Such a fun age
BY KILEY REID
Emira Tucker is a babysitter for news anchor Peter and Alix Chamberlain, a ‘lifestyle guru’. Which, in case you were wondering, is a made-up job – Alix basically built a female empowerment brand after a much-lauded #workingmom moment during which she breastfed her toddler on stage. That somehow led to a book deal, and she’s now ‘in talks’ with Hilary Clinton’s campaign. (The book is set in 2015.)
One night, after her husband makes an off-the-cuff seemingly racist remark on air, their house is egged, and Alix phones Emira to take her demanding toddler, Briar, off her hands for an hour or so. Emira dutifully pitches up, taking Briar to the nearest upmarket supermarket (think bone broth, truffles and kombucha) to while away an hour. One of the other shoppers takes one look at Emira (in her night-out clothes) and the blonde toddler on her arm and calls over the security guard – they reckon Emira has kidnapped her. Things escalate until she eventually has to phone Peter to back up her story. Peter is ‘an old white guy’, she declares, ‘so I’m sure everyone will feel better’. Meanwhile, one of her fellow shoppers is filming the whole interaction – in case she wants to sue.
Feeling guilty, Alix resolves to befriend Emira, and starts trying to bond with her through a series of cringeworthy conversations and staged interactions. She also surreptitiously looks at the notifications on Emira’s phone, which give her cryptic snippets of info on her life and likes, resulting in Google searches like ‘Is Childish Gambino a person or a band?’
Emira, meanwhile, is really just there for Briar – who she’s grown extremely fond of – and for the pay cheque. While Alix is fretting about how progressive and woke Emira will think she is, Emira’s mind is on more pressing matters: what is she doing with her life? Shouldn’t she have found a real job by now? Her friends all seem to have their lives figured out, and she is starting to feel left behind.
Through sharp observations and a sly sense of humour, author Kiley Reid manages to spotlight issues such as race and privilege with an effortlessly light touch. By her own description, this is ‘a comedy of good intentions’. This is her debut novel; I can’t wait to read the next one.