Real Americans

Lily is a Chinese American woman and one of the novel’s three narrators. She is characterized primarily by her relationships and her struggles with both her racial identity and her class position. Lily is, at the beginning of the novel, 22 and employed as an unpaid intern at a large media corporation. Her parents, Chinese immigrants, are scientists. Because she did not follow in their footsteps, she feels a distinct sense of alienation within her family. She struggles in particular with her relationship with her mother and reflects that her father is easier to relate to because he has interests outside of science. Her mother cares for little beyond the world of genetic research, and Lily’s childhood and adolescence were shaped in part by the disappointment she perceived her mother felt for her. She often wonders, “Would our relationship have been different if I had been more like her?” (97). Ultimately, she concludes that her mother would have been more accepting (and loving) had Lily shared more of her interests, work ethic, and drive.

In addition to feeling out of place within her family, Lily feels like an outsider in her broader social world. Lily was born in