Khong’s pithy observations and cynical humor round out a moving story that sparks empathy where you’d least expect it.
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.Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-10916-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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