This story begins in Beijing, 1966 with a brief glimpse of the story of a stolen seed,
but within those two pages is a glimpse of what is to come during the years that follow in the stories of a family shared through three generations. The struggles they have, the upheaval of the government, and their individual struggles in regard to family. Deception, and the repercussions once the deception is revealed factors heavily in this story. What to reveal, as well as how it should be shared - slowly over time or all at once.

Like many other family sagas, this is shared through multiple generations, and in this particular story it is also shared through multiple places and themes. Overall, a large percentage of this is devoted to science, although it does not go into much detail, there is some devoted to new scientific projects for the betterment of all mankind, which, if you are not interested in scientific progress, genetics and ethics, especially as it relates to family, this may not sound interesting - until you read it.


Pub Date: 30 Apr 2024


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf

I loved this book. I loved how exploring each new generation deepened our understanding of the relationships we explored before. I loved the exploration of American and Chinese identity. And I loved how it was written, I just flew through it!

I had mixed feelings about this book as we journeyed through the different character’s perspectives. I very much fit right into the jelly/jam layer of the sandwich without the second gen experience. We begin in NYC in a Sex and the City era rom-com world in which two twenty something’s from the opposite side of the bridge make a connection. Then, we find the story shifting focus to a conscientious young man who discovers his family’s involvement in heritable human genome editing. His story reveals the stakes that this budding branch of science has at various scales, societal and intergenerational. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
I struggled most with how articulately penitential May was. My experience so far has shown that many times people are sorry for the way they may have treated a loved one, but rarely do they see it with such clarity especially from the other’s perspective without still holding on to some level of resentment for being misunderstood, themselves. I could hear the subtle judgements, the way May describes the female doctor with the Asian last name as taller than typical. That tendency for women, especially, to be telling a story about a life and death situation, and to pull the listener right out of it by offering an extraneous detail describing the physicality of another woman. Both her act of judging, recalling and retelling this detail is so painfully and laughably real. This constant comparison and weighing of virtues and values is what made genome editing so appealing to May in the first place - so I found her voice very clear in this instance.

Thanks for this advance copy. I loved this book! I just read it in a day, so it's so good. If you are looking for a book to inmerse you as much as you forget about the outside world, this is it!

I loved the writing so much, but there were definitely parts of this book that worked better for me than others. I saw a lot of reviews that weren’t as interested in Lily’s story, but that set the rest of it all up, and I really liked her part. The middle part of Nick’s was probably my favorite, though - so much of the coming of age, grappling with the choices your parents made; and knowing Lily’s story added so much depth there. The last section, about May (Lily’s mom) didn’t work as well for me, but that’s possibly because it’s the exact type of historical fiction that isn’t my favorite. If you like reading about Communism and science, it’ll be your jam. Either way, it was such a lovely, solid book that kept me entranced, and the ending is perfect.

Gorgeous. Masterful. Unforgettable. I have never read anything like this. Rachel Khong is a wonderful writer and this is a story that will surely connect with so many people. What a literary gift to us readers!

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.