Real Americans is a thought-provoking novel about three generations of a Chinese- American family. Would you change your destiny if you could, your genetic past? This is told from 3 POV's spanning time and place - Lily, Nick, and Mei. I was so invested in what happens to all three of these characters, and it all comes together in the end in a beautiful way. This book turned out to be much more than I expected, in the best possible way. I look forward to reading more from Rachel Khong, and plan to read her debut novel very soon!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC.

Real Americans tackles complex topics like the immigrant experience, racial identity and the meaning of love and family. In a story told through three POVs this sweeping family drama was unforgettable. It was on the longer side but the writing was exquisite and the characters will stay with me for a long time. This is definitely on the literary fiction side and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

4.5 stars but rounding up.

Thank you to Netgalley & Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for the advanced reader copy.

Multi generational book from 3 POV.
It started better for me than it finished.
Don’t want to share too much about the plot, but I will say it was enjoyable read and thought provoking.

Rachel Khong’s second book was worth the wait. And feels very different from Goodbye, Vitamin (which I also loved). This longish book spans three generations, but with gaps in time, and not always linear. The book opens with Lily, in pre 9/11 NYC, figuring out adulthood after graduating from college. She is the only daughter of Chinese immigrants, though she is a bit disconnected from her Chinese culture. She doesn't know much about her mom, and similarly, Lily’s son is unaware of his mother’s past.

This book is equal parts Lily’s story, her mother’s story, and her son’s story. It is beautiful and sad, and sometimes slow, but always good.

Thanks Netgalley for the arc of this book.

Real Americans by Rachel Khong is a multi-generational, multiple POV study in race, privilege, and destiny. Khong begins the novel on the cusp of 2000, introducing us to smart, yet directionless, intern Lily Chen. Raised by two scientists who fled China during the Cultural Revolution, Lily is untethered- interning at a media/ PR company, but not really invested in the job and disillusioned by the notion of family. Lily‘s mother, Mei, raised Lily as if it was a chore- emotionally distant and desperate to avoid any mention of China and her life ‚before‘. Still working as a scientist, Mei goes through the motions of life- something mirrored in Lily at the beginning of the novel. Lily ends up meeting Matthew, the very wealthy son of a pharmaceutical scion. They fall in love- though all is not always well. Class, privilege, race- all play a big part in the journey Lily and Matthew embark on. When the story shifts to 2021, Lily is now a single-mother living on the West Coast and the novel shifts to her son‘s POV. Nick searches, and finds, his father and begins a correspondence with him. The series of events that follows from their connection is one of love, loss, and regret. Nick eventually finds his estranged grandmother as well, and this leads to a shocking revelation of how all of their lives were shaped by decisions made decades before. The discovery of which leaves Lily, Matthew, Nick, and Mei to question whether destiny brought them all together or were the wheels already in motion before Lily and Matthew ever met.

Khong does a wonderful job of creating a world that is believable and honest. The characters are well-rounded and developed in way that when the „big reveal“ happens, it is (mostly) plausible. I say mostly because I, personally, was taken out of the novel at the point of the reveal- it was so left field and, to me, did not fit with the narrative that had developed before. But, Khong treats this shift so eloquently, that I could return to the world without too much trouble. Real Americans truly delivered a read that was enjoyable in a way I haven’t experienced in a while. It is a refreshing read- intellectual without being too high-brow; narrative driven without being too cliche or sappy. I definitely recommend this one if you are looking for something a bit more than a rom-com, YA, fantasy, historical fiction vibe. It is truly a piece of contemporary fiction. 4/5 on the rating scale. Thank you to @NetGalley for the eARC in return for my honest feedback.

Mei, Lily and Nick are three generations of the same family. All are trying to find their place in America. Mei was born in Mao's China. She became a brilliant scientist despite obstacles she had to overcome. She was able to flee China with her spouse and settle in America. Later she would give birth to their daughter Lily. Despite a good education Lily becomes an unpaid intern. Soon she meets Matthew and falls in love. They marry and soon have a son, Nick. Nick looks nothing like Lily which causes many questions. When Lily finds the horrific reason Nick looks Caucasian, she flees her marriage, disowns her parents and moves to the west coast. Nick has many unanswered questions and seeks the answers with his estranged father and grandmother. Lily leads a quiet life but really doesn't fit in. Are Mei, Lily and Nick real Americans? Read the novel and form your own opinion. Rachel Khong has written a thought-provoking book which will hold you long after reading the last page.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the chance to read this fascinating novel prior to publication.

The book is divided into three sections, each narrated by a different character.
Lily's POV is her life in NYC after graduating college, surviving 9/11, and getting a job at a magazine, which is how she meets Matthew. Lily and Matthew end up married and after several miscarriages, successfully have a baby. After Nick's birth, Lily discovers her parents and Matthew's parents had been keeping a dark secret from them.
Next, we find Nick during his senior year of high school in the PNW, where he finally discovers who is father is and meets him, all without Lily's knowledge. Nick uses Matthew to get into and pay for Yale. After an internship with his father, Nick severs the relationship.
Finally, Lily's mother Mei gives her side of the story to Nick, how she escaped communist China, met Nick's father's father and started working for him to create medication to smother undesirable genes and emphasize the healthier or more desirable traits.
Lily's feelings of betrayal, since the medicine was used on her, is why she left NYC and cut off Matthew and her parents.
I love intergenerational stories that show the domino effects of an ancestor or grandparent's decision and how it affects future generations. This story reminds me of Under the Banyan Moon.

This book is fantastic! I was completely sucked into the world Khong created. I loved the order in which we get the different stories. Hearing May's story last was really powerful. Just like in real life, there are not tidy forgivenesses and traumas leave scars, but the strength of love and family ties do come through. I loved each character's unique struggle with identity and how they were all linked. I loved the hint of magical realism that doesn't take you out of the story. There is also some interesting exploration of bioengineering technologies and the ethics involved. I read this book with eyeballs, but I think it would make an excellent audiobook and when it comes out I will probably check out the audio as well.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for an advance copy for review purposes.

I really loved this book. The first part (Lily) felt disconnected and I felt it lacked depth. There was a lot of “tell” and little “show” for her love story with Matthew. But the last two sections more than made up for it. Nick and May’s parts were beautiful, contemplative, and raw. Definitely recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“You are free because you may choose how to cross the desert, you are not free because you must cross the desert either way”.

This is an epic generational novel about a Chinese American family and the cost of the dreams of the generations that came before us. Somewhat clinically written, but still quite gripping as we journey through the past to connect the consequences of believing you can change outcomes.

I am proud of Nico’s strength to honor Mei despite it all.
I love the symbolism of jade bracelet and the lotus flower.

All the money in the world can’t bring happiness. All the best intentions won’t build true wealth.
Initially a 4.25 rating rounded up to 5 stars as I reflected on it to summarize a review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review

Real Americans by Rachel Khong is a beautiful novel spanning 3 generations of a Chinese-American family. Told through the view points of Lily, Nick and Mei over many decades and different cities with lots of science and the tiniest bit of magic realism sprinkled in. Khong does an absolutely wonderful job getting you invested in these three characters and what it means to be an American. It's better to go in this not knowing the entire plot, but just know that it's a gorgeous story that will suck you in right away. One of the best of 2024 for sure!

Real Americans had the potential to be a great multigenerational family saga told from different points of view. The narrative structure was interesting, and the exploration of complex topics such as the immigrant experience, personal identity, and what it’s like to inhabit a white or a non-white body allowed one to meditate on what it means to be a person, an American, and an ethical human being. However, after the first section, I lost interest as the storylines were underdeveloped and inconsistent. I also found the side plots pointless and drawn out, and the book was too long. Once I lost interest in the characters, I had to plod through the rest of the book.

4.5⭐

This book is going to haunt my thoughts for the rest of the year. For lovers of Celeste Ng and Pachinko, this book is a must with its multigenerational complex family story and sideways twist on a present and not too distant future when it comes to the ethics of gene selection.

Khong brings together science, family and the aspirations parents have where their children with our complex world with its challenges of racism, money and class in a way that I couldn't look away. A must read and a perfect book club pick.

Note: the first 30% of the book is kind of slow but it's SO worth continuing.

This is a mutli generational family saga that opens with Lily, the daughter of scientist parents that fled to the US during Mao's cultural revolution. She meets the ridiculously wealthy and white Matthew, and we go from there. I don't want to say much else about the plot. Part of the appeal of this book is while it is literary, it also feels more widely appealing in the way Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow did. The plot AND the writing will pull you along. I was hooked from the first lie, an while I enjoyed Parts I and II the most, I overally loved this. The questions of are our fates truly inevitable, do we have the right to influence others' fates if capable, what makes a Real American, and what really makes us....us were all explored here. It's important to note there are some not fully explained or fully believable scientific things central to what Khong is doing with her answers to these questions. I was okay with that, despite wanting a bit more. That aside, I have a feeling these characters and this story will stay with me for a long time.

This is such an interesting book. The layers of decisions across generations makes readers reconsider who is a "good guy" while providing insight into generations of a Chinese American family. I was enthralled the whole book.

Genre: literary fiction
[TW: gene manipulation, trying to concieve]
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Thanks to NetGalley, Rachel Khong and Penguin Random House for the eARC of Real Americans.

In Khong's newest release, she tells a generational tale of immigration, love and fighting against the oppression of classism and racism. Real Americans is written in three points of view over the course of three generations. Khong does a great job of giving each character and timeline its own voice while staying true to the foundation of the story.

From a Chinese immigrant who moves to America to escape Mao's China to her first generation daughter actively fighting to find a place of her own to a second generation son who looks nothing like his mother and grandparents, Real Americans, provides the reader with a social commentary about the social constructs of race, the lengths we go to for success and family.

I think this book deserves a place on many shelves and should get a lot of praise for the beautiful writing as well as the important message. My only critique is that it took me some time to fully understand the connections of each character to each other and because of that I lost interest at some points. I'm looking forward to more discussions about this novel as a whole and am excited to hear other people's thoughts!

4.5 stars rounded up. I read Goodbye Vitamin many years ago and was excited to read an advance copy of Real Americans through NetGalley/Knopf. Rachel Khong sentences are clean and engaging and I quickly found myself wrapped up in this multi-generational story with a series of complications. It reminded me of other books like Ask Again, Yes and Little Fires Everywhere but with elements of magical realism. With themes connected to race, class, politics, morality and science woven throughout, this is a very human story and, like the title says, a very American story.

The first two sections, shaped more by youth and reckoning with personal and cultural identity, were immersive for me. Lily was such a 3D, fully alive character. I ached for her as she flailed and as she evolved. I appreciated the historical fiction set in Mao’s China in the last third where the themes often felt prescient. I struggled a bit with the present dayish ending. It felt like something was missing or a little rushed. Overall, though this was a gift of a read that I expect will continue to linger in the back of my mind.

The first two sections, shaped more by youth and reckoning with personal and cultural identity, were immersive for me. Lily was such a 3D, fully alive character. I ached for her as she flailed and as she evolved. I appreciated the historical fiction set in Mao’s China in the last third where the themes often felt prescient. I struggled a bit with the present dayish ending. It felt like something was missing or even a little rushed. Overall though this was a gift of a read that I expect will continue to linger in the back of my mind.

I wanted to love this book but I could not finish it. I liked the voice but the plot and characters were doing nothing for me.

Families are messy. Members of a family will often do anything to help other member of the family. Sometimes these efforts are appreciated, sometimes they aren't. This beautifully written book is 3 intertwined stories. If you are reading reviews to see if a book is worth reading, this one certainly is. If that is all you want to know, move on now and read the book, avoid any description of it, and be surprised as the book takes you through this journey. If you need to know more, then continue reading. This is the story of a woman, her son, and her mother, and the decisions they make in life that define them and those that come after them. Each of them tell their story, approximately 15-20 years between stories and in the case of the grandmother, much of the story actually takes placed earlier, in the time of Mao in China. All 3 characters, of Chinese descent, struggle to fit in in the United States, although in very different ways. The role of genetics is also prominent throughout the story, Often there are elements that may be hard to understand or haven't actually been discovered yet, but that does not take away from the enjoyment of this story. This book left me wanting even more from these well developed characters. Read and enjoy.

My thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy. My opinion is my own.

An interesting family saga with 3 different almost stand-alonish story lines.

Beautifully written with good character development. There is a sc-fi element in the book which I was not aware of going in. Overall, good story with beautiful prose