Such a Fun Age

On Briar’s birthday, Emira gifts the small child a goldfish. This is the only gift that Briar likes, naming the fish Spoons and watching him swim until Briar falls asleep. When Spoons dies, Alix suggests that Emira just get a replacement fish, though this marks a significant shift in their relationship. Emira has to take “a picture of a dead fish” (134) back to the pet store and try to get a new goldfish who looks similar. This kind of illusory tactic is not how Emira normally treats Briar, whom she considers capable of having real conversations. Spoons the goldfish opens the door to Emira understanding Alix’s motivations and self-absorbed nature, which eventually leads to Emira feeling more confident with taking charge. An example of this comes up later when Emira takes Briar across the state line to New Jersey to the aquarium, feeling assured that “she and Briar were a unit, Mrs. Chamberlain wasn’t there, and Briar fucking loved fish” (207). By nurturing Briar’s interests without a care for Alix Chamberlain’s perspective, Emira shows her true, loving, thoughtful self.  

As a novel that features significant cross-racial interaction, Such a Fun Age provides significant commentary on the ways that white people perceive black women’s hair styles. Early on in the novel, Zara gives permission for Briar to “touch” (6) her braids. Similarly, Alix often wonders at Emira’s appearance and hair. Later, when Emira and Kelley begin their relationship, she “reposition[s] his hands away from her hair” (85), and he apologizes for this behavior. Each time Emira and Zara interact with white people, they are subject to racist beliefs or attitudes regarding their hair, which is a common issue. Though hair might seem like a small motif to focus in on racist thoughts, it is a critical way that Reid consistently references the ignorance of the white characters in the novel.