Goodbye, Vitamin

May 29, 2017
Lucky Peach executive editor Khong’s first novel, written in journal format, is a family drama cum breakup story about 30-year-old Ruth, a recently single sonographer struggling to come to terms with the Alzheimer’s diagnosis received by her father, Howard. When his behavior worsens (such as wandering over to a neighbor’s porch in his underwear), Ruth quits her job in San Francisco to move back in with her parents for a year to keep an eye on things. After Howard, a history professor, is asked to take a leave of absence, Ruth and a few ex-students stage a fake class on the college campus in order to keep his mind engaged, but without alerting the proper authorities. Meanwhile, Ruth starts a budding romance with co-conspirator Theo, finds her parents’ signed divorce papers, and digs deeper into her father’s extramarital dalliances. Emotions heat up further when Howard’s actions progress “from manageable to scary” and he smashes plates, shouts, and throws bedroom pillows into a neighbor’s pool. Because of the book’s truncated structure and the frequent descriptions of minutiae (catalogs of Ruth’s boyfriends postbreakup, patrons at the bar where she and Theo go on a date, facts about Alzheimer’s disease), passages seem underdeveloped, especially given the weighty subject matter. Though this foray into a family’s attempts to cope mostly skims the surface, it does gain depth as it progresses. Agent: Marya Spence, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

May 15, 2017
Former Lucky Peach executive editor Khong (All About Eggs: Everything We Know About the World's Most Important Food, 2017) whisks up a heartfelt family dramedy in a debut novel that ruminates on love, loss, and memory. Last June, Ruth Young was engaged and packing to move to a spacious apartment in Bernal Heights, San Francisco, when her fiance, Joel, broke the news that he wasn't moving with her. Now 30, single, and still raw from the jarring breakup (and the gutting knowledge that Joel has a new, undoubtedly cooler, girlfriend), Ruth returns to her family's home for the holidays. But instead of escaping her past, Ruth must face another obstacle upon arriving in Los Angeles--her father, esteemed history professor Howard Young, has Alzheimer's disease, and it's rapidly worsening. To alleviate her mother's stress, Ruth quits her job in San Francisco--reluctantly joining "the unmarried and careerless boat"--and moves back in with her parents to care for her irascible father, who, notwithstanding his failing memory and bizarre behaviors (such as carrying a urinal cake in his pocket), insists he's fine. Written in chronological vignettes spanning a year, Ruth's vivid narration reads much like an intimate diary. In an effort to stave off her boredom at home, Ruth sleuths around her father's unkempt office, digs for evidence of an extramarital affair, and even schemes with Howard's former students to keep him under the illusion that he's still actively teaching. As Howard's memories fade, Ruth's rise to the surface. Recollections of her father's drinking problem and recent infidelity send her spiraling among resentment, disgust, and (unwittingly) compassion toward her parents. Ultimately, it's Howard's flaws that move Ruth to examine her own. Ruth and Howard are a hilarious father-daughter duo, at turns destructive and endearing, and entries from a notebook that Howard kept during Ruth's childhood serve as an enriching back story to their deep bond. Khong's pithy observations and cynical humor round out a moving story that sparks empathy where you'd least expect it.

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Starred review from June 1, 2017
When Ruth's mom, Annie, asks her to extend her visit home for Christmas by an entire year, Ruth figures she may as well. She won't be leaving much behind in San Francisco, besides the still-stinging breakup with her fiance, Joel. Besides, Annie needs help: Ruth's dad, Howard, has been extra forgetful and was just told he won't be returning to his job as a university professor. Since Alzheimer's can't be diagnosed in a living person, doctors rule out what Howard doesn't have, and everyone hopes his memory loss might cease, or reverse itself. Annie's convinced the dementia was caused by aluminum cookware, so they subsist on takeout and vitamins. Ruth's younger brother, Linus, is wary of Howard, having witnessed family troubles Ruth was too wrapped up in her life with Joel to notice. Ruth's new preoccupation with memory, in its most concrete form, gives her a different glimpse of her father and family, while they all cope with what they know is a one-way-only illness. In her tender, well-paced debut novel, which spans Ruth's year at home, Khong (All about Eggs, 2017) writes heartbreaking family drama with charm, perfect prose, and deadpan humor.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)