Goodbye, Vitamin Audiobook By Rachel Khong cover art

Goodbye, Vitamin

A Novel

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Goodbye, Vitamin

By: Rachel Khong
Narrated by: Therese Plummer
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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, 30-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 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.

Cover design by Karen Horton, cover art based on lemons photograph by Nic Miller/Alamy Images (image #A9FJC2)

©2017 Rachel Khong (P)2017 Audible, Inc. Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Heartfelt Witty

Critic reviews

"Khong is a magician, and we are lucky to fall under her spell at the very beginning of her brilliant writing life." (Lauren Groff)
"This novel sneaks up on you - just like life... and heartbreak. And love." (Miranda July)

"Therese Plummer's narration captures each character's unique voice and emotion, including sarcasm, anger, and humor, all showcased in wonderfully exaggerated tones.... Men and women, young and old cross Ruth's path, creating new experiences for her and putting new spins on her memories, requiring Plummer to express a vivid range of emotions. This is a wonderful story for those who have experienced dementia in a loved one." (AudioFile)
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Loved this story and the relationships! Reader is amazing! Loved the ideas of how to be present with early alsheimers.

Loved it

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4.5 rounded up to 5 stars for Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong. This book quietly but effectively broke my heart. It is the story of Ruth who goes home to help her mom take care of her dad who has just begun to show signs of Alzheimer's. "Tonight a man found dad's pants in a tree lit with Christmas lights" is the first line of the book and the best opener I think I've ever read. I was instantly ALL in. The whole book reads like that - approachable and real and subtlety but painfully endearing. That being said, I don't want everyone to think this is a depressing book. It actually made me laugh out loud quite a bit. It's told by the daughter who quit her job as an ultrasound tech in San Fran to go home to LA and help her mom. There is an obvious and tender relationship between the father and daughter but it is portrayed so delicately you really don't get how attached to these people you are until the end. So much of the story is just these touching little nuances and it really creeps up on you at the end when you have tears in your eyes and are standing at your kitchen sink crying for no good reason! Over the course of one year we go through this sad but inevitable life change with this family and through little blurbs from the father's journal we get glimpses of what their lives were prior to this illness. In addition to the onset of this Alzheimer's with the dad, this family has a LOT of emotional junk in the trunk. The brother doesn't come home because he is mad at the dad for cheating on his mom (distant history.) The mom has stopped trying to be the matriarch of the family and hold them all together - no more cooking or caring. The dad has been fired from the college where he was beloved as a history teacher and subsequent events are equal part hilarity and crushingly sad. I can't say enough about this book. For most of it I had this weird feeling like, why is the author talking about that - who cares. Believe me, at the end - you will.

Slowly but determinedly will get into your heart

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The chapter dates were a bit annoying. The story is simple, but the ending strange.

Easy read.

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Not that interesting, but it documents living with autism from a fictional character. some humor helped.

journalistic

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Simply put, the journal entries of a young woman maneuvering a failing relationship, complicated family dynamics and father diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Poignant moments nestle within lighthearted journal blurbs keeping it short, sweet but incredibly moving. (The dad's saved notes on the daughter's childhood had me welling up something fierce)

Heartwarming and bittersweet

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Goodbye Vitamin was a Book Club pick. I was so reluctant to read this, since my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. But this book tugged at my heart strings, and was a beautiful, witty, humorous, uplifting journey! #Beautiful #Witty #Uplifting #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

BEAUTIFUL, WITTY, HUMOROUS, UPLIFTING JOURNEY!

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Easy to listen to story as author shares her experiences as she adjusts to living with her father with Alzheimer's, and sharing his letters of her childhood.

Easy Listen

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Oh my goodness, this book pulled my heartstrings. My daughter loves her Dad this much; I could see her devotion. So so sweet. 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻. Thank you #BOTM ❣️. So glad I went for this one. (Listened and read!)

Hello Sweet Sweet Book

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Wonderful, tender, funny and heart wrenching account of this father daughter journey. Yes Alzheimer's plays a central part but it's so much more. It's also about the rewards of sacrifice and an unconditional love and respect. The possibility of a romantic relationship for Ruth is something I rooted for! I will miss this because I was so entertained.

This was good for my heart!

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I really enjoyed this book. It was a really short story, but had a lot of good things in it. The family dynamic between all the characters was really nice to listen to. I listened to this on a drive and it kept my interest the whole time and was just a delightful listen!
#familydynamics #heartfelt #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Great, Short Listen

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