A review by nataliecoyne
Real Americans by Rachel Khong

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

My rating is somewhere actually between 3.5 and 3.75, but as I feel it does lean closer to 3.75, I'm choosing to give the 3.75 rating. I definitely enjoyed the book, but the first section (the section with Lily) just was not something that had been at all interesting to me and I considered DNFing it early on. But I knew, eventually (and by eventually I think it was somewhere around page 130?), we would switch narrators, so I carried on. And I'm glad that I did! I loved the section with Nick, and also enjoyed (though not as much, but still more than Lily) the section with May. Their stories brought this rating up to where it is. I'm going to go into more of my thoughts below (with a lot of spoiler tags probably), but in general, I would rank the three narrators/stories as follows (in terms of enjoyment): 1. Nick 2. May 3. Lily.

But I'll start off talking about Lily. Like I said, I just didn't get interested that much in her, her story was kind of boring and a bit frustrating. This next thing I'm about to say is going to sound bad but she really only became interesting to me
very late on in her pregnancy with Nick (Nico), when she traveled to China and found Ping. Then the things that followed her trip were definitely also interesting. Like I hate to play into the idea of a woman only becoming interesting once she's a mother, but somehow it lined up that way to me. There were definitely important messages in the earlier part of her story with class struggle, self-hatred, etc., but I just couldn't get into it and I don't even think those topics were even addressed with as much precision and detail as they could have needed.
Sorry Lily.

Nick is a character that, for some odd reason, I saw myself a lot in, and I think that's why I loved his section. I particularly related to
his struggles in college. I literally took a photo of the following excerpt because it resonated so much with me: "Schoolwork was impossible. In my cancer class I learned that cancer resulted when genes that regulated cell growth and differentiation were mutated and caused a series of downstream effects in cells — chain reactions. Initial errors compounded into unmanageability. It didn't matter how much I studied, how hard I worked on my papers. I was unqualified and now, on top of that, sleep deprived. I couldn't retain anything and my mind felt like Swiss cheese. 

I staggered from class to class. The snow soaked through my shoes, so it felt like walking around in soggy loaves of bread. The fleece pullovers I'd worn in Washington were insufficient here."

I had been diagnosed with a sleep disorder in college, and before that (and even a bit after that), struggled a lot. So I saw my own experiences in his experiences.
Past just that, though, his story just encapsulated me the most. We spent a considerable amount of time with him as the narrator, and I wished we had spent even more. Maybe the fact
his story and narration partially continues into May's section
has part to do with why I also enjoyed May's section.

Finally, May. I don't have much to really say about her section tbh. I just really enjoyed it, the historical section with China, and the explanations to
the time stopping (the question of "why" with this frustrated me for a long time, so I'm glad to have gotten that resolution), what Ping meant when he talked about the people that May hurt (justice for Ping btw!), and the full extent of what happened between the Chens and Maiers
were all very much appreciated. I also enjoyed the further exploration of genetic modifying in her section, how things can be such a slippery slope that it may start as innocent as
identifying the genes related to having a higher chance for things like suicidality/depression and cancer, or trying to change the dominant hand a child has
but can quickly evolve into
true eugenics, with the goal of making everyone white.


Something still unanswered at the end that I'm curious about (but doesn't necessarily leave me dissatisfied, just curious) is:
How Nick and Lily did eventually reconnect? What prompted him to reach back out to her? The theory I'm going with is that, upon Sam's death (suicide, or accidental overdose, or something else; doesn't really matter though), and Nick's decision that he doesn't want to be like Matthew and Otto, he decided to reconnect. He realized that, yeah, as his mom said, there's a reason she kept him away from the Meiers. It makes sense in my head so that's what my mind's going with. But I wish we were provided a more concrete answer.


Ultimately, I would still feel comfortable recommending this to most people (though not all), but I just wish that I had enjoyed Lily. Because, if I had, I could've probably said I enjoyed everything.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings