Two years ago I read Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong and it was one of my favourite reads of 2022. When I saw her latest novel, Real Americans, was available, I didn’t hesitate to request it.

Real Americans, a story told in three parts, explores the lives of a grandmother, mother, and son, and the choices they make in their lives. I loved the first part where we meet Lily and spend time in her life as she navigates postgraduate life in New York City. The second part focuses on Nick and his life as a college student. This section perfectly captures what it feels like to be trying to keep up with friends and first love. The final part features May and takes us on a journey from her childhood in China to emigrating to the USA. If you enjoy reading about families, relationships and how our choices may affect not just our own lives, but those closest to us, then you will love this book. An ambitious and thoroughly readable second novel, it did not disappoint!

A multi generational story of a Chinese American family and belonging. The story begins with Lily, born to a couple of Chinese scientists but reared in the all American way. Working as a low paid intern in a New York firm and meets the wealthy nephew of her boss. This section of the book was my least favourite part. Came across as the same old poor girl rescued by a billionaire and trying to adjust to spending money. But stick with it as part 2 tells the story of their son, Nico or Nick as he became known and the best was kept until last. The story of Lily’s mother May. Born and raised in China and studying biology as the communist era began.
This is a remarkable story of family dysfunction, belonging, friendships and science. Each story draws in the reader but didn’t quite satisfy. There are large jumps in the story that left me a little perplexed and I would have liked to find out more about Matthew’s take on the situation.
I would thoroughly recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley.co.uk and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This is a ranging, multi generational book which deals with themes of racism, science betrayal and belonging. I absolutely loved every word, and this felt like a future classic. A really great book, which is very much worth a read.

The science elements really lost me at parts, but I really enjoyed the view of different members of the family. Overall a really good read that I will be recommending!

This is the story of Lily, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, and Matthew, the son of a millionaire. They meet in New York and fall in love and have a son Nick. The story is told backwards and forwards about Lily's parents lives, her life, and Nick's life. There's a lot of sadness for all of them because of actions taken in the past. An interesting read.

Real Americans is a multi-generational novel about science, belonging and family. It opens with Lily Chen, an unpaid intern in New York City on the cusp of the millennium, not living up to the dreams of her scientist parents who fled China and raised her to be all-American. When she meets rich, privileged Matthew, her life changes, but secrets from the past complicate things. Next, there's Nick Chen, plotting his escape to college with his best friend Timothy, away from his mother, but then he finds his long-lost father. And finally, in a future of gene-editing ethical dilemmas, the family come back together again.

I don't always like the kind of novel that does time jumps across generations, because you can feel like you don't know the characters, but that isn't the case with Real Americans. The family forms a core centre to the book that weaves throughout the different narratives and it all feels like one story, rather than a few tagged together. The parts are quite different, too, with the first one more of a coming of age romance across class divides, then the second more about family and secrets against a backdrop of a US college, and then the final part combines a story of Mao's China with a future of biotech startups. This makes the book varied and interesting, but does mean that there's a lot of unanswered stuff by the end, most notably the somewhat magic/unreal element of time stopping that some of the characters experience, which felt like it didn't quite come together with the rest of the book because it would disappear for ages and only be mentioned occasionally.

An epic exploration of the choices family make that pokes at questions about what science should and shouldn't do, Real Americans is a gripping read that gives plenty to think about and is ideal for people who like multigenerational novels that do keep following the same characters.

Three generations, well meaning but misguided science, and the years of poverty and terror in China all add up to a wide ranging and complicated story of failed relationships and mixed race angst.
This should capture the imagination, and was certainly ambitious in its scope, however for me I never wholly believed in the characters. It seemed that there were lots of irksome details which didn’t ring true. When the story went back to China it was very convincing though and interesting.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6053527694

A really interesting, thought provoking book with lots of big themes (racism, migration, wealth, the double edged nature of scientific progress) but also a really tight focus on one family through the generations. I loved the different PoV from different family members, particularly the women who somehow felt more real than the men. Will definitely read more from this author.

Thanks to her, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

WOW! What an immersive read to end the year on.
The Real American’s is a multigenerational story that follows the Chen family. It explores the complexities of American identity, family, as well as the illusions of the American dream.
Initially, the focus is on 22 year old Lily, a Chinese American woman at the turn of the millennium. Later the focus shifts to Nick and Mai. Throughout the book, the characters of Lily, Nick and Mai grapple with their identity, their past, present and future.
I predict this will be a hit in 2024!

I requested this ARC because the blurb appealed but I was shocked at how immediately I became invested in this character, so removed from my personal frame of reference. I think it was when she accepted a free, brand new giant TV from a stranger by saying ‘Okay’ or when she describes eating a buffet shrimp as seeming like ‘too much flesh’.
Rachel Khong has a deft and delightful way with dialogue; something I think is so difficult to do well for even the best writers. I felt I could ‘hear’ the conversations, and sometimes re-read bits of dialogue in the way that I would usually only re-read a particularly figurative piece of prose. Of course there’s plenty of that too : ‘ the kneading of her naked back, as though she were entirely bread’.

There is a significant time jump a third of the way through, ams later, another decade passes - and this always seems jarring to me because it yanks me out of the world I’ve just been happily inhabiting. That said, the time hops are necessary because this is inherently a book about time and everything that means to us: legacy, generations of family, history, longevity, evolution.

This is moving, profound, original and definitely a great read to end 2023 on.

I very much enjoyed the first part of the book - the story of a Chinese American woman who disappoints her mother by wanting an ordinary life. I was fully invested in her life so was a little disappointed when the book changed its focus onto her son. Again he was an interesting character, struggling with cultures, communities, race and values so I was keen to read on.

The third part is about the mother who was never painted in a flattering light in the preceding chapters. Maybe I had got tired of the weird time lapses, maybe the science was a strange bedfellow with the magical aspect of the tale, maybe my mind was set against the grandmother. Whichever way it was I could not sum up much enthusiasm for the final section.

I found the end unbelievable, it is along the lines of the current AI debate - if the knowledge is there then you can't ignore it and think it will all go away because you don't like it.

This is a really interesting read that spans time though the first person POV narrated by three characters. It has a really strong start with the story being told by Lily, who is engaging and a pleasure to read. The plot hints a failed love story, I really thought within these chapters the writing was strong and made great points about the class/race divide in the USA..
From Lily we hear from Nick it was here the book started to flag a little for me, I found both Nick and the plot lines a little tiresome. For the final section it's picks up a bit with Mai's story, giving us the true of history of the family and the origins of the fall out that affected Lily and Nick's life. I really enjoyed hearing about her life in China and how she found herself in the USA. The finial ending was a bit of a let down but all in all this a powerful book that held my interest. I think the plot and some of sub plots could have been better developed there was a lot of unsaid and loose ends for me. I did like the look into the biotech world and the moral questions it raises.

Fans of Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow and The Tiger Mom will find this book to their taste.

I quite enjoyed the first two sections of Real Americans by Rachel Khong and the exploration of family dynamics but the third section and the science stuff lost me.

A beautiful intergenerational story woven with philosophical reflections of what it means to use your time on this earth well. I thought the perspectives of the three generations and the way their stories were told worked really well and allowed the author to explore identity through different lenses. Heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure, I thought the way Khing talked about time and how we use it, how we seek more time (trying to prolong our youth or time on earth) without really paying attention to it. "Time passes, indifferent to me. So much of my life I have let slip by, because I have not attended to it."

I thought the exploration or race and perfecting the human race was also really well done and fitted into the narrative of the story really well, although I wished that I understood how the fallout between Lily and her mother and Nick's father Matthew happened. But like life, there are some things we will never fully know!

Excellent. I feel like this can be positioned for a few prizes, Womens Prize perhaps? But a really great insight into a family with special needs. The reaction of the older sister to her younger brother felt very real to me, and the pacing was excellent.

I loved the first part of this book, I could have read an entire novel on Lily’s character, she was so compelling. As the story progressed I found myself losing interest a little, while I still wanted to know what happened, I struggled to connect to Nick like I did with Lily. Towards the end, I was wishing I had more answers. I think the writing was phenomenal however, that’s what kept me reading. The intricate ties between the generations and what it means to be American, and something else, was a beautiful sentiment, one that I think Khong did a good job capturing.

This book was absolutely PHENOMENAL. It has occupied my thoughts and all of my brain space whilst I’ve been reading it and as a result I have achieved very little other than reading this in the last few days!
It’s hard to summarise such a complex story- from what you expect to be a simple love story between Matthew and Lily turns out to have secrets about genetics, an escape from Mao’s China and a scary insight into the future of bio-tech.
I cannot imagine how you even begin to research the writing of a story like this but I was utterly gripped from beginning to end. Genuinely incredible and I would give it 10 stars if I could.

Thoughtful, assured and immediately gripping, with a fascinating perspective on class and relationships in modern America.

For me, this was a great book. Generational family saga tied together with messy family dynamics and I really enjoyed myself.

Real Americans is a challenging book from the get-go, as indicated by the title. And by challenging, what I mean is not that it is hard to read, but that it makes the reader question the assumptions that many Americans people take for granted when it comes to the question of what it means to be a "real" American, and who gets to decide who is.

The heavy burden of residual racism - as well as the more overt kind - is something that non-white Americans have long had to, and continue to, struggle with. Where their families originated from does not make them any less American, but try telling that to certain kinds of "real Americans"!

Lily is treading water. Despite her apparently glamorous (unpaid) internship at a media company, her income and prospects are far from satisfactory. And very far from what her immigrant parents - scientists who escaped Mao in the hope of a better life for their daughter in America - expected from her after the sacrifices they have had to make.

When Lily meets the young heir to a pharmaceutical empire, she cannot help but be aware that he holds the keys to all her dreams of a better future. But is getting involved with Matthew the right decision for her? And what will she have to give up in the process?

Years later, teenager Nick is ready to leave his remote home and secretive mother behind him. He wants to track down his unknown father. But where will that search lead? And will he find what he is looking for?

This multi generational saga is an absorbing read, which provides a much more layered and insightful look into the lives of Americans who do not comfortably fit into the WASP identity. Not all the characters appealed equally - I didn't find Nick particularly likeable or interesting (too American?!) - but Lily is a fascinating MC. Worth checking out if you like immigrant family stories that make you think about deeper questions. It gets 3.5 stars.