Wellness
Ratings21
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings21
Average rating4.3
'American storytelling at its era-spanning best . . . An immersive, multi-layered portrait of a marriage, Nathan Hill’s follow-up to The Nix is a work of quiet genius.' – The Observer 'The incredible scope of this dazzlingly detailed state-of-the-nation satire almost defies description . . . Brilliant doesn’t begin to describe it, but I’ll say it anyway.' – Daily Mail 'I doubt I'll enjoy many books this year as much as Wellness.' – The Times An Oprah's Book Club Pick. Moving from the gritty 90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home renovation hysteria, Wellness is a story of marriage, middle age, our tech-obsessed health culture, and the bonds that keep people together. When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the 90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in Chicago’s thriving underground art scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to married life, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to painful childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other. From the author of The Nix, Wellness mines the absurdities of modern technology and modern love to reveal profound, startling truths about intimacy and connection, reimagining the love story with healthy doses of insight, irony and heart.
Reviews with the most likes.
Jack and Elizabeth meet and fall in love and marry and have a child and buy a home...and everything falls apart. Jack and Elizabeth explore their marriage and think about their childhoods and contemplate what they have learned from science and life.
I finished this book feeling satisfied. The relationships the author described, the characters he created, the situations he shared—all felt genuine, full of conflicts and resolve and all rooted in patterns from the past.
The book is quite ambitious and covers a lot of themes that I found incredibly interesting, ranging from psychology, pseudoscientific health treatments, conspiracy theorists, media literacy, social media algorithms, love, open marriages, parenthood, and more. However, there were times when I got lost in tangents that were too far off from the plot or lingered for too long. Despite that, the book ultimately came together wonderfully. Both Jack and Elizabeth's journeys in questioning their histories, identities, and their place in the relationship broke my heart more than a few times. Jack is a romantic artist with a tendency for people-pleasing, while Elizabeth is a scientist who struggles to accept love and success. I found the tone of the book to be overall cynical, yet hopeful.
I would have given this book five stars if it were shorter and if it didn't commit one of my least favorite book offenses: chapters with no names or numbers. But all in all, I still recommend it. If you find any of the themes mentioned intriguing, then you will most likely enjoy this book. It's lengthy, but it's worth the read.
Though I typically like character-driven literary fiction, this book is just too long and too unrelatable for my stage of life. I wanted to push though, especially more than halfway through it, but I could not bear the idea of reading another 300 pages. It's a book I may revisit in a decade or so.
