people in her life who are all too ready to speak and act on her behalf. Emira Tucker knows that the one thing she’s unequivocally good at is taking care of children, specifically the two young daughters, Briar and Catherine, of her part-time employer, Alix Chamberlain. However, about to turn 26 and lose her parents’ health insurance, and while watching her friends snatch up serious boyfriends and enviable promotions, Temple grad Emira starts to feel ashamed about “still” babysitting. This humiliation is stoked after she’s harassed by security personnel at an upscale Philadelphia grocery store where she’d taken three-year-old Briar. Emira later develops a romantic relationship with Kelley, the young white man who captured cellphone video of the altercation, only to discover that Kelley and Alix have a shared and uncomfortable past, one that traps Emira in the middle despite assertions that everyone has her best interests at heart. Reid excels at depicting subtle variations and manifestations of self-doubt, and astutely illustrates how, when coupled with unrecognized white privilege, this emotional and professional insecurity can result in unintended—as well as willfully unseen—consequences. This is an impressive, memorable first outing. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME Entertainment.

Narrator Nicole Lewis hooks listeners with her lively pacing and vivid characterizations in this gripping debut audiobook on race, privilege, and money. In an upscale Philadelphia grocery shop, 25-year-old black college graduate Emira is improperly detained by a security guard who refuses to believe that she is the babysitter of her white employer's 3-year-old daughter, Briar. Lewis superbly captures the fallout from this disturbing encounter--Emira's growing unease; intrusive behavior from Alix, Emira's employer and Briar's mother; and complications from Emira's romantic entanglement with Kelly, a young white man who filmed the incident. Lewis skillfully delivers the snappy repartee between Emira and her best friend, Zara, and the "Sex and the City" vibe of Alix and her New York City friends, Tamra, Jodi, and Rachel. M.J. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine