Real Americans: A Read with Jenna Pick

By Rachel Khong and Khong Rachel

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - READ WITH JENNA'S MAY BOOK CLUB PICK - 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?

"Mesmerizing"--Brit Bennett - "A page turner."--Ha Jin - "Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft"--Andrew Sean Greer - "Traverses time with verve and feeling."--Raven Leilani

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 it provides 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 we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593537254
• ISBN13: 9780593537251
• Release Date: April 2024
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.1" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

An intergenerational family saga that promises more than it delivers

Real Americans flirts with bigger questions without fully claiming them. Real Americans is a page turner. Rachel Khong's pacing is addictive. I kept telling myself "one more chapter" while I was reading this book. The three narrators (Mei, Lily, Nick) feel distinct and give the drama real spark. Still, the book kept hinting at deeper dives -- race, class, eugenics, what being an "American" really means. But where it has a chance to deepdive, it only skims the surface and moves on. These topics are briefly brushed over then the plot is hurried along. A few plot turns had me scratching my head. I won't dive too much into them for sake of revealing spoilers. The final section ties things together, yet still feels unfinished. 3.5/5. Rounded to 4/5. Great momentum and messy love between generations. Yet, don't expect anything a plunge into the big ideas. PS: Why does everyone in this family seem to hate their parents? lol