All Over the Page - Real Americans: a novel

In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.

This month we will discuss the book Real Americans: a novel by Rachel Khong. The discussion will be facilitated by Kristen McBee.  

Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made? And if we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?

Kristen McBee is an engineer, a librarian, a mom of young children, and an avid reader. She mostly reads what her sister, also a librarian, calls "downer books", though hopefully Real Americans isn't one. Like one of the main characters, Kristen grew up not knowing her biological father, whom she found and met in her 20s (along with the aforementioned sister, so you know it turns out okay). Kristen was a teenager during Y2K, making her a full-fledged millennial ready to discuss that alarming time and how our histories shape us.