“Real Americans” - Rachel Khong

 🧪 Fascinating and complex, this is a layered narrative I’d recommend if you enjoy a bit of magical realism. The twist? The magic clashes head on with science in the form of epigenetic therapies.

🧪 Khong examines the slippery slope of going beyond choosing eye color and gender to screening out depression and boosting intelligence. It’s not a far leap before we will we find ourselves in the cold and clinical realm of the alphas and epsilons of “Brave New World” (which I coincidentally happened to be rereading at the same time as RA), is it?

🧪 RA is told from the POV of 3 characters at 3 points in time. The main conflict appears at the end of part 1; the novel really picks up pace at this point. Part 3 was informative as to the time period leading up to and during Mao’s Revolution.  Khong details the destruction of priceless cultural property at the hands of the Red Army, as well as the impact upon rural farmers and city scholars.

🧪May’s character has seen so much from her childhood in China to her old age in the US. Here, she is contemplating her life in America versus what she had fled. Her recognition of propaganda even when society was forcibly telling her otherwise based on her firsthand experiences during Mao’s Revolution, is telling. It also makes me think what others must think of our consumption culture.

🧪Khong’s writing on the subject of parenting is insightful. I thought this passage encapsulated a common intergenerational paradox. Lily is considering her mother May and her son Nick, and reflecting on how she was parented and how although she sought to parent differently, she almost inevitably parented the same way for the same reasons.

🧪 Wow did this line resonate! I believe it does with most parents, or those contemplating parenthood and strollers.