Such a Fun Age

This is the story of Emira and Alix. Emira is a 25-year-old black woman figuring out the path she wants to pursue in life. Alix is a white woman in her early thirties, well-to-do, mother of two, and adrift in her own way. Emira babysits Alix's daughters, and is particularly smitten with the older the the two, a toddler named Briar.

Alix, at first glance is a kind, somewhat progressive woman, but she has brings her issues to her relationship with Emira. Alix takes pride in having multiple PoC at the dinner table, because of what it says about her. She becomes obsessed with and dotes on Emira for much the same reason. She is kinda like a lot of white liberal women, and this story explores how insidious this all is, and how people pass these behaviors down to their children even without being aware of it – because these women also write their own narratives and buy into their own manufactured version.

I find it interesting, and valid, how Emira was not a “go-getter,” taking life in stride and avoiding confrontations. I think it's a less explored POV. She doesn't know what she wants to do, but she knows that no one else should decide for her either.

Because Emira is so low key, events that in another novel would be bigger explosions tend to operate more subtly. She sees and does what she needs to see and do in her own time, and at her own pace.

I appreciated very much the last scene that makes clear a dynamic that was hiding in plain site in terms of Emira, Briar, and Alix. Alix, for all her pretense of enlightenment, is not that far from a plantation owner's wife, absolving guilt and responsibility by treating “the help” very well, and wondering why she isn't better appreciated.