Joan Mackenzie reviews Real Americans by Rachel Khong

Hello I'm Joan and this book is called Real Americans by Rachel Khong. Now anyone who knows me knows that I love a big multi-generational epic family saga which is what this is. It’s told in essentially three parts. It begins with Lily who’s a penurious young woman living in New York. Goes to a party one night and meets a super-wealthy guy named Matthew who sweeps her off to Paris they have a great time they become an item. Then when her parents meet his parents the dynamics are all rather awkward and it’s a bit strange. Go forward a few years and Lily is living on the other side of the country with her son Nick. Now Nick doesn’t know who his Dad is he’s certainly never met him but he’s interested enough to try and hunt him down because he’s a little bit lost in the world. He doesn’t really know where he fits in. He does eventually meet Matthew his father but it doesn’t go so well. So Nick then takes himself off to San Francisco and the third part of the book is told by May his maternal grandmother which is where she lives in San Fransisco. And she tells the story about how back in the day she met her husband just on the brink of the cultural revolution in China. They married obviously they had Lily they emigrated to America and things happened to them as they do in families. She brings this story full circle and as I said it is one of those wonderful multi-generational sagas with some very deep profound revelations to it. I found it absorbing I loved it from the first page to the last and I highly recommend it.