Goodbye, Vitamin

Goodbye, Vitamin is Asian American author Rachel Khong’s debut novel. Khong, whose grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease, explores how Alzheimer’s disease affects a family in this work of literary fiction. Written as a series of diary entries, Khong’s protagonist, Ruth Young, meditates on memory, forgiveness, and the challenges inherent in familial relationships as she navigates an adulthood that is not turning out as planned.

Published in 2017, Goodbye, Vitamin received positive reviews and was named one of the year’s best books by outlets like NPR, Vogue, and O, The Oprah Magazine. It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the California Book Award for First Fiction.

This study guide refers to the 2017 Picador paperback edition.

Plot Summary

Goodbye, Vitamin is written as a series of diary entries over the course of a year, beginning at Christmastime. Ruth Young, 30, is home for the holidays for the first time in a few years. Normally, she spends the Christmas season with her fiancé, Joel, and his family, but Joel recently ended their engagement after he revealed that he was cheating on her. Feeling lost, Ruth returns home and finds that her father, Howard, has discovered he has Alzheimer’s disease after a series of escalating memory-lapse incidents.