Publisher: Knopf

ISBN: 9780593537251

Three generations grapple with identity and culture through life challenges that pull them apart and push them back together again. Along the way, each person must decide whether they will embrace the complications of their lives or denounce everything. Author Rachel Khong’s plot of three main characters offers prose with gravity but the wrong story order in her latest book Real Americans.

In the weeks and months leading up to the year 2000 in New York City, college student Lily Chen is trying to figure out if the media company where she works is her true calling. Unlike many of her classmates at NYU who seem to have their whole lives figured out, Lily can’t decide what her life’s big ambition should be. Her parents are both scientists, but genetic mutations and biology never interested Lily much. The trouble is, she doesn’t know what does.

At a company party, Lily meets Matthew and is in awe of how easy everything seems for him. A big part of this is Matthew’s access to money. Not only is he a successful hedge fund manager, he’s also the heir to an enormous pharmaceutical company and the wealth it produces. Matthew doesn’t want to rely on his family’s money, he says, but he also doesn’t hesitate to do so when a situation warrants.

Despite her doubts about herself in their relationship, Lily and Matthew fall in love and get married. When their son, Nick, is born, a terrible secret comes to light that causes Lily’s doubts to resurface. She takes Nick and leaves Matthew for good.

Twenty years later, Nick is growing up on an island a ferry ride away from Seattle and feeling restless. He and his mother look nothing alike; she’s small, petite, and decidedly Chinese. Matthew is tall, blonde-haired, and blue-eyed. It’s hard enough to field the surprise by strangers who meet the mother-son pair, but Nick doesn’t even need their questions for him to have doubts about himself. 

His mother is closed off and doesn’t share anything about his birth father. After insisting to the point of exhausting her, Nick gets Lily to tell him Matthew’s name and reaches out to him. The connection, however, only does more to confuse Nick about his past and himself. 

A chance encounter with his grandmother, Lily’s mother May, takes Nick on an emotional journey. May relays her past and what brought her to the United States during a time of revolution and conflict in China. Through her story, Nick realizes he can draw a straight line from May’s decisions as an immigrant to Lily’s decisions as a young newlywed and, now, his own professional pursuits. He longs for Lily and May to reunite, but Lily refuses and Nick wonders if he’ll always live in this strange limbo about himself and his place in the world.

Author Rachel Khong gives all three of her main characters time and space on the page to share their stories. Readers hear from Lily first and then Nick twenty years in the future before going back to the 1960s with May. The prose is weighty, told with gravity and pauses during certain scenes so readers can feel them in full right along with the characters.

It’s unclear, however, why Khong chose to start with Lily’s story. In many places, her thoughts, ideas, and feelings sound similar to any twenty-something in almost any era pondering their place in the world. Lily often considers her parents’ cultural background, but in some places it doesn’t seem as important in the narration as it does to her. As a result, the story feels unnecessarily weighed down by all the heavy writing. The abrupt end to Lily’s portion of the book also feels awkward.

The internal character agony continues with Nick during his teenage years and early adulthood, making the plot drag in many places. Once again scenes are given a great deal of importance without any discernible reason why. Nick’s questions sound similar to Lily’s, albeit in a different timeframe, which might make some readers feel like they’re going through the same story twice.

May’s story is without a doubt the most compelling, and after completing it readers might wonder why the book doesn’t start with May and continue chronologically. The secret that drives Lily and Matthew apart would have created a much bigger and deeper dramatic impact with May’s experiences anchoring it. As it stands, the secret and the reasons for it feel rushed and as if the book doesn’t consider them important. 

The implied question in the title—who are “real” Americans?—never gets fully answered or even addressed. Those who are willing to give a story about cultural clashes, especially within families, a try might want to check this out. Otherwise, I recommend readers Borrow Real Americans by Rachel Khong.