Apr 30

Apr 30 Real Americans

About the book

Author: Rachel Khong
Publisher: Knopf

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My Review

Real Americans is a compulsively readable, three-timeline, multigenerational family saga that would make an excellent book club pick (especially during AAPI Heritage Month). I flew through its 400 pages in 24 hours!

It follows three characters, in this order: Lily, a young Chinese-American woman living in NYC in the 90s and early 00s who falls into a whirlwind romance with a (actually decent) rich white guy; Nick, their son, navigating early independence as he goes off to college and sets out to meet his father; and Mei/May, Lily’s mother, who came to the US after being displaced by the Cultural Revolution.

I really enjoyed this book, but admittedly, it has all the right things going for it when it comes to my taste. Family saga? Flawed characters? Multiple timelines? A sprinkle of science? A touch of mythology? A couple of well-placed plot twists? Sign me up. It’s up there in page count, but it never felt too long because the characters were well written and the prose and pacing read fast.

Don’t be surprised when you see this one flying off shelves and making best-of lists for the year. It sticks the landing right between literary novel and commercial success.