Book Review : Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
Written By: amodini
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Oct•
10•18
Author : Rachel Khong
Genre : Contemporary
Publisher : Henry Holt & Co.
Pages: 208
Rating : 3.5/5
Goodbye Vitamin is a novel about Ruth, a 30 year old woman, who has moved back home for about an year, after her father has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Ruth has recently broken up with fiancé Joel, so this seems to be an opportune time to sidle back into the comforting family fold. Only the fold isn’t as comforting; her parents are at odds with each other, and her brother Linus, who doesn’t live at home tells Ruth things about her father she doesn’t want to believe.
This is a heartbreaking book. There are no action-packed events here, this is Ruth’s story of her time at home, spending time with her parents, cooking, reminiscing, despairing, weeping. Ruth meets up with her friend Bonnie, becomes friends with her father’s well-wishers from the University he used to teach at as a history professor. They take it a day at a time. Some days are good, when her father is almost normal. Some days are bad, when he flies into rages, and forgets words, and the people around him.
There is no big beginning or ending, no tumultuous events, except of course the one that begins this novel – Ruth’s move back home. The book is told in diary format – Ruth’s diary. It is an irregular format – some entries are large, some are small, some have dates and some don’t. Some entries are banal and some are so very astute. It’s a very stream-of-consciousness style narration, where we get to hear Ruth’s innermost thoughts.
The interesting thing is that with even this patchwork-style way of telling this story, “Goodbye, Vitamin” works. Through Ruth’s descriptions, Khong builds up the characters of this book very well; I can almost see them in my mind’s eye. Khong manages to tell us about family, about the ties that bind and remain strong, despite all the straining, the push-and-pull of everyday life.
“Goodbye Vitamin” is marketed as a “funny” book – and I don’t agree with that at all – this book is more depressing than anything else. Poignant and tender too, but depressing. I’m guessing the “funny” comes from some of Ruth’s observations :-). Here’s one I found particularly hilarious:
I’ve bookmarked a recipe I want to try: patati con agnello scappato, potatoes with escaped lamb. There is no lamb. From now on I’m going to make macaroni and cheese “with escaped beef” and rice pilaf “with escaped pig”.
Book Review : What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Written By: amodini
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Sep•
12•18
Author : Liane Moriarty
Genre : Contemporary
Publisher : Berkeley
Rating : 2/5
So, I loved, loved, loved Moriarty’s “The Husband’s Secret“. And yes, I’ve read four other Moriarty books, which were not quite as spectacular, but then one always hopes, does one not?
Alice falls from her bike during a spin class and bumps her head. She’s knocked out, and when she awakens she finds her world disastrously different. Her husband, who she’s besotted with, is divorcing her. She is no longer pregnant, and she’s turned into a cold, carping, friendless woman. This happens in the first chapter, so interesting premise yeah? Good hook, as they say.
So, I went with it. I got sucked into Alice’s life and the ups and downs which came post-spin-class-accident. And while it was not uninteresting, the book just devolved towards the end. Too much telling, and not enough showing – something I would not have credited an experienced writer like Moriarty with. It seemed like we were just speeding it towards the end, tying up loose ends in a lazy fashion. It was hard to believe that this was a Liane Moriarty book!
Character development wasn’t too strong to begin with. The whole spin-class-trauma thing was dragged out way too much. There were stereotypical elements to the story, and cliched, cringe-worthy story-telling techniques used like, — spoiler alert – writing letters to a dead person. This book was a jaded mess; it brought no new wrinkle to a tired old story. It tried to encompass too many details and solve too many issues, and lost its footing.
I kept waiting for a big reveal, like in her other books, but that never came. The ending seemed too crowd-pleaser-ish, and we didn’t get there organically. I am so disappointed with this book. Here are all the Moriarty books I’ve read in order:
1. The Husband’s Secret – her best book
2. Big, Little Lies – pretty good
3. Truly, Madly Guilty – Nice character development. Interesting!
4. What Alice Forgot – best skipped
5. Three Wishes – best skipped
Audiobook Review : We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Written By: amodini
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Aug•
15•18
Author : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Narrators : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Genre : Non-fiction
Publisher : Random House Audio
Listening Length : 45 minute
Rating : 5/5
Narrator Rating : 3/5
“We should all be feminists” is adapted from Adichie’s TEDx talk on the same subject. I enjoyed this just as much as “A Feminist Manifesto in 15 suggestions”. She explores gender inequality and gender roles with deep insight:
“The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn’t have the weight of gender expectations.”
She talks about what she has lived, what she has seen and heard; you identify with her. Her personal experiences are yours because you have, in a different place and time, experienced the very same thing, and what she is telling you now, you have though about a hundred times in your head. It is like the voice in your head talking out loud; absolutely amazing! And although her words seem like plain speaking and common sense she manages to imbue them with the personal – her words speak right to you, they ARE about you!
Among other topics I loved that she talked about culture and gender expectations, especially because a lot of inequalities are kept in place in the name of preserving “our culture”! She rightly says that:
“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”
The book is lovely and I highly recommend it. Here are a few other quotes from it:
“A woman at a certain age who is unmarried, our society teaches her to see it as a deep personal failure. And a man, after a certain age isn’t married, we just think he hasn’t come around to making his pick.”
“We teach girls shame. “Close your legs. Cover yourself.” We make them feel as though being born female they’re already guilty of something. And so, girls grow up to be women who cannot say they have desire. They grow up to be women who silence themselves. They grow up to be women who cannot say what they truly think. And they grow up — and this is the worst thing we do to girls — they grow up to be women who have turned pretense into an art form.”
“What struck me—with her and with many other female American friends I have—is how invested they are in being “liked.” How they have been raised to believe that their being likable is very important and that this “likable” trait is a specific thing. And that specific thing does not include showing anger or being aggressive or disagreeing too loudly. We spend too much time teaching girls to worry about what boys think of them. But the reverse is not the case. We don’t teach boys to care about being likable. We spend too much time telling girls that they cannot be angry or aggressive or tough, which is bad enough, but then we turn around and either praise or excuse men for the same reasons. All over the world, there are so many magazine articles and books telling women what to do, how to be and not to be, in order to attract or please men. There are far fewer guides for men about pleasing women.”
“Today, women in general are more likely to do housework than men—cooking and cleaning. But why is that? Is it because women are born with a cooking gene or because over years they have been socialized to see cooking as their role? I was going to say that perhaps women are born with a cooking gene until I remembered that the majority of famous cooks in the world—who are given the fancy title of “chef”—are men.”
