Excellent. I feel like this can be positioned for a few prizes, Womens Prize perhaps? But a really great insight into a family with special needs. The reaction of the older sister to her younger brother felt very real to me, and the pacing was excellent.

I loved the first part of this book, I could have read an entire novel on Lily’s character, she was so compelling. As the story progressed I found myself losing interest a little, while I still wanted to know what happened, I struggled to connect to Nick like I did with Lily. Towards the end, I was wishing I had more answers. I think the writing was phenomenal however, that’s what kept me reading. The intricate ties between the generations and what it means to be American, and something else, was a beautiful sentiment, one that I think Khong did a good job capturing.

This book was absolutely PHENOMENAL. It has occupied my thoughts and all of my brain space whilst I’ve been reading it and as a result I have achieved very little other than reading this in the last few days!
It’s hard to summarise such a complex story- from what you expect to be a simple love story between Matthew and Lily turns out to have secrets about genetics, an escape from Mao’s China and a scary insight into the future of bio-tech.
I cannot imagine how you even begin to research the writing of a story like this but I was utterly gripped from beginning to end. Genuinely incredible and I would give it 10 stars if I could.

Thoughtful, assured and immediately gripping, with a fascinating perspective on class and relationships in modern America.

For me, this was a great book. Generational family saga tied together with messy family dynamics and I really enjoyed myself.

Real Americans is a challenging book from the get-go, as indicated by the title. And by challenging, what I mean is not that it is hard to read, but that it makes the reader question the assumptions that many Americans people take for granted when it comes to the question of what it means to be a "real" American, and who gets to decide who is.

The heavy burden of residual racism - as well as the more overt kind - is something that non-white Americans have long had to, and continue to, struggle with. Where their families originated from does not make them any less American, but try telling that to certain kinds of "real Americans"!

Lily is treading water. Despite her apparently glamorous (unpaid) internship at a media company, her income and prospects are far from satisfactory. And very far from what her immigrant parents - scientists who escaped Mao in the hope of a better life for their daughter in America - expected from her after the sacrifices they have had to make.

When Lily meets the young heir to a pharmaceutical empire, she cannot help but be aware that he holds the keys to all her dreams of a better future. But is getting involved with Matthew the right decision for her? And what will she have to give up in the process?

Years later, teenager Nick is ready to leave his remote home and secretive mother behind him. He wants to track down his unknown father. But where will that search lead? And will he find what he is looking for?

This multi generational saga is an absorbing read, which provides a much more layered and insightful look into the lives of Americans who do not comfortably fit into the WASP identity. Not all the characters appealed equally - I didn't find Nick particularly likeable or interesting (too American?!) - but Lily is a fascinating MC. Worth checking out if you like immigrant family stories that make you think about deeper questions. It gets 3.5 stars.

Overall, I felt that the parts were greater than the whole in this book as it never really hangs together cohesively. I liked Lily's story about assimilation and motherhood but the next generation of her son, Nick, left me cold. There's a magical element too which never felt right and the writing was too mundane for my taste with lots of non sequitors - do we need to know that a mirror is splattered with white toothpaste marks, for example? I was mentally crossing through so much verbiage in my head.

Which is a shame as there's some genuinely emotive and moving stuff here about families and forgiveness but it all gets lost under so much *stuff*. One of those texts where there's a far more streamlined and effective book hidden under the lack of editing.