Such A Fun Age

Kiley Reid's debut novel is already making waves on both sides of the Atlantic, and it's not hard to see why. It's a tautly paced, brilliantly observed and wonderfully subtle study of the complex interrelationship of race and privilege.

The story centres on an incident in which Emira, a young black woman who works as a babysitter for an affluent white family, is suspected by a white security guard of kidnapping Briar Chamberlain, the little girl she is paid to look after. (Along with Emira, Briar is the star of the book, and Reid writes her often surreal toddler-talk brilliantly.)

The incident sets off a chain of events that deftly exposes the anxieties of affluence and the often unconscious blinkers of privilege in contemporary American society, and no doubt elsewhere.

This is a story about liberal guilt and the covert racism of people who are convinced they are the least racist people in the room. Guilty about what happened to her employee, Briar's mum Alix seeks to befriend and encourage Emira in ways that, however generous, seem less than wholly disinterested - especially when she discovers Emira is dating her old High School crush, Kelley.

Alix and Kelley's relationship had a troubled ending that was also racially charged, and now each of these affluent whites is on a mission to prove they know best for Emira and that the other is the prejudiced one. The story accelerates through a series of lightly drawn, compelling scenes to a conclusion that avoids easy solutions and points the finger at systemic issues that are as much about class as they are about race. 9/10 Review by Dan Brotzel