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    Goodbye, Vitamin
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    Goodbye, Vitamin
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    Goodbye, Vitamin
    Ebook183 pages3 hours

    Goodbye, Vitamin

    By Rachel Khong

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    An O: the Oprah Magazine and Amazon.com Best Book of 2017

    'Khong is a magician ... Brilliant' Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies

    ‘Khong’s first novel sneaks up on you – just like life, illness and heartbreak. And love. A million small, human and often deeply funny details gather force to tell a tale that is ultimately, incredibly poignant’ Miranda July, author of The First Bad Man

    Ruth is thirty and her life is falling apart: she and her fiancé are moving house, but he's moving out to live with another woman; her career is going nowhere; and then she learns that her father, a history professor beloved by his students, has Alzheimer’s. At Christmas, her mother begs her to stay on and help. For a year.

    Goodbye, Vitamin is the wry, beautifully observed story of a woman at a crossroads, as Ruth and her friends attempt to shore up her father’s career; she and her mother obsess over the ambiguous health benefits – in the absence of a cure – of dried jellyfish supplements and vitamin pills; and they all try to forge a new relationship with the brilliant, childlike, irascible man her father has become.

    'A beautifully written debut, dreamy and funny ... flawless' Independent

    ?'Biting, funny and poignant and makes you wish you’d thought of writing it first' Stylist, '50 Unmissable Books'

    'Like a chain of fairy lights in the darkness' Financial Times

    'One of the funniest elegiac novels I have ever read' David Leavitt, author of The Lost Language of Cranes
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateJun 1, 2017
    ISBN9781471147258
    Unavailable
    Goodbye, Vitamin
    Author

    Rachel Khong

    Rachel Khong grew up in Southern California and holds degrees from Yale University and the University of Florida. From 2011 to 2016, she was the managing editor then executive editor of Lucky Peach magazine. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Paris Review, Tin House, The Cut, BuzzFeed, American Short Fiction, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Believer. She lives in San Francisco.

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    Reviews for Goodbye, Vitamin

    4/5

    264 ratings46 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I was truly moved by this loving, quirky, funny, clever, sad book.
    • 3/5
      Notes for a first novel. Lots of ideas and some properly funny lines, but it felt underdone. It's rare that I think an author needed another 50 pages to flesh things out and tell an actual story rather than carve out a loosely contained series of vignettes. I don't mind things being left unresolved, because they weren't properly cooked to begin with. It was a book that demanded too little investment.
    • 4/5
      Ruth comes home to spend Christmas with her parents and ends up agreeing to stay for a year to help out with her father as he experiences growing symptoms of dementia. While there, she tries to get over a bad breakup, and learns some things about her parents' marriage.Despite some heavy subject matter, this is a very light-feeling, very quick-reading novel. A little too much so for me, to be honest. And it's written in a disjointed, causal style full of random thoughts that pop into the main character's head, which is something that often works well for me, but seemed kind of unsatisfying here. It's not bad. Occasionally it's quite charming, and there are moments of poignancy toward the end. But it did leave me kind of wishing I'd just read something with a little more heft.
    • 3/5
      I’m not quite sure how to rate this one. It was a cute story but it wasn’t one that I absolutely loved. The progression of dementia is a tough one to watch and that was captured well. I would have liked more on Theo and Ruth but that wasn’t the focus of the story. 3.5 🌟#BOTM making myself catch up my book of the month books.
    • 3/5
      After a bad breakup, Ruth moves home to Southern California, where her in with her eccentric, dysfunctional family lives. Her history professor father has Alzheimer's disease. Her mother and brother and are bitter about the drinking and philandering the father did before dementia set in. Ruth, who had always had a special bond with her father, does everything she can to try to improve his life, including working with a handsome former student of his to set up a fake "class" for him to teach. Here plausibility goes out the window.I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it is a quick, engaging read. On the other, many of the characters' conversations consist of mildly interesting factoids, which do not substitute for character development. Moreover, aside from some observations about sundowning and door knob placement, the narrative doesn't talk about the day to day nitty-gritty of caregiving as much as I would have liked. Recommended with reservations.
    • 4/5
      This was a fast read and resonated with me because we lost my mother-in-law to dementia last November. While this book is about a daughter who moves back home for a year tohelp care for her father, it wasn't depressing. It might not be for everyone, but, I enjoyed the diary like entries and the humor that we all need to keep on going during rough patches inour lives.
    • 5/5
      I loved it!
    • 4/5
      A sweet and lightweight book about family dynamics, early-onset Alzheimer's, late-onset growing up. Khong has a nice light touch with the dark humor, and this is a good example of how gentle irreverence can still wind up to deliver a satisfying emotional punch.
    • 2/5
      I didn't like this book at all. It was like the diary of a stand-up comedian who was trying way too hard to be funny and failing miserably. I never got a true sense of how Ruth's father was descending into dementia and, sad to say, didn't really care. All of her friends and family were too kooky, or perhaps it was just the way she was straining to make stupid jokes out of every situation. Dumb title also.
    • 3/5
      At it's core, this is a story of a year in the life of family and friends working together to care for the patriarch afflicted with early onset Alzheimer's. Beyond that there is an underlying story of the bonds and memories shared between father and daughter and how roles are lovingly reversed. Tender story filled with day to day personal conflicts sorted out through adversity.
    • 4/5
      A very insightful story about a woman taking care of her father with Alzheimer's. It's not too sad. It's more about their relationship over the years and relationships in general.
    • 4/5
      Okay, so when my grandfather had dementia, one thing that sticks with me was the glimpses I got to see of him as a little kid. The sense of humour, the awe at things he wouldn't have looked twice at pre-brain issues, the way he just kind of accepted living in his strange, strange world.

      Goodbye, Vitamin managed to capture that perfectly. The beauty and the childlike wonder that appear between moments of violence and paranoia.

      Absolutely gorgeous. Will probably hit home if you've had a family member with dementia. Give this one a whirl.
    • 4/5
      This short novel reveals its story in choppy segments of present moments, flashbacks, and snippets of conversation - a narrative style that can be tricky to get used to but pays off in the end. Ruth is 30 years old and has just been dumped by the man she thought she would spend the rest of her life with though, in hindsight, the signs of their imminent break-up are more obvious. When her mother asks her to come for Christmas and stay a year to help care for her father who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, Ruth is reluctant but also a bit desperate to do something to recover from losing Joel. Ruth is all-consumed with memory. She can't help but think of the time she wasted on her relationship, the poor decisions and sacrifices she made, and also the details of times with Joel that brought her joy. She can't ignore her father's slow decline or the memories that he wrote down when Ruth, as a child, did or said something amusing or insightful or so meaningful to him that he never wanted to forget it. How can she remember that her father cheated on her mother and still respect him? How can she lose respect for him now when he may not even remember her soon? The story could have been 200 pages of heartbreak and sadness but Ruth's observations about life are dry and amusing. And when she meets a man who speaks the same crazy language, a tiny light starts to flicker at the end of the tunnel. Everyone knows where her father's future is heading but author Rachel Khong manages to make the journey touching and painful but also heartwarming and buoyant.
    • 3/5
      A year in the life of Ruth, who has recently broken up with her fiance Joel, and returns to her parents' home to help care for her father, who has dementia. The narration is laconic and detached, and I only intermittently identified with/bonded with Ruth. There were touching moments and humorous stories and I enjoyed it in a gentle way. Then it just ended.
    • 4/5
      Pretty good representation of dementia. Not sure if the characters work as well.
    • 5/5
      The book is a simple slice of life, not too deep or dramatic or tragic, just the everyday life of a woman and her family during her father's last good/bad days before Alzheimer's takes over. It's beautiful in its simplicity, and it's easy to just get transported into the story. She's created characters to care about and by the end, there's an underlying sense of sadness that these people you've come to know have so much pain waiting for them. The vignette style of writing took me a bit to get used to, but I eventually saw it as adding a sense of realism to the book by mirroring the milieu of random thoughts each of us has all day long. It was surprisingly hilarious at times. Overall, a well written journey of a woman trying to juxtapose the past alongside an ever changing present.
    • 4/5
      An entertaining, poignant, funny debut told from the perspective of Ruth whose father is suffering from Alzheimer's. Ruth's mother has all but given up as she just can't take it anymore and her brother is still away for college, absolutely no help. So, Ruth, who is suffering from an emotional break up with her fiance, is asked to leave San Francisco and come to LA to attend to her father.The things that Ruth comes up with to help her father are sometimes just laugh out loud hilarious. She is constantly reading about things that cause and can help her father's symptoms. Jellyfish everything for one day was just a little gross, however. Ha!! She even goes so far as to set up "fake" classes to help her father think that he is still teaching at the University!An enjoyable read from a debut author, Rachel Khong.Thanks to Henry Holt & Co. and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
    • 4/5
      I read this book straight through on a plane ride, and it's a wonderful book to fall right into. It's a light and engaging read, but agree I found it poignant. Great believable characters that avoid stereotypes, which would have been easy to fall into, especially in presenting the workings of a family dealing with the heartbreaking situation of aging/dementia, as well as the struggle of a millennial to find her place in the world. A happy and affirming read despite the painful subject matters. Unsurprisingly (given the author's background as a food editor), food is a central theme in a good way.
    • 5/5
      I highly recommend this book. Ruth goes home for Christmas after her boyfriend moves out. She ends up staying to help her mother cope with her father's advancing Alzheimer's. Although the subject is sad, there is such humor and love in the familial relationships that I couldn't help racing through the book.
    • 4/5
      Ruth goes home for Christmas for the first time in three years to find that her father's Alzheimer's has progressed and her mother wants her to move back home and help with his care. Goodbye, Vitamin is about the year Ruth moves back home, reconnecting with her best friend and taking care of her father, with a little help from his former grad students. I see, walking on the other side of the street today, a man with enormous pecs. They look as inflated as popcorn bags right after microwaving. The phrase "born humans" is what I think of whenever I see someone wildly different from me.Fetal circulation is different from that of born humans. Fetuses have fine hair all over them that born humans don't have. Fetuses do a thing like breathing that isn't actually breathing--the motions develop their lungs. They take their first breath when they're born and that's when the whole system changes incredibly: unborn to born. We're born humans, I think, about the huge pec'ed man. With our functioning circulatory systems. Breathing, walking, having real hair. Just look at us.Rachel Khong has a light, humorous writing style that pairs surprisingly well with the subject matter. Ruth is a fun person to hang out with as she gets a haircut from her best friend, remembers her childhood with a father who would buy an order of fries for some pigeons and schemes with her father's former students to have him teach a class on campus, while keeping him out of sight of the administration. And the Alzheimer's is handled with sensitivity and humor. Ruth's Dad is a fully realized character and the family's struggle to accommodate and understand what was happening felt very real. Later at the farmers' Market, I watch a couple bros sample dates. "Shit," says one bro, coughing, "I think I'm allergic to this giant raisin!""That's not a raisin, Steve," says another bro. "That's a Medjool date."Born humans, I remind myself.
    • 3/5
      Rachel did a good job describing the moments where Alzheimer's shows it's irrational times and then quickly reverts to normalcy. She showed much love in her caring during this roller coaster existence. A good book to again try and understand this awful disease. I loved the last few pages of paragraph remembrances...
    • 4/5
      Goodbye, Vitamin is a one-year slice of thirty-year-old Ruth's life--the year during which she returns to her childhood home to help care for her father, until recently a highly regarded college professor, who is descending into Alzheimer's disease. The interactions among the family members and another major character, the professor's last teaching assistant, ring so true to life that it's almost spooky. This is a realistic family, striving with all their hearts to take care of Dad, with love, tolerance, and a poignant sort of humor--and, occasionally, anger. Their story is chronicled through Ruth's journal entries, including quotations from the journal Dad kept when she was growing up. Her childish questions and actions--scraping the seeds off of bagels, for example, and planting them in the garden in hopes of growing a bagel tree--and, late in the book, her observations of her father's childlike questions and actions--for example, watching a baseball game and asking what kind of ball it was; spoon-feeding tuna from a can to the neighbor's cat--vividly point up the Alzheimer sufferer's regression.Highly recommended for those who enjoy books about family relationships and those who have dealt (or are dealing) with a loved one with dementia.
    • 5/5
      Thank you librarything.com for sending me an advanced reader copy of Goodbye Vitamin, by Rachel Khong in return for my honest review.This short novel touched me as few other books have. It is a story told through diary entries of a daughter's return to the family home to care for her father suffering from Dementia or Alzheimer's Disease. These everyday entries elicit the joy and sorrow of caring for an ill loved one. It felt true and real. It was heartbreaking and spectacular, tragic and heartfelt. I loved it. To me though, it was the journal entries written by the father from years past of his time raising his daughter that resonated with me and made this excellent book extraordinary. This man who made his share of mistakes had a profound love for his daughter and would have, in his own written words, "...give...all the money I've got. My entire set of teeth. That special silver dollar your grandfather gave me...Any of it, all of it, just to keep you here." I can remember feeling that way raising my children, wanting time to freeze because it simply felt so precious.I wish the ending would have been more concrete, but these illnesses rob families of stability and dependability. Additionally, the novel spanned a period of one year, and Dementia and Alzheimer's disease are typically devastatingly slow. This typical family showed their true selves when it counted. It was a messy life story told with grace. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      I received this book through a GoodReads Giveaway.*A touching and humorous story of a daughter who decides to spend a year caring for her father after he receives an Alzheimer's diagnosis. Sharp and funny, this book flew right by as Ruth spends time with her erratic and sometimes lucid father while also reflecting on her own life - she's recently quit her job, ended an engagement, and is struggling over what she should do next. A good, light read and one I'd recommend for anyone with an Alzheimer's sufferer in their family.
    • 4/5
      Going home to help care for her father's developing dementia, for a year, is a story that seemed to be possibly more of a memoir than a novel. i wondered about Knong's experiences within her own family.There are amusing and very warm descriptions of family life along with the disruptions that have apparently been going on for years, Ruth provides memories from earlier times, partly from a journal her father kept about her as a small child. As the year comes to an end the question is left up-in-the-air---what has been accomplished and where are things going? Khong's writing is very descriptive---we can see and hear the characters relate to each other. Does Khong need a sequel to develop what happens next in more than just the father's situation? Is Khong letting Ruth mostly escape from a long drawn health situation or does the presence of Theo (a possibly developing relationship) mean that Ruth will be returning home frequently?
    • 4/5
      I liked how the author captured the Young family. They were not perfect but they portrayed a normal family struggling to survive and along the way they learned how to live and love again as a family. Ruth is a good daughter willing to help out her parents. Although, for me the stars of this book are Ruth's parents, Howard and Annie. Their maturity and wisdom really lends to the story. Howard showed that although he may be dealing with Alzheimer's he was still a person. When he was teaching his small class room of students is where he shined the most. There was not a lot of detail spent in the class room, it seemed as if Howard was in the present and it seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. Than there is Annie. The fact that she went to such extremes by tossing out all of the aluminum pots and pans; thus, no more home cooked meals but yet she could be found sliding pizza under the door when Howard locks himself in his office. She was so endearing. Ruth was the one that did the most growing in this book. She found herself again after his breakup. Not only this but she had a new outlook on life. All I have to say about this book is...Goodbye Vitamin, Hello, Love.
    • 3/5
      It was fine, just quite dull. I wouldn’t recommend bothering.
    • 4/5
      Goodbye, Vitamin presents finely tuned insights into the daily reality of caring for a parent with Alzheimers.Along the way, old friendships are deepened as the main character returns to her hometown.The dialogue here opened the door for a sequel where everyone outgrows the boring drinking timeswhich weakened the plot.
    • 3/5
      Different. Enjoyed it. Sad and scary. Life to come?
    • 4/5
      Deliciously detailed every day life of regular/not so regular family, just the right amount of sadness and happiness