By Tall Poppy Orly Konig
I bought this book the day it released. Praise for it was everywhere on social media and I couldn’t wait to dive in. Except that I was deep in revisions and since Alzheimer’s plays a significant role in the book I was working on, I was emotionally wrung out. Goodbye, Vitamin went onto my TBR pile.
Until a few days ago. And, despite the craziness of holiday preparations, the world came to a stop.
Rachel Khong’s storytelling is absolutely brilliant. She had me with the first line: “Tonight a man found Dad’s pants in a tree lit with Christmas lights.” And kept me turning pages, with only a few pauses to reread a particularly poignant line.
Goodbye, Vitamin is about thirty-year old Ruth, newly single and with her career on hold, who returns home to help her mother take care of Ruth’s father who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The story unfolds through journal-like entries. Short, punchy, almost random in the way the entries jump around. That, for me, was what nestled the book into the soft spot in my heart. Ruth, with her disjointed thoughts, felt human, relatable. And despite the heartbreak, there were laugh-out-loud moments.
Beautiful, funny, heartbreaking. Goodbye, Vitamin is so very worth the read!
Click here for more about Goodbye, Vitamin, including buy links.
About Orly
Orly Konig is an escapee from the corporate world where she spent roughly sixteen (cough) years working in the space industry. Now she spends her days chatting up imaginary friends, drinking entirely too much coffee, and negotiating writing space around two over-fed cats.
Her debut women’s fiction, The Distance Home, released from Forge May, 2017. Carousel Beach will release May 8, 2018.
