Rachel KhongRecensioni

This was good. I had a bit of a rough start with this book but I am so glad that I kept reading. The story is told from 3 very different points of view from 3 generations. Lily’s story starts in the late 1990s and takes us through the first years of the new millennium. Her son, Nick’s story takes place in the 2020s and proved to be the highlight of the story for me. Mei’s point of view gave us the backstory needed to understand how this family came to live in America.

This book is told in three sections and almost reads like three stories that happen to feature the same group of characters. It was interesting to see how each of these characters dealt with the issues they faced. I was especially interested in how each of these characters saw their ethnicity and how their experiences differed. The story had a lot of interesting elements including a bit of magic which added a lot to the overall story.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that Louisa Zhu, Eric Yang, and Eunice Wong did a fantastic job with this story. Each narrator read a section of the book and I thought that each of them did a great job of capturing the essence of the characters. I thought that all three narrators had pleasant voices and complimented each other’s nicely. I felt like they were able to add just the right amount of emotion to their reading which added to my overall enjoyment.

I would recommend this book to others. This was a book that covered some important topics that made me think. I grew to care about this group of characters and hoped that things would work out for them in the end. I do hope to read more of this talented author’s work in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Knopf and Penguin Random House Audio.

This is the story of 3 generations of the Chen family. At 22, Lily is working as an unpaid intern, when she attends a company event and meets Matt. They instantly hit it off, but Matt hides the fact that he is part of a very wealthy family. After they marry and have a child, Nick, through IVF, Lily realizes that her family and Matt's family have a history. Lily has moments where she realizes that she can stop time. She doesn't understand this phenomena until much later.
Part 2 of the book is Nick's story as a young man. Part 3 is May's story - Lily's mom, a geneticist, who details life in Mao's China. We learn what May did, which affected her daughter and her grandson, which caused a great rift in the family.
Interesting story with a small bit of fantasy.

This book begins in China with May and Peng stealing something from a museum. Part I is told by Lily, May and Charles Chen's daughter. Part II is told by Nick Chen, Lily and Matthew Maier's son. Part III is told by May including the secret she kept from Lily and from Nick. Lily does not feel loved by her mother and seems to be unable to figure out what she is supposed to do with her life. She marries Matthew Allen, a venture capitalist, not knowing that he is the son of a wealthy pharmaceutical family. Part II picks up with Nick in high school on an island off the coast of Washington state. This part tells about the restrictions Lily places on Nick, Nick's friendship with Timothy, a very smart student, his search for and subsequent relationship with his father Matthew. Part III is May telling Nick about her life from the time she lived in China, through the rise of Mao, her and Charles' escape to Hong Kong and then to the United States, and about her genetics research with Otto Maier, Matthew's father.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. There are narratives from three perspectives going backwards and forwards in time: Lily, who marries ultra-wealthy Matthew; then Nick, Lily's son leaving home and discovering the truth about his father; and finally May, Lily's mother, and the story of how she escaped China to come to the US. I liked each narrative in different ways, but the effect of each was to leave the others opaque, so we never saw what Lily was feeling in the last 2/3 of the book for example.

There were some elements that seemed a bit sci-fi to me, but I don't know much about science, so maybe they are all too real, and then the family trait of time standing still, which I assumed was going to be diagnosed as epilepsy, instead was presented as a superpower. This would be a good choice for a book club, as there are plenty of 'issues' to discuss.

A funny, quirky and oftimes poignant book about a young woman moving home to take of her dad with Alzheimer's.Chockablock with scenes and dialog, a light read treating a heavy, sad subject.

Rachel Khong wrote the delightful Goodbye Vitamin, and now she has a new novel that takes on three generations of the same family to look at the reasons they split apart and how they might come back together. This novel begins in the middle with Lily Chen, raised by immigrants from China, she feels her mother's disappointment in her lack of purpose, as she works unpaid as an intern and struggles to get by with a series of side gigs. When she meets Matthew, the golden son of a family whose immense wealth is based on their pharmaceutical company, they feel a real connection but their differences may sink their relationship. Then there's Nick, raised by his mother in a small Washington community, feeling like an outsider. Reconnecting with his father is fraught, but that's not the only family member he's never had the opportunity to get to know. And finally, the book goes back to the beginning, with a bright, determined girl grows up in rural China, eager to find a way to get to university, but that opportunity is destroyed by the Cultural Revolution and her best chance may be to get out of the country with the young man who wants to leave too.

Often, the different timeline structure doesn't work, but here, Khong keeps the book structured into three distinct sections, so there's no jumping around. She also gives each generation's story a different tone and style to reflect the time in which it is set. Khong writes so well, and is so deliberate in her choices, yet there's an effortlessness to her writing that made the entire novel a lot of fun to read. There's a lot of ground covered in this novel, but at its heart it's the story of family and of forgiveness and learning to understand each other across the generations. I loved this book.½

Science paired with the lure of consumer choice leads to heartbreaking consequences in Real Americans.

A female biologist believes genetic research will allow parents to suppress unwanted genes to make a perfect, healthy, baby. She escapes Communist China and the horror of the Cultural Revolution with a fellow scientist, leaving behind her true love. They resume their research in the United States.

Their daughter Lily resists her parents’ expectations to live a purposeful life in science, and while an intern in New York City meets a man from a wealthy and influential family. To Lily’s surprise, as different as they are, he falls in love with her and they marry. But soon after the birth of their child, blonde and blue eyed like his father, Lily discovers secrets that drive her into a secluded, off-the-grid life with her son.

Years late, Nick can’t wait to leave home and his mother’s nearly suffocating love. His best friend encouraged him to take a DNA test to learn more about a father his mother has never talked about. His journey brings division and finally understanding.

This big, intergenerational family saga is a real page-turner, touching on so many issues and ideas. I especially appreciated understanding the changes in China under Mao, and the experience of being an American born Chinese American. The idea of genetic modification to eliminate disease and specific traits feels all too relevant as genetic research advances. Should we have such choices? This novel explores the psychological impact of such choices.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book

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.

Rachel Khong’s Real Americans holds a secret…the first part begins like a million other books I’ve read in the last 10 years — a self-involved young woman, Lily, struggling with her identity, etc. But then, Part 2 begins and readers find themselves in the life of a teenage boy. We soon realize the connection to Lily, and Real Americans expands into a book about a lot more than a navel-gazing young woman. This is a book about belonging, coming-of-age, science, wealth, and family written with skill and the confidence to leave gaps for readers to fill in themselves. In fact, when Khong tries to explain too much she produces the weakest section of the novel which reads like mediocre historical fiction, but I’m willing to overlook it as part of the whole. Real Americans is excellent contemporary literary fiction for readers of Celeste Ng, Brit Bennett, and Kiley Reid.

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!

My goodness, I adored this book. It's a summer 2017 read and, more impressively, a new addition to my forever favorites. 10/10 would recommend and may even read again (if you know me -- unheard of!).

I picked up "Goodbye, Vitamin" after a string of really dark thrillers, when I desperately needed a break from grisly unsolved murders and disappearing husbands and every other grim thing. We meet Ruth, who's newly disengaged from her engagement to Joel, the day after Christmas -- which she spent at home in LA with her parents for the first time in years. Our introduction arrives as she's handling a phone call that her dad's pants have been located, dangling from the holiday trees downtown like they're ornaments. His Alzheimer's is worsening, and Ruth's mom asks her to stay, just for a year.

"Goodbye, Vitamin" is the story of that year, told in diary-style entries.

There are a lot of things I loved about this book: It's beautifully written; it's smart, witty, poignant, heartfelt. Yes, Alzheimer's is a sad disease, but Ruth shows us the humor in it. It's very real, and the characters we meet have flaws. While her dad's Alzheimer's is sympathetic, he's also a former drunk who cheated on her mom at least once, probably twice. When Ruth and her mom argue, her mom bemoans that "this isn't what I thought it'd be like." "What isn't?" Ruth asks. "Having a daughter."

I *got* these people. They tugged at my heart-strings, not least because their struggles were familiar. I became totally immersed in and attached to their story, and Rachel Khong, a master of the word, told it in a captivating way. Do yourself a favor and pick it up today.

What a sweet, sad, simple look at the ways relationships grow and shift with time and circumstance. It reminds me a little of the pandemic, the daily world being made smaller, in a way, extra things necessarily being cut out, allowing what's most important to rise to the surface.

(8.5) I am so pleased I rescued this book from being culled from our local library. I am sure it would have been coded DOA, (dead on arrival), which means that over its first 12 months, not one person has read it, as it appears brand new. I can only put it down to the cover and its title, which wouldn't have attracted me, however, I had read some glowing reviews.
Thirty year old Ruth is heartbroken when her fiance breaks off their engagement. she returns home to her parents and her mother asks her to stay for 12 months as her history professor, father has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
The book is presented in diary format. It starts off fairly light and flippant but gradually a subtle change takes place. It is cleverly written and is both funny, sad and poignant as this fractured family bonds together in support of each other.

I loved Goodbye, Vitamin so much! Having lived through my own father's descent into dementia, I thought the author handled the subject matter so beautifully. The chapters are in many ways like journal entries, or vignettes, which made it a fast read, but worth savoring. I loved the literary device the author used describing the notes Ruth's father made as she was growing up, about questions she asked and he answered, put in italics, which then changed at the end of the book to the daughter writing down all the things the father said and did. "Here I am, in lieu of you, collecting the moments. Collecting - I guess that's the operative word. Unless it's moments." The author walks a fine line between humor and poignancy, and it was a very satisfying reading experience. Thanks to Edelweiss for the e-galley!

This is a book about confronting loss. Ruth's engagement has just been broken off by her fiance Joel, so at a loss for the next step in her life, she moves back home at her mother's request "just for a year" to help with her father, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Told in random, but dated journal entries, Ruth recounts some of the little moments of her days, but also helps herself face some of the bigger issues. She had always been close to her father Howard, a university professor, and now has to face his debilitation. She also has to come to terms with the fact that he has been a crummy husband to her mother - she comes across divorce papers among other things - that indicate some of the hard times she has missed since she left home. Her observations are quirky but clever and grow in maturity as the book moves on. She conversely grows up while her father regresses. Their relationship and the whole family dynamic is very touching. "What imperfect carriers of love we are, and what imperfect givers. That the reasons we can care for one another can have nothing to do with the person cared for. That is has only to do with who we were around that person - what we felt about that person." (131) Ruth's relationships with her Mom, her brother Linus, her best friend Bonnie and her Dad's TA, Theo all attest to her growth and her capacity to love - however imperfectly.

3.5 stars

A super solid and engaging read that was funny, sad, bittersweet. This rounds in on 4 stars, but I can’t quite do it. It’s quick, though it took me a month, that’s mostly because of the month it’s been....

Charming and innocent, but much too quippy and anecdotal for me

I've had this sitting on my desk for AGES, picking it up every so often and trying to read it. But I just can't get into it. It's not terrible... a bit self-conscious and feels sort of artificial to me. But basically, it just doesn't click with me.½

I enjoyed the quirky narrator of this book and the ways she sees the world in a unique way. I thought there were a few too many characters that were introduced proportional to the length of the book, and in part because of that there were a few plot lines that I didn't feel as resolved about. I would have liked to spend more time with these characters, actually, which is really a compliment to the book.

Goodbye, Vitamin presents finely tuned insights into the daily reality of caring for a parent with Alzheimers.

It opens with a smooth rhythm to the words which links the past dynamic and personalities of the family to the current changes.

As my daughter pointed out, Rachel Khong has a subtle way of weaving Ruth's observations about her father
into the life of the family and as a transition from her father's diary of her young life.

By the conclusion, the good writing has turned unfortunately vague.

Along the way, old friendships are deepened as the main character returns to her hometown.
The dialogue here opened the door for a sequel where everyone outgrows the boring drinking times
which weakened the plot.

Ruth, young and recently dis-engaged, moves back to her parents’ house for a year to try to help her mom take care of her dad, who is experiencing the onset of dementia. She keeps a diary along the way, which is what we read in this book.

The informal, conversational style belies the meditative magic Khong is working on us through her narrator. Ruth is a precise observer of the quotidian, giving us razor-concise, description-free nuggets of what’s happening all around her (and inside her mind) all the time. She’s remembering unimportant details, rendering them important by her remembrance - which is what the whole book is about, really: remembering. As Ruth struggles to forget - or should she remember? - her ex-fiancé, it’s the totally banal interactions they’ve had that still stick to her and leave her with a sense of him. Likewise, Ruth’s father has dug out some old notes he’d jotted when Ruth was a child, small records of her humorous little-kid misunderstandings and insights (all start with “Today, you…”); as his memories of grand failures and achievements begin to desert him, it is these mundane recollections - as well as the mundane moments they are still making together - that bind Ruth to her father again.

It’s a book about remembering by being utterly present, noticing and forgiving, refusing to let a moment go until you’ve seen - really seen - what’s there to see, and then...letting it go gently and without judgment.

A few other things I appreciated about the writing:

-Khong does not hold our hand to walk us through every single action that happens between A and B. They have an idea to ride horses, then they’re riding the horses. The reader can assume the characters went through a process in between to make the idea a reality, but no time is wasted escorting us through it.

-Sometimes Ruth gets on a roll talking about one thing or another, approaching a too-strong opinion or a too-attached sentiment, then she yanks the hand brake by tossing in some cavalier brush-off -- “Whatever” -- an abrupt truncation of the thought. It almost feels like recklessness, and it reminds the reader that this narrator is not going to allow herself or us to stray too far afield from the present moment.

-Ruth’s moment-by-moment observations are movingly relatable: she’s marking things that we all notice without being conscious of noticing. She’s noting the grocer who is putting stickers on avocados.

-The metaphors are clean, non-gratuitous, often funny, and always perfect. Unwanted memories of her ex arrive on the shore of her mind “out of nowhere - like an ancient candlestick from some wrecked ship.” Trying to salvage her relationship with him was “like trying to tuck an elephant into pants.”