A witty and poignant novel about the power of love and the heartbreak of living with someone with dementia. It took me a while to warm to the book, which is mostly written as brief diary entries, but once it picked up momentum, I was thoroughly engaged. I would give it 4-1/2 stars. ( )

I’m noticing a trend in contemporary books these days. Written in super short sections (sometimes no longer than a sentence or two), and told in a series of slice of life vignettes that add up to nothing really happening for hundreds of pages on end, these books are supposed to explore relationships and humanity but ultimately end up being tedious, pretentious, and impossible to get into.

I know that sounds like I hated GOODBYE, VITAMIN, and I really didn’t. I thought it was an OK book that would have benefited greatly from an actual plot. Instead we’re given random observations and glimpses of a mundane life lived in a mundane way. And there’s never anything interesting about Mary Sue characters going about their boring little lives.

There were a number of well-written, heartrending scenes. There were a few genuine chuckles, too. The problem was that these were all few and far between, and the bits in between were tedious and disjointed. All the random observations and the “did-you-know” conversations made little sense and had no purpose in the end.

The book is written in a stream-of-consciousness, diary style, but I was puzzled by the anecdotes the author chose to put in, because no one I know would ever write a diary this way: filled with really boring and unnecessary observations. For example: “Once a man talking to a mail slot turned to me and told me he was an angel.” Or: “In a tabloid in the waiting room I read that Blake Lively’s mother, lacking blush, once licked an Advil and rubbed its pink on her cheeks.” Umm… what, now?

There were some good things about this book, though. In particular, the snippets from the notebook Ruth’s dad kept of her childhood are often incredibly touching. But I wanted to know more about Ruth’s mom, who was at once maddening and endearing. I had so many questions about her and her choices when the book ended, none of which were answered.

Overall, this is a decently written book, but there’s no plot or any sense of a real narrative flow. ( )

I find it interesting that this is sometimes categorized as humor, because that's not what I got out of the book at all. It was enjoyable and touching, but not really all that funny. Which is completely fine, I just went into this with completely false expectations.

The topic of facing your parents' mortality, and particularly Alzheimer's is so scary to me. This book is snapshot of the decline of one man's memory, and how it affects the people around him, and not a full story taken to the bitter end. And I think I prefer it this way, because there's no ending happier than this when it comes to a disease like this.

I think I'd like to read this again someday. ( )

Ruth returns home after a breakup to help care for her father who has alzeimer's. Couldn’t get into this book.

Rachel Khong creates a deceptively simple novel. At the outset, you think Goodbye, Vitamin is just a straightforward story about a girl whose fiancé has broken things off with her because of another woman. Following the chronological events as she works through her heartbreak after moving back home to help her father as he begins his descent into Alzheimers, you’ll be shocked at the depth of emotional connection you’ll feel from the simple prose. I was crying on the train at the end, shocked that I had been so deeply moved by what I initially thought was more “beach read” style storytelling. A great coup, Ms. Khong, a great coup!
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