44 pages • 1 hour read
Such a Fun Age
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BetaPart 4: Chapters 23-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4, Chapter 23 Summary
Having decided to seek out Emira in person, Alix walks to Emira’s address from the résumé Emira had given when she applied to be Briar’s babysitter. With both children in tow, Alix reaches the apartment building and buzzes the apartment while Briar yells at a man on the sidewalk. Emira invites the group upstairs, and Alix judges how “depressing” (253) it is. Alix and Emira talk casually as Briar explores the small apartment and asks her typical slew of questions.
Alix begins to address the situation with the video, explaining that she’s “so impressed with how [Emira] reacted that evening, and so grateful that [Emira] came into [their] lives” (257). Reaching into her purse, Alix takes out a wrapped gift for Emira: a calendar book for the year 2016 with “EMIRA” (258) written in on every weekday. The offer is for Emira to be their fulltime nanny, with benefits. Emira cries, then takes a breath, and accepts. Alix feels a motherly instinct, wanting to keep helping Emira. Then, Alix offers to “help [her] out” (261) with the video.
The next Monday, Laney Thacker and a full camera crew arrive at the Chamberlain house to begin filming; Zara and Emira are there, trying to pick which dress Emira should wear. As she waits for everything to begin, Alix “looked at Tamra for a final confirmation” (262) and asks if she did the right thing. Tamra assures Alix that she did.
Part 4, Chapter 24 Summary
In the midst of the chaos of preparing for the TV interview, Emira feels less excited than everyone else. In the bathroom, Zara helps do her make-up while critiquing the “plantation vibes” (264) of the whole scene. Up until the day of the filming, Emira had been looking at all of the online responses to her video, struggling with the different reactions of commenters. People had been calling, from Kelley to talk show hosts, but she had kept quiet. In addition, Emira had gotten three job offers, which she had declined because of her new job nannying for the Chamberlain family.
Zara leaves and comes back to the bathroom with Emira’s backpack and an important piece of news. Zara explains, “I hear that woman ask if she’d done the right thing […] and then that Uncle Tom Tamra woman told her ‘one hundred percent,’ and that this video is the best thing to ever happen to you” (267). Taking a moment to think this through, Emira feels defensive towards Mrs. Chamberlain; Zara prompts Emira to think about if Mrs. Chamberlain ever had access to Emira’s Gmail, realizing that she had logged on to the house computer before. Emira begins freaking out about how they had thought it was Kelley.
The two girls rapidly brainstorm what to do. First, Zara suggests that they need to find Emira a new job: She quickly calls her boss from the Green Party to work more hours as a receptionist instead of typist. Emira has to talk her boss up to health coverage, though she has to take a lower hourly rate. As soon as the call is over, the girls leave the bathroom and prepare; Emira tells Zara that as soon as she gives her “a look, [she] wants [Zara] to make a scene” (275).
Part 4, Chapters 23-24 Analysis
As the title implies, age is an important thematic element of Such a Fun Age. Though the phrase itself suggests something to do with small children, the novel spends more time focused on the ways that each character, adults and children alike, deal with what age they are and what this means for them. Alix struggles with getting older and being more of a mom, which comes with changes in weight and appearance. Meanwhile, Briar deals with the age appropriate conflict of expressing herself clearly and at the right times. Emira’s age, though, is possibly the most central to the novel’s plot: She is young enough, in Market Depot, for the security guard to have the racist assumption that she is not a babysitter, yet she is old enough to date someone who is the same age as her boss. As the plot escalates towards a final climax, Emira’s age once again features as a critical element of the novel. With Zara’s support, Emira begins to make more adult decisions that she has struggled with.
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