This week’s reviews include harrowing racial tensions in Greg Iles’s “Southern Man” and the enduring impact of family secrets in Rachel Khong’s “Real Americans.”
Sunday Books & Reviews is edited each week by Vanessa Sekinger. Interested in writing reviews? Contact Vanessa.
SOUTHERN MAN
By Greg Iles
Published by William Morrow (May 28, 2024)
Reviewed by Drew Gallagher
In full disclosure, when I requested Greg Iles’ Southern Man from the publisher, I had not read Iles previously, nor had I bothered to check the page count on his newest novel. So, when it arrived weighing in at two pounds (I actually put it on the scale) and 963 pages, I was daunted. However, I spent much of a week of vacation plowing through it and thoroughly enjoying it with only a few quibbles.
For those of you unbowed by the paragraph above, or fans of Iles previous work, there is a lot to appreciate in Southern Man. The novel marks the return of Penn Cage who is an attorney by trade but a badass by night. He’s a crusader for justice, and if it involves a little gun play then he’s equal to the challenge.
Cage has returned to his Mississippi roots to help his mother prepare to die, and it just so happens that his small town has been plunged into a race war that has the potential to further shred America and become the lead story on CNN. Compounding the racial tensions in this small Mississippi town is the emergence of Robert E. Lee White (no need for a Literature 101 course to get the meaning in that name) as a possible third-party candidate in the upcoming presidential election. White is a hometown hero who left his arm in Afghanistan and whose father is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is the quintessential All-American hero.
Though the probability of a third-party candidate succeeding is unlikely (See: Ross Perot), White’s candidacy has gained a lot of momentum on social media and with the right funding and an ability to pull voters from Trump who did not serve, get wounded in Afghanistan, or have White’s athleticism or movie star looks, the possibility looms larger than once thought. To get the funding and to make this improbable run, White has to be willing to do anything to cement this opportunity. And by anything, well, there is a high body count by the end of “Southern Man” and White has to force himself to have sex with beautiful women. Patriotism has its sacrifices.
Iles main narrative is compelling and watching the forces of good (Penn Cage and a group of plucky characters fighting for racial equality) and evil (Southern Aristocracy and Racism) converge in a battle that is far bloodier and larger than I anticipated makes for good reading. This is par for Iles, whose previous Natchez Burning trilogy featuring Cage has been critically hailed as a literary landmark.
Beneath the racial riot thread, Iles tries to tie in family history for Cage culled from slave diaries and interviews that cast doubt on Cage’s heritage along with a number of the blue bloods in town. This portion of the novel is less successful and, to my cynical mind, a bit too of the moment. I suppose that referencing the atrocities of slavery helps bring a broader perspective to the current events ripping apart Cage’s hometown, but in a book of nearly 1,000 pages it seems superfluous. Readers are likely to skip the chapters on the family history, a diversion similar to Melville’s whaling chapters in “Moby Dick”, to get back to the non-stop action.
And ultimately it is the action in “Southern Man” that propels this novel into a satisfying conclusion where no one knows who is to live and who is to die. Or if democracy can prevail in a country straddling an ever-expanding racial rift that only a kick-ass attorney might be able to save. Even if he only has one good leg to stand on.
Drew Gallagher is a freelance writer residing in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is the second-most-prolific book reviewer and first video book reviewer in the 137-year history of the Free Lance-Star Newspaper. He aspires to be the second-most-prolific book reviewer in the history of FXBG Advance and is also a founding member of Dads for Puppies.
REAL AMERICANS
By Rachel Khong
Reviewed by Ashley Riggleson
I loved Rachel Khong’s debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin, so I was so excited to read her latest work, Real Americans. This novel, though very different from Goodbye, Vitamin is a resounding success, and Kong has cemented herself as an important voice in American literature.
This multigenerational family saga tells the story of one family over the course of three generations. After a brief prologue, readers are introduced to Lily Chen, an Asian American woman whose story begins on the outset of Y2K. She is a young woman just starting adulthood when she meets and soon falls in love with Matthew, the Caucasian heir to a massive fortune.
Their relationship seems almost charmed at first, but things change when Lily gives birth to a son. While this is, of course, a happy occasion, the family cannot help but notice that their son, Nico, looks so much like his father that he is white-passing. And when Lily begins to suspect that there is more behind her son’s appearance than simple luck of the draw, she takes her son and leaves Matthew and his money behind.
Years later, Khong introduces Nick. He is a high school student with his eyes set on college, but he struggles with some aspects of his identity. His mother has not told him anything about his father, and without any information forthcoming, Nick feels unmoored. His confusion is only compounded by the fact that, despite his appearance, he identifies as biracial, and he struggles to build senses of community and belonging. So, when Nick’s best friend convinces him to take a DNA test, he agrees. Although nothing happens for some time, the test eventually yields results, and he is connected with his father Matthew.
The novel takes off from there, and readers soon learn that there is more behind these events than meets the eye. We learn that the story’s true beginning has its roots in Communist China, from which Nick’s grandmother fled. What is more, this story and the secrets that go along with it have potential future implications, and this compelling novel about a complicated family is sure to capture readers’ attention.
When I initially finished Real Americans, I thought that I preferred Khong’s debut, which has a surprising and poignant twist, but having gained some distance, I have realized that Real Americans has stayed with me in an indelible way. I love a novel in which family secrets impact characters even generations later, and that is exactly what Khong delivers here. We see how the secret impacts their relationships and how the family has fractured over the years. The inverse of that, however, is that, over the course of the novel, there is a lot of healing and growth,
Khong also looks at some interesting themes, such as identity, time, genetics, and eugenics. I have read many novels looking at these themes before, but Khong brings something fresh and new to conversation. It is safe to say that I have never read anything quite like Real Americans, and I doubt I will again. Original, thought-provoking, and poignant, Khong’s latest is sure to win her many new readers.
Ashley Riggleson is a free-lance book reviewer from Rappahannock County. When she is not reading or writing book reviews, she can usually be found playing with her pets, listening to podcasts, or watching television with friends and family.
