64 pages • 2 hours read
Rachel KhongGoodbye, Vitamin
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Rachel Khong
Goodbye, Vitamin is Rachel Khong’s first novel, and some aspects of her background influence the text. Her grandmother had Alzheimer’s Disease, and Khong incorporates her firsthand experience of a loved one with Alzheimer's into the text, from details about symptoms and medical care to the sorts of questions Ruth, the protagonist, asks herself as she tries and sometimes struggles to care for her father. The methodical recording of Ruth’s family’s journey to keep Howard safe and comfortable as his illness progresses speaks to Khong’s own lived experience.
While race is not a dominant theme within the text, there are moments in the text that speak to Khong’s experience as an Asian American woman. Ruth is half-Chinese, and her mother, Annie, was born in China and adopted as an infant. Rachel Khong, too, is Asian American, born in Malaysia to a Malaysian Chinese family and raised in California, where Goodbye, Vitamin is set.
In the book, Ruth shares a memory in which a man approached her and her friend Bonnie, who is half-Armenian, and “called us pretty, which was exciting at the moment, but we’d learn, later in life, that men tended to say that when they found your appearance confusing, when they couldn’t tell what you were” (37). A compliment that felt flattering as a teenager takes on a new meaning when Ruth grows older and realizes the racially complicated subtext of such comments. Ruth’s observations about this comment speak directly to the author’s own identity as an Asian American woman; a white woman would be less likely to understand this interaction as being racially coded.
Literary Context: Representations of Alzheimer’s Disease
A central plot point in the story is Ruth’s family’s experience with Alzheimer’s Disease, after her father, Howard is diagnosed. The book is an important work within literary representations of the disease and its effects on families, not just the individual diagnosed. Because the story is written from the perspective of a family member rather than the patient, the reader learns how the disease affects patients in terms of symptoms as well as the different effects on caretakers, including fear for their loved one’s safety, emotional stress, and hope.
Ruth, for example, deals with the reality of her father’s diagnosis by researching food ingredients that can aid in memory retention and brain function. She admits: “A diet can’t reverse harm that’s already done, I know. But what if it could halt the decline?” (85). This shows her desire to help preserve her father’s memory, even if she knows it may be a futile task.
The novel explores the struggles of those that act as caretakers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s and the self-doubt inherent in such a task. Ruth often visits Alzheimer’s forums to gain insight and ask questions, finding a place to express her feelings about this new role she has taken on and whether she is fit for it: “I don’t know if I’m cut out for this. This job is for someone purer of heart” (136). While the responses she receives are not always satisfactory, she learns that there is no such thing as a perfect caregiver.
The forums also represent the necessity of community during times of crisis, a fact that’s reinforced by Ruth returning home, the Young family’s eventual reunion, and the fake class Ruth and Theo create for her father to teach, filled with his former students. Along with practical safety measures and treatment methods, Ruth and her family learn about the importance of being present with and supportive of Howard at every stage of his illness.
