Absence populates Rachel Khong’s stellar debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin. It’s a book about the absence of reliable memories, the absence of people you thought were permanent, and the absence of self-understanding. It’s about the memories that follow and haunt you, and the ones that only leave behind traces of themselves, their negative space haunting you all the same. When we meet our narrator Ruth, she’s in her thirties and the life she envisioned for herself is in shambles. Her fiancé broke up with her on the day she thought they were moving in together. If that weren’t enough, she’s dispassionate about her job and her father, Howard, has Alzheimer’s disease, which is getting progressively worse. Everything she thought she could depend on has been upended. Goodbye, Vitamin picks up the day after Christmas, when Ruth is home with her parents. Most of her past holidays were spent with her fiancé’s family, but she has nowhere else to go this Christmas, so she returns to where she grew up, a place that’s changed drastically from the last time she was there. During her visit, her mother asks her to consider leaving San Francisco and moving back in with the family for a continue...