Such a Fun Age

Such A Fun Age’s second lead character is Alix Chamberlain, née Alex Murphy. A wealthy white woman in her 30s, Alix has never addressed some serious psychological dysfunctions that are rooted in her teenage years with parents who inherited a large sum of money.

In high school, Alix became the reason that a peer, who was a black male student, ended up arrested. Through this experience and her devastation after her white boyfriend, Kelley Copeland, broke up with her, Alix re-defined herself and pushed down any feelings of discomfort or guilt. She quickly rose to success through her letter writing, which started as a way to receive “merchandise” (20) but “seemingly overnight […] became a brand” (22).

As an adult and a mother, Alix has recently relocated from New York to Philadelphia with her husband, Peter, a well-intentioned white man who works as a news anchor, and their two daughters: Briar, an inquisitive toddler, and Catherine, a quiet infant. Alix works hard to control everything around her, developing a strange obsession with her babysitter, Emira, and trying to garner Emira’s favor. Through her relationship with Emira and conniving attitude, Alix’s true self comes out by the end of the novel. 

Kelley Copeland is a white man in his 30s who dates young Emira and is also “Alex Murphy’s first everythings” (153) before he broke up with her in high school. In his relationship with Emira, Kelley reveals both his loveable quirks, like reading “only print books” (85), as well as his subtly racist beliefs and habits. Like Alix, Kelley also behaves in ways that suggest that he would like to control Emira, particularly regarding her reactions to the night at Market Depot. Kelley is also the person who videotapes Emira when she’s accused of kidnapping, which leads to the central conflict of the novel. 

A sweet, curious child, Briar Chamberlain spends much of her day asking questions. She is distinctly “not a silly child” (7), and takes most of her interactions much more seriously than the typical two- or three-year-old. In situations where most toddlers would be engaged and excited by social interaction, Briar often responds “with a face that [says] [...] Do I really have to do this?” (120).

Over the course of the novel, Briar becomes more adept at expressing herself. This comes out in a huge outburst at Thanksgiving, where Emira notes that “this type of crying had been inside Briar all along […] she’d always been capable of it and just chosen not to” (182). Briar’s serious demeanor has been a cover for the intense emotions she processes on a daily basis, particularly about how her mother, Alix, ignores her or dislikes her.