Real Americans: A Read with Jenna Pick: A novel

4.5 so fucking good, great one liners, deep observations, just failed to deliver on some promises early in the book but still very good

Rachel Khong's "Real Americans" is a multigenerational exploration of an immigrant family's journey from new arrivals towards a literal mutation of their fully assimilated selves. Khong leverages historical fiction with a bit of magical realism and science fiction to create a compelling and challenging narrative about what it means to be American. I deeply resonated with this novel, being a first-generation American in my own family. Like our main characters, I can understand what it means to be stuck between two worlds. You never truly belong to a singular culture, language, traditions, or mores. The plot devices and character arcs that Khong employs create a story that wrestles with the construct of society and how it shapes our experiences. Khong is examining in many ways what roles nature and nurture play in defining identity and belonging. In doing so, she also explores different ways that people are "passing" as another persona in society. One particular experience is a type of passing we can trace down to the DNA. The navigation of society by our core characters helps us also peer deeply into the repressed histories of their immigrant parents. This book is wonderfully paced and offers unexpected plot turns coupled with endearing character development. In the end, Khong offers us a moral observation that is timeless. Khong demonstrates for us in the end that we repeat mistakes from one generation to the next through the very act of trying so hard not to repeat them.

Told by 3 characters. Very informative about Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Wonderful!

All it takes is to say “yes” and to seize the moment before your life could change. That’s what happened to Lily, an unpaid intern when she met Matthew, a very handsome asset manager. He can gift her a TV, fly her off to Paris, and still make her feel loved but not seen. While the adage, “opposites attract,” sometimes you have to face the fact that you need to have the same ideologies and be comfortable with yourselves. I know that sounded as if it came out of nowhere but Lily has a hard time with herself and how her parents, particularly her mom is.

To every story, there are two sides of the story. Sometimes what we think is the truth, we don’t always know what the other person’s point of view is and why they did or say the things they say or don’t. Told in a 3 person point of view.

We become immersed in the lives of Lily in 1999, time jump to 2021 where we hear Nick Chen’s side of things, and conclude in the year, 2030, where we understand May’s ideology and what made her the way she is. We hear about her determination to think she can become more and what she is willing to give up. We read about her hardship in China during the Cultural Revolution and how she married the wrong man but still stayed with him.

The common denominator is how they all deal with being unseen, each dealing with trauma, racism, love, and forgiveness.

I enjoyed the characters and wished it would go deeper as with each person’s concluding chapter, I wanted more. There are still so many unanswered questions and the ending is open to interpretation. Will they or won’t they? For those who read it, you will understand this query.

Triggers: racism, social class, family drama, trauma, visibility, and Mao’s Cultural Revolution.