Reviews
"Incredibly poignant . . . Rachel Khong's first novel sneaks up on you -- just like life . . . and heartbreak. And love." --Miranda July "Half stand-up comic, half a seismographer of the human heart, Khong writes with vulnerability and penetrating insight, and with a gentle humor that moves you not only to care for her characters, but also to care more fervently for the people in your life." --Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine "Equal parts clever and tender, Khong's [ Goodbye, ] Vitamin is a moving meditation on what it means to patient, forgiving, and human." --Karolina Waclawiak, author of The Invaders and How to Get into the Twin Palms "I don't know how she did it, but Rachel Khong has breathed fresh life into the slacker comedy, the family drama, and the campus novel--in wry, swift, spiky, heartfelt prose that is a joy to read. I have enormous admiration for Goodbye, Vitamin , but more than that, I enjoyed the hell out of reading it." --Justin Taylor, author of Flings " Goodbye, Vitamin is funny, sweet, and thoroughly modern, a story of a family with a fresh energy that keeps me hooked. These people are so clear, I want to have dinner with all of them every night for the next six months." --Amelia Gray, author of Gutshot, "Tragic and funny." --Entertainment Weekly, "23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017" "Incredibly poignant . . . Rachel Khong's first novel sneaks up on you -- just like life . . . and heartbreak. And love." --Miranda July "The novel Goodbye,Vitamin builds with humor, with gusto and with such deceptive lightness that the reader wonders, at its devastating end, how in the world the debut author Rachel Khong managed to pull it off so beautifully. The only possible answer is this, that Khong is a magician, and that we are lucky to fall under her spell at the beginning of her brilliant writing life." --Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies "Half stand-up comic, half a seismographer of the human heart, Khong writes with vulnerability and penetrating insight, and with a gentle humor that moves you not only to care for her characters, but also to care more fervently for the people in your life." --Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine "Rachel Khong's Goodbye, Vitamin is one of the funniest elegiac novels I have ever read, and also one of the gutsiest. It is about so many things--Alzheimer's, fast food, turning thirty, marriage, Southern California, the digestive habits of jelly fish, the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper--and at the same time it is about only one thing, the really important thing, the imperative, as E. M. Forster long ago urged, to connect. Rarely has gravitas been handled with such lightness of touch, or a sad story told so happily." -- David Leavitt, author of The Indian Clerk and The Lost Language of Cranes "Hard-ball, laconic, severely, even frighteningly, intimate. To boot, a current of food runs through it, a sophisticated but not snobbish celebration of the empiric integrity of all food. The color of Fanta! You will emerge wanting to take a good snifferoo of a fresh hot cut radish, to study the underside of a saltine, and in the face of depression to be a better and perkier person than you are. This book does it all." -- Padgett Powell, author of Cries for Help, Various and Edisto "Equal parts clever and tender, Khong's [ Goodbye, ] Vitamin is a moving meditation on what it means to patient, forgiving, and human." --Karolina Waclawiak, author of The Invaders and How to Get into the Twin Palms "I don't know how she did it, but Rachel Khong has breathed fresh life into the slacker comedy, the family drama, and the campus novel--in wry, swift, spiky, heartfelt prose that is a joy to read. I have enormous admiration for Goodbye, Vitamin , but more than that, I enjoyed the hell out of reading it." --Justin Taylor, author of Flings, "Half stand-up comic, half a seismographer of the human heart, Khong writes with vulnerability and penetrating insight, and with a gentle humor that moves you not only to care for her characters, but also to care more fervently for the people in your life." --Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine "The novel Goodbye,Vitamin builds with humor, with gusto and with such deceptive lightness that the reader wonders, at its devastating end, how in the world the debut author Rachel Khong managed to pull it off so beautifully. The only possible answer is this, that Khong is a magician, and that we are lucky to fall under her spell at the beginning of her brilliant writing life." --Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies "Rachel Khong's Goodbye, Vitamin is one of the funniest elegiac novels I have ever read, and also one of the gutsiest. It is about so many things--Alzheimer's, fast food, turning thirty, marriage, Southern California, the digestive habits of jelly fish, the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper--and at the same time it is about only one thing, the really important thing, the imperative, as E. M. Forster long ago urged, to connect. Rarely has gravitas been handled with such lightness of touch, or a sad story told so happily." -- David Leavitt, author of The Indian Clerk and The Lost Language of Cranes "Hard-ball, laconic, severely, even frighteningly, intimate. To boot, a current of food runs through it, a sophisticated but not snobbish celebration of the empiric integrity of all food. The color of Fanta! You will emerge wanting to take a good snifferoo of a fresh hot cut radish, to study the underside of a saltine, and in the face of depression to be a better and perkier person than you are. This book does it all." -- Padgett Powell, author of Cries for Help, Various and Edisto "Equal parts clever and tender, Khong's [ Goodbye, ] Vitamin is a moving meditation on what it means to patient, forgiving, and human." --Karolina Waclawiak, author of The Invaders and How to Get into the Twin Palms "Incredibly poignant . . . Rachel Khong's first novel sneaks up on you -- just like life . . . and heartbreak. And love." --Miranda July "I don't know how she did it, but Rachel Khong has breathed fresh life into the slacker comedy, the family drama, and the campus novel--in wry, swift, spiky, heartfelt prose that is a joy to read. I have enormous admiration for Goodbye, Vitamin , but more than that, I enjoyed the hell out of reading it." --Justin Taylor, author of Flings "Tragic and funny." --Entertainment Weekly, "23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017", "Incredibly poignant . . . Rachel Khong's first novel sneaks up on you -- just like life . . . and heartbreak. And love." --Miranda July "Half stand-up comic, half a seismographer of the human heart, Khong writes with vulnerability and penetrating insight, and with a gentle humor that moves you not only to care for her characters, but also to care more fervently for the people in your life." --Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine "Equal parts clever and tender, Khong's [ Goodbye, ] Vitamin is a moving meditation on what it means to patient, forgiving, and human." --Karolina Waclawiak, author of The Invaders and How to Get into the Twin Palms "I don't know how she did it, but Rachel Khong has breathed fresh life into the slacker comedy, the family drama, and the campus novel--in wry, swift, spiky, heartfelt prose that is a joy to read. I have enormous admiration for Goodbye, Vitamin , but more than that, I enjoyed the hell out of reading it." --Justin Taylor, author of Flings "Tragic and funny." --Entertainment Weekly, "23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017", "Incredibly poignant . . . Rachel Khong's first novel sneaks up on you -- just like life . . . and heartbreak. And love." --Miranda July "Half stand-up comic, half a seismographer of the human heart, Khong writes with vulnerability and penetrating insight, and with a gentle humor that moves you not only to care for her characters, but also to care more fervently for the people in your life." --Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine "Equal parts clever and tender, Khong's [ Goodbye, ] Vitamin is a moving meditation on what it means to patient, forgiving, and human." --Karolina Waclawiak, author of The Invaders and How to Get into the Twin Palms "I don't know how she did it, but Rachel Khong has breathed fresh life into the slacker comedy, the family drama, and the campus novel--in wry, swift, spiky, heartfelt prose that is a joy to read. I have enormous admiration for Goodbye, Vitamin , but more than that, I enjoyed the hell out of reading it." --Justin Taylor, author of Flings, Named a PopSugar summer read BuzzFeed, "22 Exciting New Books You Need To Read This Summer" Named one of Coastal Living ''s "50 Books of Summer" Elle, "The 24 Best Books to Read This Summer" Named a Goop summer read Bustle, " 29 New Fiction Books To Read This Summer" "In her tender, well-paced debut novel..Khong writes heartbreaking family drama with ?charm, perfect prose, and deadpan humor." -- Bookist , starred review " Goodbye, Vitamin is one of those rare books that is both devastating and light-hearted, heartfelt and joyful, making it a perfect and unique summer read. Don''t miss it." --Isaac Fitzgerald, BuzzFeed "Tender yet funny in turns, Goodbye, Vitamin offers poignant insight into family, memory, marriage, parenthood, love, and loss." --Jarry Lee, BuzzFeed "A darkly funny debut novel about love, loss, and heartbreak." -- PopSugar "A good mix of humor and love." -- Elle "Tragic and funny." -- Entertainment Weekly , "23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017" "Incredibly poignant . . . Rachel Khong''s first novel sneaks up on you -- just like life . . . and heartbreak. And love." --Miranda July "The novel Goodbye,Vitamin builds with humor, with gusto and with such deceptive lightness that the reader wonders, at its devastating end, how in the world the debut author Rachel Khong managed to pull it off so beautifully. The only possible answer is this, that Khong is a magician, and that we are lucky to fall under her spell at the beginning of her brilliant writing life." --Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies "Half stand-up comic, half a seismographer of the human heart, Khong writes with vulnerability and penetrating insight, and with a gentle humor that moves you not only to care for her characters, but also to care more fervently for the people in your life." --Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine "Rachel Khong''s Goodbye, Vitamin is one of the funniest elegiac novels I have ever read, and also one of the gutsiest. It is about so many things--Alzheimer''s, fast food, turning thirty, marriage, Southern California, the digestive habits of jelly fish, the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper--and at the same time it is about only one thing, the really important thing, the imperative, as E. M. Forster long ago urged, to connect. Rarely has gravitas been handled with such lightness of touch, or a sad story told so happily." -- David Leavitt, author of The Indian Clerk and The Lost Language of Cranes "Hard-ball, laconic, severely, even frighteningly, intimate. To boot, a current of food runs through it, a sophisticated but not snobbish celebration of the empiric integrity of all food. The color of Fanta! You will emerge wanting to take a good snifferoo of a fresh hot cut radish, to study the underside of a saltine, and in the face of depression to be a better and perkier person than you are. This book does it all." -- Padgett Powell, author of Cries for Help, Various and Edisto "Equal parts clever and tender, Khong''s [ Goodbye, ] Vitamin is a moving meditation on what it means to patient, forgiving, and human." --Karolina Waclawiak, author of The Invaders and How to Get into the Twin Palms "I don''t know how she did it, but Rachel Khong has breathed fresh life into the slacker comedy, the family drama, and the campus novel--in wry, swift, spiky, heartfelt prose that is a joy to read. I have enormous admiration for Goodbye, Vitamin , but more than that, I enjoyed the hell out of reading it." --Justin Taylor, author of Flings, "Half stand-up comic, half a seismographer of the human heart, Khong writes with vulnerability and penetrating insight, and with a gentle humor that moves you not only to care for her characters, but also to care more fervently for the people in your life." -Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine "Equal parts clever and tender, Khong's [ Goodbye, ] Vitamin is a moving meditation on what it means to patient, forgiving, and human." -Karolina Waclawiak, author of The Invaders and How to Get into the Twin Palms
Synopsis
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine , Vogue , San Francisco Chronicl e, Esquire , Huffington Post , Nylon , Entertainment Weekly , Buzzfeed , Booklist , and The Independent Winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for First Fiction "A quietly brilliant disquisition . . . told in prose that is so startling in its spare beauty that I found myself thinking about Khong's turns of phrase for days after I finished reading."-- Doree Shafrir, The New York Times Book Review "One of those rare books that is both devastating and light-hearted , heartful and joyful . . . . Don't miss it ."-- Buzzfeed "Hello, Rachel Khong. Kudos for this delectable take on familial devotion and dementia."-- NPR Her life at a crossroads, a young woman goes home again in this funny and inescapably moving debut from a wonderfully original new literary voice. Freshly disengaged from her fiancé and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, thirty-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents' home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth's mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father's condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming her all her grief. Told in captivating glimpses and drawn from a deep well of insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Goodbye, Vitamin pilots through the loss, love, and absurdity of finding one's footing in this life., Her life at a crossroads, a young woman goes home again in this funny and inescapably moving debut from a wonderfully original new literary voice., Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine , Vogue , San Francisco Chronicl e, Esquire , Huffington Post , Nylon , Entertainment Weekly , Buzzfeed , Booklist , and The Independent Winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for First Fiction "A quietly brilliant disquisition . . . told in prose that is so startling in its spare beauty that I found myself thinking about Khong's turns of phrase for days after I finished reading."-- Doree Shafrir, The New York Times Book Review "One of those rare books that is both devastating and light-hearted , heartful and joyful . . . . Don't miss it ."-- Buzzfeed "Hello, Rachel Khong. Kudos for this delectable take on familial devotion and dementia."-- NPR Her life at a crossroads, a young woman goes home again in this funny and inescapably moving debut from a wonderfully original new literary voice. Freshly disengaged from her fianc and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, thirty-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents' home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth's mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father's condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming her all her grief. Told in captivating glimpses and drawn from a deep well of insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Goodbye, Vitamin pilots through the loss, love, and absurdity of finding one's footing in this life., Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine , Vogue , San Francisco Chronicl e, Esquire , Huffington Post , Nylon , Entertainment Weekly , Buzzfeed , Booklist , and The Independent Winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for First Fiction A quietly brilliant disquisition . . . told in prose that is so startling in its spare beauty that I found myself thinking about Khong's turns of phrase for days after I finished reading.-- Doree Shafrir, The New York Times Book Review One of those rare books that is both devastating and light-hearted , heartful and joyful . . . . Don't miss it .-- Buzzfeed Hello, Rachel Khong. Kudos for this delectable take on familial devotion and dementia.-- NPR Her life at a crossroads, a young woman goes home again in this funny and inescapably moving debut from a wonderfully original new literary voice. Freshly disengaged from her fianc and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, thirty-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents' home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth's mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father's condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming her all her grief. Told in captivating glimpses and drawn from a deep well of insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Goodbye, Vitamin pilots through the loss, love, and absurdity of finding one's footing in this life.
