I don't have much to add to the other excellent reviews on this book except that Real Americans broke me out of a months long reading rut. While most of us may not be able to relate to being courted by a Matthew this is a very readable book with universal themes of identity struggles.

I picked up this ARC because I heard good things about Goodbye Vitamin; I'll be reading that one as well and be on the lookout for Khong's other works.

This is a family saga spanning three generations told by three different characters at three points in time. Each character's section reveals a bit more about this family and their struggles, but there are themes that run through all three: the parent who wants the best for their child but struggles with how involved in that child's life to get, the repercussions of the decisions a parent makes with regard to their child, and the many facets of identity and how they play a role in fitting in (or not) in a given society. While there were some strands of the plot I wanted more of, I really enjoyed this book and think it would make for great discussions because of some of the moral and ethical questions it raises.

I received this book from NetGalley and Knopf in return for an honest review. This book will be published May 30, 2024.

I absolutely loved Goodbye, Vitamin so I had to read this one too and it was so different. The story is told in three parts. Lily, her son and Lily's mother. Without giving too much away I'll say that it's a coming of age story about Nick who is the son of Lily and Matthew but when we meet Nick he has no idea who his father is. The story is character driven mostly but it read quickly for me. Nick goes through betrayal and navigating the feeling of feeling so alone and being second to his half brother, Sam. The only thing that didn't work well for me was the science part where Lily's mother is a scientist looking to make vaccines to help people not have diseases etc. I feel like that kind of took away from the story but I enjoyed it anyway.

Engaging story with an interesting futuristic twist; love Rachel Khong's writing style& her ability to flesh out characters without resorting to 'types.'

The long-awaited follow-up to Khong’s 2017 debut Goodbye, Vitamin proves to be worth the wait. Her intimate second novel delivers a profound meditation on race, class, identity, and the complexity of family, wrapped in a muscular multigenerational epic told from three points of view in three distinct timelines.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I mean, this book is great. I have some nitpicks-I much prefer when its focus is small- but it has an atmosphere and mix of components that work and have been bouncing around my brain for the last few weeks. REAL AMERICANS by Rachel Khong pulled me in from the start, opening with romance with clear undertones of unease.

Real Americans is a profound and unique multi generational novel. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that Rachel Khong writes with clarity and depth regarding identity,
ethnicity, culture, prejudice, and science. It’s great storytelling with fully drawn characters. I loved it.

Using the character of Nick Chen, in “Real Americans” Rachel Khong weaves a tale spanning three generations. Along with earlier fiction writers Bette Bao Lord and Camron Wright, she touches on Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution. She then writes about the subsequent migration of a fictional Asian couple who are scientists to the United States.

Some people imagined in the 1960s that genetic and epigenetic traits could be engineered into the cells using in vitro fertilization. Why should a fetus carry genes that risked it having a harmful disease when some scientists like the ones in Rachel Khong’s novel were manipulating their children’s genes using intravenous drips so they would be disease-free and look and act like a specific parent?

Nick Chen goes looking for his American father Matthew in New York when he is considering applying to Yale for college after living with his Asian mother in Washington state most of his life.

This book covers what happens when he finds him and how it affects his life.

The magical element in this novel feels out of place. It's inserted randomly and detracts from the original theme of Chinese individuals striving to assimilate, survive, and gain acceptance in a profoundly racist America.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is a multi-generational saga encompassing ideas of what it might mean to be "American" while maintaining individual and cultural identity. Three main characters take the narration lead throughout story - Lily, Nick and Mei. The novel starts with Lily, but as the story starts to get more interesting, there is an abrupt jump to Nick much later in years. The same type of transition happened from Nick's story to Mei. I appreciate that you were not supposed to find out how everything weaved together until the ending parts. However, I felt the jumps in time led to a more difficult time connecting the relationships between the three main characters, and and there remained gaps that I wanted to know more about, The character's relationships with each other also had very abrupt starts and finishes and restarts. I found the genetics storyline interesting to a point, but then there was not enough detail to grasp how that had worked. i enjoyed the book, but these are the elements that kept it from being a higher rated read for me.

Real Americans is a muti-generational story by Rachel Khong about a family of Chinese immigrants to the US and their complex experiences in both the US and China. The story is very well written and the characters have depth and you can feel their pain, indecision, joy, and love throughout the novel. I very much enjoyed finding out how all of the stories weaved together and watching the characters interact over time.

Real Americans is a beautifully written novel exploring family, belonging, finding your place in the world and what makes someone a “real American.”
The book is broken up into 3 parts: a mother, a son and a grandmother and their respective relationships with an elusive family of billionaires they are intertwined with. I loved exploring each of their perspectives and learning how each of their experiences informed the experiences of the other characters. There was one plot point that was a little too convenient that bothered me but otherwise I really enjoyed this book. It was a very engaging and engrossing read.
Thank you to Knopf and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Who gets to decide who you are? With lush language rivaling the beauty of the setting, Khong weaves a tale of belonging for the ages - and for our times. Fans of literary fiction will adore this.

I have mixed feelings about Rachel Khong’s “Real Americans”. I hadn’t read her earlier work before and I wasn’t sure what this story was about, but the title intrigued me. Told in three parts from the perspective of three generations in a family. Part one deals with the 2nd generation, May. Lily was born and raised in the US not speaking a word of her parents’ native language, Chinese and knowing nothing of her cultural heritage. Nick is her biracial son. And May is Lily’s mother, who came to age in China during the Cultural Revolution and escaped to America with her fellow-scientist husband. The transitions between the sections were abrupt and being suddenly launched ahead in time to Part II was confusing, although I was better prepared when Part III took us back to China in the 1960s.

I found many parts of the story line unbelievable, but fiction is like that, and we have to accept the impossible usually does happen in fiction. Sure, the statistical probability of Nick’s parents meeting each and marrying were probably zero, but I can accept that. And I can’t comment on the accuracy of the science portrayed. But other things in the story rankled me. The speed and success of May’s parents to master English and completely forgo Chinese was one. And I felt somewhat irritated by quite a few instances mentioning the WMAF relationships in this book, which I do know is a thing. But as a person who has been in nearly a five-decade long WFAM relationship with bicultural/biracial children and grandchildren, I felt the book perpetuated quite a few stereotypes.

I think if the story held together better, I would have overlooked what I saw to be flaws, but it didn’t quite make it for me. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of this copy. Despite not loving this book, I will definitely give Rachel Khong’s other book a try.

Three generations of a very interesting family are our “Real Americans.” May, the mother of Lily, is a Chinese scientist who was lucky to come to America to practice in her field. May and her husband have raised Lily to be so American that Lily speaks no Chinese and has never been to China. Lily, estranged from her mother, marries a very wealthy man but decides that she needs to raise their son away from all that wealth. Nick, the son, wants to know about his father, but Lily provides no answers to his questions.

Threaded into this story of how these three come together are two themes. One is the excitement of making new scientific discoveries (and finding funding for them) and the drive to explore even further. Since the scientific field in question is epigenetics, there are definite ethical questions, which form an important part of the story. The other theme is money. How much is too much? When should one be satisfied? How this all plays out for May, Lily and Nick makes for a very affecting and thought-provoking story.

Couldn't put this one down. The structure of the story felt unique between different family members. I found myself curious about the others while still completely engrossed in the current. This book could have been 200 more pages and I would have been happy.

Real Americans gives us the story of a Chinese family trying to assimilate into American society. We hear from three generations of family members. The first is Lily who is the second generation. The next is Nick, Lily's son, as he becomes an adult. The last POV is that of Mei who is Lily's mother. The story spans over decades and in different cities which keeps things interesting. I enjoyed Lily's story the most. I felt it was most representative of the struggles of fitting into a racist America as well as the struggles of motherhood. Mei's story was the most confusing as it starts to broach into a sci-fi story. I felt that took away from the overall theme of the book. I still very much enjoyed this story and it's 5 stars for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 rounded up, mostly on the strength of the premise.

I loved the ideas that Khong is interrogating in this book: how far should we go with science? how far can/should we go to protect our children? what is the American dream? can we combat the privilege people (rich white men, in particular) are born with and into? should we?

But the execution felt a little flat to me. What I loved most from Khong's first book, Goodbye Vitamin, were the way the characters felt real -- imperfect, emotional, authentic, whatever word that makes you understand I felt like I was spying on real lives reading that book. This book, in contrast, made me feel like I was watching a morality play or reading an Agatha Christie novel, always watching for clues and waiting for the final lesson or reveal. The structure didn't help: as soon as I felt pulled into one character's story, we switched perspectives. At the same time, there were characters we never really get into whose perspectives I wanted more of. Giving us Matthew's internal thoughts along with Lily's or Sam's POV alongside Nick's, for example, I think would have allowed Khong to more clearly show us potential answers to the questions this book poses, instead of telling us.

I'll keep reading Khong. I like the way her mind works, and her writing is strong.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

As a fan of Rachel Khong's Goodbye Vitamin, I was really excited for her follow-up novel. While nothing like GV, Real Americans stands on its own as a unique story following a Chinese American young woman in NYC, her parents life back in China, and her son's life in America. With a small magical realism element, flashbacks, and fully drawn characters with real and believable flaws, this novel is wonderful.

Told in several distinct parts, we get to know many different characters deeply as we learn why they made the choices they did and come to understand them as people. This is my favorite kind of novel, as we don't love every character, but we do understand them and sympathize with them. I cannot wait to hear what more people think about Real Americans!

Real Americans is a multigenerational novel that spans three decades, two countries, and three POV’s. The book opens in the days leading into Y2K in New York City when 22 year old Chinese American Lily meets Matthew—a white American man, and seemingly falls in love. What follows is their story, their parents’ story, and the story that came before. The book deals heavily with the immigrant experience, assimilation, and identity. Khong delves into the experience of being white passing—an Asian American inhabiting a white body, as well as being a person of color and what it means to be American. What it means to be family and how far you’ll go to lay the foundation down for future generations is posed throughout the novel—and do parents have the right to make big decisions that could permanently alter their children’s lives, in the name of doing good?

The overarching theme of the book that is all tied together in the third section, is time—how much, or how little we have, depending on how you look at it. What will we do with our time here? How will we make our lives matter? How will we use our time to do good?

I recommend this book to children of immigrant parents who want to better understand their whys—to fans of sweeping family sagas, to those who love nuanced, well fleshed out characters, and fans of fiction with a touch of magical realism.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.