Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“Real Americans” A Novel
By: Rachel Khong
Narrated By: Louisa Zhu, Cric Yang, Eunice Wong
Rachel Khong (American writer and editor.)
(Ms. Khong’s book is an entertaining listen but a little too long except for listeners who are most interested in the story. Others are interested in its societal meaning and often discount its entertainment value.)
The main characters in Khong’s novel are Lily Chen, Matthew, Nick Chen, and May. In one sense, the author’s story is about the randomness of life. We are born from fertilization of a male sperm with a female egg. In our world, the randomness of being born is based on chance encounters of violence or seduction. (The reference to violence and seduction is not meant to suggest the nuance of relationship can be ignored, e.g. love comes from the act of seduction, not from violence.) In the 21st century, violence and seduction remain but in today’s science, state and institutional influence bear down on human procreation. The science and possible future of genetics is Khong’s theme in “Real Americans”.
“Real Americans” is about a young college graduate making her way in New York city, a capitol of opportunity in America.
As a poor young graduate, New York city is a ticketed opportunity for American success and failure. Khong’s story is particularly interesting because the main character, Lily Chen, is born American to well-educated parents who emigrated from China. She does not speak Chinese. She is living the life of a young, intelligent American trying to support herself by whatever job she can find in New York City.
Lily’s mother and father are geneticists.
Like the trials and rewards of Cinderella, the trials of Lily’s life are transformed by the wealth of a prince. What makes “Real Americans” more than a fairytale is its theme that life’s beginnings are a matter of violence or seduction, including state and institutional complicity. (“State and institutional complicity” refers to acts of government and business that discriminate based on prejudice or narrow emphasis on income rather than ethics.)
Lily seems to have luckily met Matthew; an immensely wealthy heir to an American medical conglomerate founded by his family. They marry after an on again, off again relationship.
After their marriage, Lily has two pregnancies that do not come to term and chooses to have invitro insemination to have a successful pregnancy with the birth of a son they name Nicco. Matthew and Lily go to China on a business trip where Lily chooses to visit the college where her mother became a geneticist. She meets a professor who knew her mother and is told a story that initially puzzles her about what her mother was like when she was young. She finds her mother, as a student geneticist, was a risk taker and magical thinker.
The next one learns is that Lily divorces her husband and moves from New York to Tacoma Washington, an island between Seattle and its capital to raise her son by herself.
Lily’s mother had met Matthew’s family before Matthew began dating Lily. She knew Matthew’s father who began a hugely successful medical company that researched genetics. (The significance of her mother’s knowledge of the genetic research of Matthew’s family is at the crux of Lily’s feeling of betrayal.) The theme of the author’s story begins to take a turn. Lily leaves Matthew. (She leaves because of the bias of Matthew’s family in using Lily as a surrogate for pregnancy without disclosing their personal interest.)
As her son grows to manhood, she refuses to tell him the name of his father, where he lives, or the history and wealth of the family in which he was born. The remainder of Khong’s book is the story of the circumstances surrounding the birth of her son, how he learns of his father, and what led to her divorce from Matthew.
Khong is writing about the pandora box of genetics which opens the world to designer babies. She seems to conclude, regardless of birth circumstance, care and nurture make people “Real…”. Science will lead or lose the “Real…” world of human beings. (Understanding the science of genetics and the potential for manipulation of human life is a god-like power with all the ramifications of genetic inheritance that can aid or destroy human life.)
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 