Goodbye, Vitamin
A tender exploration of family and love amidst loss
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Simon & Schuster Ltd
Published:17th May '18
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This novel follows Ruth as she navigates a challenging year caring for her father with Alzheimer's, blending humor with poignant moments. Goodbye, Vitamin offers a heartfelt exploration of family.
In Goodbye, Vitamin, Ruth finds herself at a pivotal moment in her life. At just thirty years old, she faces a series of personal crises: her fiancé has left her for another woman, her career is stagnating, and her father, a respected history professor, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. As the holiday season approaches, her mother pleads with her to stay and help care for her father for a year, setting the stage for a poignant exploration of family dynamics and the complexities of love and loss.
The narrative unfolds with Ruth and her mother navigating the challenges of her father's deteriorating condition. They engage in humorous yet heartbreaking attempts to support him, including researching questionable health remedies like dried jellyfish supplements. Through these trials, Ruth must confront her own feelings of inadequacy and the shifting landscape of her family's relationships. The story captures the essence of how love can endure even in the face of illness, showcasing the bittersweet moments that define their shared experience.
Goodbye, Vitamin is a tender, insightful novel that weaves together humor and emotion, inviting readers to reflect on the fragility of life and the enduring bonds of family. With its sharp observations and relatable characters, the book resonates deeply, making it a standout debut that leaves a lasting impression on its audience.
'Brilliant disquisition on family, relationships and adulthood, told in prose that is so startling in its spare beauty that I found mysef thinking about Khong's turns of phrase for days after I finished reading.' -- Doree Shafrir, New York Review of Books
‘A deceptively complex tale of dementia and its impact on a family… Like a chain of fairy lights in the darkness, with Khong displaying a deep understanding of the way in which memory humanises and connects us individually communally – and without which all becomes chaos’ -- Catherine Taylor, Financial Times
'Mostly this sweet-natured novel is about Ruth’s attempts to come to terms with a past her father can no longer remember while still attending to the quirky, fleeting joys of the present. 'Here I am, in lieu of you,' she writes, 'collecting the moments.' -- Sam Sacks, ‘Best New Fiction, Wall Street Journal
‘Rachel Khong’s Goodbye, Vitamin is the best of these debuts, conversational and light in tone, but heartbreakingly clear-eyed as well … Khong manages to imbue seemingly mundane topics with charm and pathos through her attentive, humorous and personable writing’ * Spectator *
'A beautifully written coming-of-age debut, dreamy and funny . . . flawless’ * Independent *
‘There’s beauty, humour and absurdity in even the most tragic situation as Rachel Khong demonstrates in Goodbye, Vitamin’ * Good Housekeeping *
‘Funny and tragic, heart-breaking and life-affirming, it reminds you that in the end, that’s all there is – countless passing moments’ * Grazia *
‘A tragi-comic story about holding a family together when life wants to break them apart and finding yourself when you thought you were completely lost. I absolutely loved this book’ * RED *
‘Nuanced exploration of family love and remembrance…A contemporary take on the coming-of-age tale…It’s sweet without being saccharine, and moving without feeling depressed.’ * Refinery29 *
‘A deft, funny and very moving account of all kinds of loss’ * The Big Issue *
'Mostly this sweet-natured novel is about Ruth’s attempts to come to terms with a past her father can no longer remember while still attending to the quirky, fleeting joys of the present. 'Here I am, in lieu of you,' she writes, 'collecting the moments.' -- Sam Sacks, ‘Best New Fiction, Wall Street Journal
'Khong dots the narrative with beautiful quotidian details, often gustatory: jellyfish lovingly prepared to stave off dementia, secrets told over a shared pomegranate. The novel's opening sentence – 'Tonight a man found Dad's pants in a tree lit with Christmas lights' – encapsulates much of its magical, visual approach, which is micro in detail but universal in scaope' * New Yorker *
ISBN: 9781471147241
Dimensions: 198mm x 130mm x 15mm
Weight: unknown
208 pages