i grew to really care about these characters, a compliment i can give best by saying i'm a multiple perspective hater and yet enjoyed reading from each of this book's three points of view.

unfortunately, this swap — from mother to son to grandmother — left a few gaps that felt inexplicable. we leave one character having abandoned one parent and embraced the other, and return to the opposite with no explanation. things i thought we'd find resolved by character development — the mother's reliance on the son, the son's unwillingness to love, the grandmother's ambition and stubbornness, relationships to power and to wealth, the grandfather and father themselves — we similarly find either magically fixed or unchanged by the end. its central theme, revolving around genetics and race and money and class and what makes us who we are, similarly stuttered out.

while i liked a lot about this, i thought it didn't register the whole point of family dramas. i knew these characters in some ways, but i didn't know the bonds between them.

4 1/2 stars rounded up to 5

I requested this book on NetGalley, but in the meantime, pre-ordered it because I wanted it so much! I honestly don't remember that much about Goodbye Vitamin (though I did read it and give it 4 stars), but the premise of this book sounded really good to me. And I was sucked in from the start!

I’m truly a family saga girlie at heart and this one covers three generations of a family with a really unique and intriguing story. It’s definitely a character-driven book, but I also loved that the plot went in directions I wasn’t expecting.

The first part of the book focuses on 20-something Lily living in NYC in the 90s, the second on 15-year-old Nick in Washington state in 2021, and the third on Mei in San Francisco in the year 2030, but also goes back to her childhood in China. I don’t even want to tell you how they’re all related because, for me, the unraveling of the story is my favorite thing. There’s a little bit of science and genetics involved and some of it confused me a bit at times, but ultimately I loved the added depth it gave the story.

Some people are saying the book is too long, but I thought it was just perfect and probably would have been willing to read even more. Especially about Lily's life and relationship.

I definitely recommend Real Americans to anyone who enjoys family sagas that have lots of depth!

I requested an advanced e-galley before I heard any hype about this one. The premise sounded intriguing and I had heard great things about this author’s previous book. Knowing I usually love @readwithjenna book club picks, I was even more excited when Real Americans was selected for May.

This book is divided into three sections, three POV’s and three timelines. In my opinion, neither of these parts felt cohesive and came across as disjointed and confusing. What was the point of it being titled Real Americans? In my opinion, there were no profound takeaways and any attempt at a deeper message was poorly executed.

I can look past some of the fails I listed above if there is really good writing. Unfortunately, it was “unimpressive” at best. The narration was either very robotic or came across as YA.

Overall this book lacked in too many areas for it to be enjoyable for me. I felt like I really didn’t “get” this book.

Thank you to #netgalley and @aaknopf for my complimentary e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to the publisher for gifted advance copy of 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙨! It's available now.

This is an achingly beautiful family saga about three generations of a Chinese-American family. The story is told in three parts which almost read like separate novels. What began as the first part in Lily’s story in the late 1990’s was actually the middle of the timeline.

Lily is the daughter of Chinese scientists who fled to America during Mao’s brutal Cultural Revolution. Lily and her mother May have a fraught relationship, which Lily sees as her mother feeling disappointed in her life choices. Lily yearns for the kinds of easy relationships her American friends have with their parents but she is always walking on eggshells with her own. (“𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘥 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯, 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴.”)

Lily meets a wealthy white man named Matthew and falls in love even though she never feels quite his equal. She struggles with their class differences even though Matthew distances himself from his family’s great wealth. When she travels to China and meets an old acquaintance of her mother, and especially once she has her own child, she begins to see her mother in a new light. (“𝘔𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦. 𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.”)

The very poignant second and third parts of the novel are Lily’s son’s Nick and May’s story. From the rural countryside of China to San Francisco, the book spans generations and asks the age-old question, can two people from very different socioeconomic classes ever overcome their differences? This ambitious novel covers a lot of ground, from the brutality of China’s communist party to New York City at Y2K to tech startups in Silicon Valley. There is also scientific discussion of genetics and the ethics surrounding genetic experimentation. I won’t soon forget these characters. This book is easily one of my favorite books of the year.

I alternated between listening to the audiobook and reading. Highly recommend listening if you’re a fan of audiobooks!

“Real Americans” by Rachel Khong is a stunning family saga of American identity, spanning three generations of a Chinese American family.

The novel begins on the brink of the year 2000 in New York City, where we meet Lily Chen, a young intern navigating the complexities of her young life, balancing career and love. Her relationship with Matthew, an heir to a pharmaceutical empire, sets the stage for a story that delves deep into themes of class, race, and the pursuit of the American dream.

As the story unfolds, we are introduced to Nick, Lily’s teenage son, who grapples with his own sense of belonging. His quest for identity and understanding of his mother’s secretive past is an ever present theme.

The final thread of the story is told through May, Lily’s mother, whose reflections on her youth during China’s Cultural Revolution and her subsequent life in the United States offer a rich historical base and a personal perspective on her life as an intelligent and educated Chinese woman.

Khong’s prose is stunning and moving, seamlessly weaving together the personal and the complicated norms this story introduces you to. The characters are interesting, with their flaws and aspirations displayed in such a way that is both compassionate and believable. The novel’s structure gives you time for the deep dive you want to spend in each character’s world.

“Real Americans” is one of the best stories I have read so far in 2024. It is a story that asks us to consider whether we are destined by our past or if we have the power to shape our own futures. With its bold and thoughtful examination of life’s biggest questions, Khong’s novel is a testament to the power of storytelling in understanding who we are and what it means to come home. I would highly recommend this to your book club and I can't wait to tell everyone I know about this book.

Real Americans is a true generations family drama, told in three parts by three different generations of the family. I loved Lily’s part, got a little bored in Nick’s, and then loved May’s at the end which tied everything together. In additional to the typical roots of family trauma, there is a sci-fi aspect to this one that honestly went a little over my head, but added a compelling element to the story.

The writing is incredible and I’ll keep picking up anything Khong writes.

I’m very torn about my thoughts on this book: on one hand, I thought it was beautiful and emotional, and on the other hand, I feel like I didn’t understand it.

The writing is phenomenal. We follow the lives of three relatives: Lily; her son, Nick; and her mother, May. We dive deeply into the lives of each, and I found myself so attached to every character, feeling tense when they were in trouble and happy when , they encountered luck. They are such well, rounded characters, you root for them because they are good people, but we are also privy to parts of them that are not entirely complementary. Especially the part about May, which leans well into historical fiction which is not my typical preferred genre, had me completely hooked.

And yet, there was a throughline of science and time that I just couldn’t grasp. There was a recurring theme about time standing still, and I struggled to understand whether it was real or some sort of science fiction. And the plot that related to genetics went completely over my head.

The book was masterfully written and highlights the question about what it means to be a real American – is there even one definition. Were any, or all, of our three protagonists real Americans? This was a beautiful multi generational story that raises so many questions about identity, family, and success, and I won’t soon forget it.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy and exchange for my honest review.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up

This started out strong - but I quickly grew frustrated.

-The first main character, Lily, is so immature, bland, and self sabotaging. I love an anti-hero, but she was just void of any personality, ambition, passion, or saving grace. I didn’t get a strong sense of her at all - she was fickle about her attitude about microaggressions and using Matthew’s wealth. Then she felt like a completely different character in the context of being Nick’s mom - yet another inconsistency. Both Lily and Mae were so unlikeable, it was hard to be empathetic toward their masochistic, whining cycles.

-The one-dimensional white saviors Matthew and Nick were unfortunately the heroes of the story - repeatedly offering grace, money, and forgiveness to the actual intended protagonists. Each plot point was pushed forward by the white men, which made me uncomfortable. It definitely felt like I was reading The Help. Isn’t this 2024? I wouldn’t have been surprised if this was written by a white guy.

This was a stunning multi-generational novel! I was completely captivated from the start and equally fascinated by all three storylines/POVs as well as the historical and scientific aspects. The writing was emotional, mesmerizing and thought-provoking; I didn’t want to put it down and I know I will thinking about it for a while! The questions it posed about identity, belonging, the choices we make, family, destiny, class (I could go on!!) were instantly relatable. Along with The Women, this one will likely end up in my top reads of 2024 list and highly recommend it for AANHPI month!

I really have some mixed feelings about this novel. While I find it to be quite riveting, somehow the story overall fell short of my expectations. Real Americans follows the story of 3 generations of a Chinese-American family starting with Lily, the daughter of Chinese parents who emigrate to the US. This was not only a story of race and family but one of genetics, too. Overall the story felt unfinished and what could have been a stellar book was just good.

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for this ARC.

How do you rate a book that doesn't quite deliver on its promise, and yet is still a riveting read?

Told through the perspectives of three generations of a family, Real Americans follows Lily as she finds the love of her life, Nick through his high school and college days as he gains independence, and Mei in her old age as she recounts what really happened all those years ago.

Of the three accounts, I feel like Lily's and Nick's boil down to coming-of-age stories, no matter how you try couch it in fancier, more racially-interesting terms. And I think that's where my mismatched expectations resulted in some disappointment. I was expecting more of a deep dive into what it means to grow up Chinese-American, but this only just scratches the surface.

The book tries to tackle so many worthwhile subjects—what it means to belong, a mother's love and expectations for her child, immigration and assimilation, having wealth and privilege, affirmative action, racism. You name it, it feels like it's in this book. If you're thinking to yourself, wow that's a lot, yes it is. And maybe that's the problem.

With so many topics, how do you achieve a meaningful look into any one of them? Well, I'm not sure you can. You can only superficially acknowledge them for a few pages, or even just a paragraph here and there, and that's about it. Every time I came across an interesting observation, I'd get excited, only to have the book immediately abandon it and move onto the next thing.

Throughout the whole story, there is this feeling that the good part is coming and I'm imminently about to stumble upon it. And this feeling propelled me through the book. I kept turning the pages, waiting with anticipation at what were sure to be astonishing revelations. But they never really materialized to my satisfaction.

I did find Mei's portion to be the most interesting and compelling. Hers was more than just a coming-of-age tale. She talks about what it's like to grow up during the Cultural Revolution, at a time of famine, when neighbor turned on neighbor, and every sort of intellectual aspiration was viewed as a punishable offense. I can't help but be drawn towards this part of Chinese history. It was the defining event of my parents' youth, yet they hardly ever talk about it.

The other interesting part of Mei's tale is the focus on the science that is central to this book, especially the ethics of gene editing and selection. But here again, it feels like the story got just close enough to tantalize, then immediately backed off, as if afraid to take anything other than a superficial stance on a potentially controversial topic.

I did want to mention the writing style. It came across as rather choppy at first, with lots of random observations and intense bursts of information, all the while keeping the reader at arm's length emotionally. It was a bit jarring initially, but then I hardly noticed anymore after a few chapters. So either I acclimated to it or the writing smoothed out. Either way, if you're having trouble at the start, don't let it prevent you from going a little further.

The entire time reading this book, I could feel the potential. There was this electric buzz that at any moment, this was going to become an amazing read. And it almost got there, but then somehow it didn't. Underneath this riveting story, there is a missed opportunity to really say something new and insightful about a host of worthwhile topics. Instead, this book skirts around them, giving brief nods to all but never more than that. It wasn't as good as Goodbye Vitamin, but I'm glad I read it.

Excellent excellent excellent. The alternating POCs kind of lost me and it lessened the suspense aspect of the book; I feel like it was too many POVs. I enjoyed how intricate this plot was and all the characters had so much going to. Mei was not just Lily’s mom but someone with demons to battle and living in a constant state of change: Mao Zedong in China, US, leaving the love of her life, working as a scientist and looking for answers when there seems to be none. I also really felt for Nick. He seemed so tortured and also the whole truth reveal is a helluva burden. Out of all parts, I feel like starting off with Lily was a smart choice bc after we heard from Mei and Nick, we see that there’s so much more than what Lily knows. I feel mixed feelings about the ending but it definitely gave me all the feels.

American-born Lily Chen was brought up in New York by her Chinese immigrant parents to be "real American" both culturally and in everyday life. When she meets and falls in love with Matthew, a Caucasian from a ultra wealthy pharmaceutical family, she is hesitant but marries him and they have a child, Nico. From there on, the real American Lily continues to face the stages of contemporary life - marriage, divorce, single motherhood, estrangement from family. Her aging scientist mother completes the cycle - widowhood, old age, family estrangement, loneliness.

The third part of the book I think strayed from the "real American" theme, delving into Lily's parents' turbulent past in Mao's China, in detail., a past that precipitated their migration to the United States.

There is an element of fantasy in one part of the "real America" story of Lily's parents, who were chasing the scientist's dream of DNA research to eradicate flaws from humans in order to have human perfection. This again seems to fit the modern "real American" dream of longevity.

This is a complex book with complex themes that invite speculation and would make a great book club choice because of the many questions it brings up about what a "real American" can mean.

A beautiful and important multi-generational story. This book was told in three parts, spanning decades, focusing on three main characters; a mother, her son and his grandmother. The timelines jump around a bit and none of the stories are told in full, but this feels like a complete saga despite the gaps. I devoured Lily & Nick’s stories but admittedly got lost a bit in the science of Mei’s story. I’ve never been much of a science gal so forgive me! There is also a bit of a sci-fi/magic element that didn’t totally work for me but served to develop the story. Overall it was a beautiful read about family, ancestry, and humanism. It highlights the way our lives are shaped by the luck of our circumstances and I think opens up a lot of conversation topics

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

Such an important and unique novel that asks the very real question....What does it take to be a real American? Told through the complicated voices of Chinese American women and men, there is a mystery hiding in the telling. Hidden away and almost impossible to solve. I loved it.

- I hardly even know how to review REAL AMERICANS. It’s a multigenerational masterpiece that I could not put down.
- Khong guides us through three generations, back and forth in time and place as each POV character tries to sort out their place and purpose in the world.
- There are a few excellent plot twists as well as callbacks, items and motifs repeating through the generations, but never in an over the top way.
- There’s also a slight sprinkle of sci-fi/fantasy in the story, and it’s so satisfying when those threads come together.

Thank you to Knopf for the copy! Every time I come across something beautiful, albeit a movie or a flower or a book, I always wish I could go back in time and erase the memory of my first encounter with it — to understand how it feels to consume the beautiful thing all over again. Real Americans feels like all the wonderful things that I've begged to return to, all the rawness I'm running towards.

Rachel Khong threads together three generations' worth of stories: from Lily, the twenty-something daughter of Chinese immigrants whose life feels untethered at the seams, particularly in comparison with her opulent and eventual spouse, Matthew; to Nick, Lily and Matthew's teenage son who at this point has never had contact with his father due to his parents' separation; to Mei, Lily's mother, now at the tail-end of her life.

The narration alongside the differing timelines was effortlessly intertwined — every story was so tender in its own way and only made more compelling by its narrative placement. Nick's perspective specifically was so very touching. His character feels the most fleshed out (or perhaps we just see more of his development throughout high school to college), and it all feels very honest and grossly nostalgic as though I were looking through my own yearbook. Nick is terribly introverted and codependent on his best friend who's adversely a pure charmer and inevitably a social butterfly when they get to college. Through the years, Nick struggles with his placement in every corner of his life, with school and relationships and identity, blaming his mother even for his social incapacities and separation from his father. In a way, the sentiments of Nick's story reminded me of Connell from Normal People, especially with their similar arcs of reconciling with depression and scraping by to survive it. When Nick's part in the book came to an end, I felt sore with a sort of growing pain like a pulled tooth that wasn't ready yet to fall out. But to have this story of an American boy born from a highly powerful family come right before the backstory of a teenage girl in 1970s China — jarring and frankly perfect.

It would be remiss to talk at length about Nick's timeline without waxing on about Mei's. Like many immigrants, the stories of home are comprised of untenable struggles, but also of an intimacy that America could never come close to bridging. Mei's story is filled with a particular suffering that Asian daughters know closely, but her perseverance leads her to discovering her passion for science and education — which of course acts a backbone for this story's core: what makes someone a real American, a real anything?

At its heart, Real Americans illustrates the deep agony of having to endlessly prove our belonging in places that refuse us at every turn, which in itself is a sort of grief made inexorable by generational trauma.

5/5 - very beautiful

I adored Rachel Khong's 2017 debut, Goodbye, Vitamin and she's back with a sophomore novel that's more ambitious and even better than her debut (5 stars and will likely be one of my favorite books of 2024)! It's also very different than Goodbye, Vitamin. Real Americans is a sprawling, multi-generational family story which begins with Lily Chen around the time of Y2K. Lily is the daughter of Chinese immigrants who left China during the Cultural Revolution. Lily meets Matthew at a company party in New York and their relationship forms the center of this story, which also features their son and Lily's parents. Though this novel is big and covers a lot of ground, I flew through it in just a few days. In her Author's Note, Khong says this story is about fortune, but it's also about what it means to be an American, genetics, class, immigration, race, love, and family. And, this doesn't feel overwhelming because, first and foremost, Real Americans is just about Lily and Matthew and their family. The structure is really interesting and reminded me of Greenwood by Michael Christie. Each time period is covered from the perspective of a different family member and, through this, you learn the motivations for actions that have taken place earlier in the book. One caveat: there is a short Prologue (but it's not called a Prologue) titled "Beijing 1966" that feels totally different than the rest of the book. It does tie into the story thematically, but the vibe feels very different. So, keep reading even if you don't love that introductory chapter.

Wow. This book had a very slow start for me, but once I was able to connect all the characters, invest in their journeys, and emotionally tie myself to them, this book took me through an emotional roller coaster. Each character (I don’t want to use names and spoil) had their own demons that followed them until the very end, but watching Real Americans tie together made the payoff so worth it. I will highly recommend Real Americans to my friends.

Thanks NetGalley!

The first third was a 4, the middle section was a 3.25, and the last section was like, a 2.5 - it felt slow and I didn't love it. I enjoyed this overall but it started stronger than it finished, IMO. If you enjoy a multigenerational family saga, I'd still try it. 3.5ish stars