“Such A Fun Age”, by Kiley Reid (Kindle) – 2.8 out of 5 stars
Release Date: 12/31/2019
I’d seen this title on many “highly anticipated” release lists and that hype automatically makes me leery (see: “The Goldfinch” and another book that were favorites of President Obama and Oprah and after reading I was like “meh”. I won’t mention the title of the latter lest I be put on a cosmic blacklist/get my black card revoked).
But this time, I thought I’d try again. I found the premise of the book compelling — late one evening, a young, black babysitter (there is a difference between babysitter and nanny as explained in the book) unexpectedly finds herself at a Whole Foods type store with the white toddler she regularly watches. With no cause, a white female customer gets a white male security guard to stop and interrogate the babysitter, the situation escalates as a white male customer records the encounter.
We’ve all seen variations of this type of viral video and I was interested in the aftermath – beyond the limited clips we are shown and are temporarily outraged. However, this story didn’t explore the ramifications of that incident in a way I expected, so it felt like a missed opportunity. The potential questions it raises, would make for lively discussion at dinner or a book club meeting.
Unfortunately, with the rich backdrop and the way this could’ve gone, the characters seemed one-dimensional without connection to one another. I just didn’t care about them on any level. So while this was a quick and easy read, it was ultimately unfulfilling.
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