Real Americans

by: Rachel Khong

Goodreads description:

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family, and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures? 

Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn’t be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.

In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can’t shake the sense she’s hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than answers.

In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.

Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made, and if so, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?

Helen says: 🤓🤓1/2

I tolerated this book, but it wasn’t my favorite. I felt the author was constantly putting the reader on a guilt trip. A little too woke and preachy for me. Also, the story just kind of ambled along and was pretty unrealistic. I am surprised it has been put on so many “must read” lists.

Holly says: 🤓🤓🤓1/4

Pretty good, just not very memorable. I did enjoy reading it while in progress, I just don’t have much to say about it. Mei was the most entertaining character in the book. You may love it – it has lots of fans – I thought it was fine.

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