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Wellness
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Fiction (2023)The New York Times best-selling author of The Nix is back with a poignant and witty novel about marriage, the often baffling pursuit of health and happiness, and the stories that bind us together. From the gritty '90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home-renovation hysteria, Wellness reimagines the love story with a healthy dose of insight, irony, and heart.
“A hilarious and moving exploration of a modern marriage that astounds in its breadth and intimacy.”—Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half
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 alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter cults disguised as mindfulness support groups, polyamorous would-be suitors, Facebook wars, and something called Love Potion Number Nine.
For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, 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.
“A hilarious and moving exploration of a modern marriage that astounds in its breadth and intimacy.”—Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half
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 alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter cults disguised as mindfulness support groups, polyamorous would-be suitors, Facebook wars, and something called Love Potion Number Nine.
For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, 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.
624 pages, Hardcover
First published September 26, 2023
About the author
Nathan Hill
2 books2,367 followersNathan Hill's short fiction has appeared in many literary journals, including The Iowa Review, AGNI, The Gettysburg Review, and Fiction, where he was awarded the annual Fiction Prize. A native Iowan, he lives with his wife in Naples, Florida. THE NIX is his first novel.
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Connect on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nathanreads
Connect on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nathanhillauthor
Official Website: http://www.nathanhill.net
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,799 reviews
October 5, 2023
QUICK TAKE: it's an instant classic. I couldn't put it down, and I loved every second of it. That's all.
August 27, 2023
Wellness is Nathan Hill’s sophomore effort, after the well written, often funny The Nix. This time, Hill has focused his attention on modern married life, that stage when the bloom is long off the rose. Jack and Elizabeth have been married for twenty years, after meeting as college students in Chicago. “All they wanted back then was to eliminate the space between them. And now, here they were twenty years later, putting it back.”
The book covers a lot of different topics. A lot! Internet research, health trackers and fitness programs, divorce, open marriage, conspiracy theories, art, cults. In fact, in the Bibliography, Hill writes “One of the great joys of writing a book is that it gives me permission to explore the various odd things that grab my attention, to dive deeply into those subjects that puzzle, amuse or amaze me. This book has many such deep dives.” He’s not kidding.
It’s a very cynical book. It makes fun of all the new age BS out there. It took me back to my working days when Hill made fun of the woowoo corporate speak. I can remember being told to “bond and interface”. Hill loves to play with and make fun of language. Elizabeth majored in psychology and her job included clinical studies. So, there are lots of psychological topics and studies thrown in. There’s also a whole chapter on the history of Elizabeth’s family and how they made their money, which I found enlightening (but I’m a history nerd) and humorous but definitely did nothing to advance the story about Elizabeth and Jack.
At heart, the story is about belief, faith and hope. It’s the stories we tell ourselves that form our beliefs and impact how we act. Whether the story is based on fact makes no difference. It’s the whole idea behind the placebo effect that Elizabeth studies over and over. “The key is to keep persisting inside your fantasy until the fantasy becomes a fact.”
The book could definitely have been condensed. At times it rambled and it was not consistently interesting or evenly paced. I’m not sure I needed all those pages describing the algorithms that Google and Facebook use (although it was an education). But it works much more than it falters. And it reads surprisingly fast for a 600+ page book.
This book cries out to be a book club selection. It will make you think, ask questions, look inward and outward. And laugh. It will definitely make you laugh. I have a feeling that it’s a book that is going to evoke a lot of strong emotions, one way or the other.
My thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for an advance copy of this book.
The book covers a lot of different topics. A lot! Internet research, health trackers and fitness programs, divorce, open marriage, conspiracy theories, art, cults. In fact, in the Bibliography, Hill writes “One of the great joys of writing a book is that it gives me permission to explore the various odd things that grab my attention, to dive deeply into those subjects that puzzle, amuse or amaze me. This book has many such deep dives.” He’s not kidding.
It’s a very cynical book. It makes fun of all the new age BS out there. It took me back to my working days when Hill made fun of the woowoo corporate speak. I can remember being told to “bond and interface”. Hill loves to play with and make fun of language. Elizabeth majored in psychology and her job included clinical studies. So, there are lots of psychological topics and studies thrown in. There’s also a whole chapter on the history of Elizabeth’s family and how they made their money, which I found enlightening (but I’m a history nerd) and humorous but definitely did nothing to advance the story about Elizabeth and Jack.
At heart, the story is about belief, faith and hope. It’s the stories we tell ourselves that form our beliefs and impact how we act. Whether the story is based on fact makes no difference. It’s the whole idea behind the placebo effect that Elizabeth studies over and over. “The key is to keep persisting inside your fantasy until the fantasy becomes a fact.”
The book could definitely have been condensed. At times it rambled and it was not consistently interesting or evenly paced. I’m not sure I needed all those pages describing the algorithms that Google and Facebook use (although it was an education). But it works much more than it falters. And it reads surprisingly fast for a 600+ page book.
This book cries out to be a book club selection. It will make you think, ask questions, look inward and outward. And laugh. It will definitely make you laugh. I have a feeling that it’s a book that is going to evoke a lot of strong emotions, one way or the other.
My thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for an advance copy of this book.
November 6, 2023
I’m gobsmacked, and have remained so from page one to the last word. An epic, sweeping, transformative, colossal (adverbs and adjectives are just not enough!) door-stopper of a book, a windswept and fiery, burning satire of a 1990s marriage between a modern couple in Chicago, Jack and Elizabeth. There’s a preoccupation with eternal love, health and well-being, the potent obsession with fitness and strength. How past years’ discarded identities generate the self of today, afraid or unafraid of tomorrow.
Jack is a photographer, but his pictures arise from the chemicals and fixatives in the darkroom, not from the camera. Elizabeth is a scientist who peddles placebos to rejuvenate passion. WELLNESS spans twenty years forward, but reaches back, to their childhoods, shifting back and forth in time. Or should I say Time, since Time is essential here, it subverts the narrative and liquidates expectations. It’s about everything, sort of like Infinite Jest is about everything, and it’s a parabola, like Gravity's Rainbow is a parabola, but it’s neither the former or latter. The prose is gracefully placed on the page, despite the legion of info (critics would say info-dumping) that the text provides. Hill straddles the line between saying and pontificating, which may cause some readers to recoil.
Hill has created his own radical, non-starry-eyed romance, a 90s mosaic of Gen X ideology, as Jack and Elizabeth assemble and inhabit their identities via several and ongoing selves throughout the years, to someday evolve or diminish into what they are now. The stakes, at first, seem fairly mellow. I mean, the worst that I thought could happen is a break-up. Hooooold on, about those stakes. Hill drove them hard through my heart. It’s heavy, at times I felt my throat closing up. This isn’t a book I could read non-stop, I had to take breaks to release the tension, otherwise I would explode!
It's also about perception and paradox, connections and loneliness, greed and loss, manipulation and madness. The narrative winds through a buffet of subjects, and love is the polestar, and the threat. Love at first sight is endorsed and dismantled, but never abandoned. There’s so much breadth, from artists to investors, groupthink to prairie fires, children to ancestors, “forever homes,” the World Wide Web, health, sickness, and cures, social media, absence--and the faith in metaphysics, that our souls can travel at night.
Paradox: “…that was a pre-globalized world, a pre-9/11 world, a pre-housing bubble world…when they all sort of understood implicitly that however much they resented and resisted the mass economy, they would also have little trouble eventually finding a job and livelihood within it.”
Thematically rich in artful contradictions, as a new friend earnestly says to Elizabeth: “He practices the art of nothingness, while you practice the science of nothingness. You’re both obsessed with it: nothingness, emptiness, blankness, absence. Don’t you find that really meaningful?”
And this touched my heart, a poignant guidance from the scientist that mentored Elizabeth:
“Believe what you believe…but believe gently. Believe compassionately. Believe with curiosity. Believe with humility. And don’t trust the arrogance of certainty.”
This book is so deep, vast, mind-bending, and provocative, I just can’t do it justice. It’s written for all of us, all the Time, wherever you are, visible and manifest.
Jack is a photographer, but his pictures arise from the chemicals and fixatives in the darkroom, not from the camera. Elizabeth is a scientist who peddles placebos to rejuvenate passion. WELLNESS spans twenty years forward, but reaches back, to their childhoods, shifting back and forth in time. Or should I say Time, since Time is essential here, it subverts the narrative and liquidates expectations. It’s about everything, sort of like Infinite Jest is about everything, and it’s a parabola, like Gravity's Rainbow is a parabola, but it’s neither the former or latter. The prose is gracefully placed on the page, despite the legion of info (critics would say info-dumping) that the text provides. Hill straddles the line between saying and pontificating, which may cause some readers to recoil.
Hill has created his own radical, non-starry-eyed romance, a 90s mosaic of Gen X ideology, as Jack and Elizabeth assemble and inhabit their identities via several and ongoing selves throughout the years, to someday evolve or diminish into what they are now. The stakes, at first, seem fairly mellow. I mean, the worst that I thought could happen is a break-up. Hooooold on, about those stakes. Hill drove them hard through my heart. It’s heavy, at times I felt my throat closing up. This isn’t a book I could read non-stop, I had to take breaks to release the tension, otherwise I would explode!
It's also about perception and paradox, connections and loneliness, greed and loss, manipulation and madness. The narrative winds through a buffet of subjects, and love is the polestar, and the threat. Love at first sight is endorsed and dismantled, but never abandoned. There’s so much breadth, from artists to investors, groupthink to prairie fires, children to ancestors, “forever homes,” the World Wide Web, health, sickness, and cures, social media, absence--and the faith in metaphysics, that our souls can travel at night.
Paradox: “…that was a pre-globalized world, a pre-9/11 world, a pre-housing bubble world…when they all sort of understood implicitly that however much they resented and resisted the mass economy, they would also have little trouble eventually finding a job and livelihood within it.”
Thematically rich in artful contradictions, as a new friend earnestly says to Elizabeth: “He practices the art of nothingness, while you practice the science of nothingness. You’re both obsessed with it: nothingness, emptiness, blankness, absence. Don’t you find that really meaningful?”
And this touched my heart, a poignant guidance from the scientist that mentored Elizabeth:
“Believe what you believe…but believe gently. Believe compassionately. Believe with curiosity. Believe with humility. And don’t trust the arrogance of certainty.”
This book is so deep, vast, mind-bending, and provocative, I just can’t do it justice. It’s written for all of us, all the Time, wherever you are, visible and manifest.
January 18, 2024
The sigh heard around the world.
You know the saying. The one brandished like a sword in every creative writing class under the sun. Show. Don’t tell. Give us sensory details, descriptions, actions, propulsive events, trains of thought. Do not summarize, explain, expose, justify. And please, do not lecture.
(Most importantly, do not give us a detailed bibliography at the end of a work of fiction. That is just the nail in the coffin of any work of art.)
There were two books living inside “Wellness”.
One was dead on arrival for me and the other one tried for 624 pages to salvage its own stubborn little beating heart. Like a premature baby breathing in a glass bubble.
The first book tried to tell me everything, E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, about how our minds work, how we love, how we attach, how we grow apart, how we parent, how we see, how we don’t see, how we take care of ourselves, how we socialize, how we believe what we believe, etc. Characters became vehicles for the retelling of said bibliography. Why does this passage feel so familiar? Ah yes, it’s because Esther Perel is the one who explained all this. In a TED talk.
The second book though. That one stole my heart. That one didn’t try to tell me anything. That one just was. Or desperately tried to be. And Nathan Hill is genius when he lets his characters simply live their lives, when his writing is descriptive and elegiac and tender and cinematic and raw. Nathan Hill is genius when he creates characters who are so intricately rendered that you are filled with gratitude and life-giving empathy. Evelyn was that character for me. She is the baby heart fluttering at the center of “Wellness”, appearing and disappearing like a ghost, the sum of everything, and of the book, that could have been.
You know the saying. The one brandished like a sword in every creative writing class under the sun. Show. Don’t tell. Give us sensory details, descriptions, actions, propulsive events, trains of thought. Do not summarize, explain, expose, justify. And please, do not lecture.
(Most importantly, do not give us a detailed bibliography at the end of a work of fiction. That is just the nail in the coffin of any work of art.)
There were two books living inside “Wellness”.
One was dead on arrival for me and the other one tried for 624 pages to salvage its own stubborn little beating heart. Like a premature baby breathing in a glass bubble.
The first book tried to tell me everything, E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, about how our minds work, how we love, how we attach, how we grow apart, how we parent, how we see, how we don’t see, how we take care of ourselves, how we socialize, how we believe what we believe, etc. Characters became vehicles for the retelling of said bibliography. Why does this passage feel so familiar? Ah yes, it’s because Esther Perel is the one who explained all this. In a TED talk.
The second book though. That one stole my heart. That one didn’t try to tell me anything. That one just was. Or desperately tried to be. And Nathan Hill is genius when he lets his characters simply live their lives, when his writing is descriptive and elegiac and tender and cinematic and raw. Nathan Hill is genius when he creates characters who are so intricately rendered that you are filled with gratitude and life-giving empathy. Evelyn was that character for me. She is the baby heart fluttering at the center of “Wellness”, appearing and disappearing like a ghost, the sum of everything, and of the book, that could have been.
January 4, 2024
What happens behind closed doors…when they are thrown wide open.
This is an exploration into the circadian rhythm of a marriage; of a family. The peaks and the valleys; the past childhood traumas that shaped the characters into who they became.
Hill takes on a journey within this 20 year relationship. Elizabeth, with a PhD in psychology, constantly comparing studies, conducting experiments within her business and her own relationships; constantly on the search for improving every aspect of life. Jack, the artist and pleaser, always fearing rejection. We meet them early on in the exciting days of dating to the consistency and monotony of a long relationship on the verge of a crisis.
Themes of abandonment, anxiety, guilt, the impact social media has on mental health, redemption and acceptance.
This did drag in one area when we are taken into a deep dive on Facebook algorithms. 40 pages -Yawn. The structure also was a little messy for me: was I reading about -child Jack or adult Jack? Only took a few sentences but enough to break the momentum. Perhaps this was Hill’s own social experiment for the reader.
However, despite my criticisms, overall this was a well written story on human psychology. I don’t need an algorithm to indicate whether I will read Hill again. It’s a most definite YES.
4⭐️
This is an exploration into the circadian rhythm of a marriage; of a family. The peaks and the valleys; the past childhood traumas that shaped the characters into who they became.
Hill takes on a journey within this 20 year relationship. Elizabeth, with a PhD in psychology, constantly comparing studies, conducting experiments within her business and her own relationships; constantly on the search for improving every aspect of life. Jack, the artist and pleaser, always fearing rejection. We meet them early on in the exciting days of dating to the consistency and monotony of a long relationship on the verge of a crisis.
Themes of abandonment, anxiety, guilt, the impact social media has on mental health, redemption and acceptance.
This did drag in one area when we are taken into a deep dive on Facebook algorithms. 40 pages -Yawn. The structure also was a little messy for me: was I reading about -child Jack or adult Jack? Only took a few sentences but enough to break the momentum. Perhaps this was Hill’s own social experiment for the reader.
However, despite my criticisms, overall this was a well written story on human psychology. I don’t need an algorithm to indicate whether I will read Hill again. It’s a most definite YES.
4⭐️
June 11, 2023
The Nix is one of my favorite novels, and after all these years we finally have another novel by Nathan Hill. I requested on Netgalley as soon as it became available. And… it exceeded my wildest expectations. I didn’t think Hill could follow up his debut; honestly, over the last few years I’d kinda assumed he would pull a Harper Lee and simply never publish again.
Yet, here we are.
Wellness is as prescient and biting in 2023 as The Nix was in 2016. The novels are similar in all the important ways: genius, absorbing writing and unique character development and gorgeous, gorgeous passages—seriously, my e-Galley is all marked up with highlights!—but the plots and subject matter are wildly different. Because of my absolute love for/interest in the Vietnam era I think I still prefer The Nix, but it’s awfully damn close. Because this novel of modern marriage and placebos and art and love and social media algorithms and SO MUCH MORE is firmly in my top 10, if Nix is in my top 5. This book’s 600+ pages flew; I haven’t had that sort of journey with a book in many months. Whew.
Due out in September! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Yet, here we are.
Wellness is as prescient and biting in 2023 as The Nix was in 2016. The novels are similar in all the important ways: genius, absorbing writing and unique character development and gorgeous, gorgeous passages—seriously, my e-Galley is all marked up with highlights!—but the plots and subject matter are wildly different. Because of my absolute love for/interest in the Vietnam era I think I still prefer The Nix, but it’s awfully damn close. Because this novel of modern marriage and placebos and art and love and social media algorithms and SO MUCH MORE is firmly in my top 10, if Nix is in my top 5. This book’s 600+ pages flew; I haven’t had that sort of journey with a book in many months. Whew.
Due out in September! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
September 30, 2023
No one can accuse this author of being a man of few words.
Excessive overthinking, poking fun at health trackers, diets, supplements, sexual experimentation, and Facebook conspiracy theories makes large sections of the book feel unnecessary.
I like segues in a book if it adds colour to the story (ie Elizabeth’s family history and Jack’s sister) but there are swaths of chapters that could have been reduced to 1 or 2 pages and still delivered the intended result.
In-between all of the above you are introduced to Jack and Elizabeth. How they met, fell in love and 20 years later struggle with a midlife crisis about their relationship and themselves.
There is a REALLY good story here if you are prepared to wade through a lot of wafting.
Excessive overthinking, poking fun at health trackers, diets, supplements, sexual experimentation, and Facebook conspiracy theories makes large sections of the book feel unnecessary.
I like segues in a book if it adds colour to the story (ie Elizabeth’s family history and Jack’s sister) but there are swaths of chapters that could have been reduced to 1 or 2 pages and still delivered the intended result.
In-between all of the above you are introduced to Jack and Elizabeth. How they met, fell in love and 20 years later struggle with a midlife crisis about their relationship and themselves.
There is a REALLY good story here if you are prepared to wade through a lot of wafting.
October 25, 2023
Highly unlikely I will ever write a book this poignant, surprising, haunting, and emotionally astute. A beautifully written exploration of marriage, how our relationships change as we age, and the ways our inabilities to forgive ourselves diminish us. Also? Great satire of the "wellness" industries. Yes, I loved this novel.
July 1, 2023
This could be the Great American Novel. Would that it were possible to award more than Five Stars to "Wellness."
Is there an algorithm for how to describe this book? Besides keeping me riveted for almost 500 pages I came away with so much information that my brain aches. But that is far from all. It's an absolutely beautiful love story which also includes everything you need to know about being alive in the first quarter of the 21st century.
You want psychology? Do you wonder about the Placebo Effect? How about Facebook and other social media? Polyamory? Yup. And so much more. Rather than recount the tale of Jack and Elizabeth, both tortured souls due to their parents' behavior, let me sing the praises of Nathan Hill, who with scholarship blended with humor, will cause you to collar people around you to read aloud passages of pure and absolute genius. I learned more about art and photography here than I did in countless museum visits and Art courses. Same about the internet, Bots and wellness fads.
Do not let all this frighten you away from reading one of the most heartfelt and emotionally memorable novels of the century. Thanks and blessings to Knopf and NetGalley who gave me an ARC copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.
Is there an algorithm for how to describe this book? Besides keeping me riveted for almost 500 pages I came away with so much information that my brain aches. But that is far from all. It's an absolutely beautiful love story which also includes everything you need to know about being alive in the first quarter of the 21st century.
You want psychology? Do you wonder about the Placebo Effect? How about Facebook and other social media? Polyamory? Yup. And so much more. Rather than recount the tale of Jack and Elizabeth, both tortured souls due to their parents' behavior, let me sing the praises of Nathan Hill, who with scholarship blended with humor, will cause you to collar people around you to read aloud passages of pure and absolute genius. I learned more about art and photography here than I did in countless museum visits and Art courses. Same about the internet, Bots and wellness fads.
Do not let all this frighten you away from reading one of the most heartfelt and emotionally memorable novels of the century. Thanks and blessings to Knopf and NetGalley who gave me an ARC copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.
May 4, 2023
holy shit.
December 6, 2023
The elephant in the room - this was a very long novel, arguably too long. Honestly, had it not been available as an audiobook, I probably wouldn't have read it, despite having loved Hill's debut, an equally long novel.
Nathan Hill is a clever cookie, with a penchant for digging into what makes people the way they are, and why they behave a certain way.
Jack and Elizabeth are a couple struggling with their relationship after 20 years of being together. Busy jobs, a challenging kid, a mortgage and all the grown-up hullaballoo tend to get in the way, even for couples with good intentions. Jack and Elizabeth are different people, with completely distinct backgrounds, professions and personalities. Elizabeth is a scientist, who is leading Wellness, a company dealing with the placebo effect and other psychological research. Jack is a photography lecturer at a university. He struggles in his profession and with the new business-oriented leadership. His photography is not lifting his spirits either.
Hill takes us back and forth in time, not only looking at Jack and Elizabeth at previous life stages but also giving us a background of their parents and ancestors.
As someone interested in psychology, human behaviour etc., I appreciated the many insights into those fields. There's also a lot of information (some may call it info dumping) on social media, and algorithms, which was interesting even though I was partially aware of its machinations, not that I don't fall into its grip, although I like to delude myself that I know what they're doing but I'm allowing it to happen - Hill would have something things to say about one's power of lying to oneself. :-) There's quite a bit on psychology, the placebo effect in particular - I found that interesting.
A lot is happening in this novel, many questions are raised, and some answers are provided - I found it all fascinating, revelatory, intriguing and informative. The fact that it's all done via accessible writing, it's a feat in itself.
Ari Fliakos was a wonderful narrator.
Nathan Hill is a clever cookie, with a penchant for digging into what makes people the way they are, and why they behave a certain way.
Jack and Elizabeth are a couple struggling with their relationship after 20 years of being together. Busy jobs, a challenging kid, a mortgage and all the grown-up hullaballoo tend to get in the way, even for couples with good intentions. Jack and Elizabeth are different people, with completely distinct backgrounds, professions and personalities. Elizabeth is a scientist, who is leading Wellness, a company dealing with the placebo effect and other psychological research. Jack is a photography lecturer at a university. He struggles in his profession and with the new business-oriented leadership. His photography is not lifting his spirits either.
Hill takes us back and forth in time, not only looking at Jack and Elizabeth at previous life stages but also giving us a background of their parents and ancestors.
As someone interested in psychology, human behaviour etc., I appreciated the many insights into those fields. There's also a lot of information (some may call it info dumping) on social media, and algorithms, which was interesting even though I was partially aware of its machinations, not that I don't fall into its grip, although I like to delude myself that I know what they're doing but I'm allowing it to happen - Hill would have something things to say about one's power of lying to oneself. :-) There's quite a bit on psychology, the placebo effect in particular - I found that interesting.
A lot is happening in this novel, many questions are raised, and some answers are provided - I found it all fascinating, revelatory, intriguing and informative. The fact that it's all done via accessible writing, it's a feat in itself.
Ari Fliakos was a wonderful narrator.
October 2, 2023
Every couple has a story they tell themselves about themselves, a story that hums beneath them as a kind of engine, motoring them through trouble and into the future.
Welcome to Scenes from a Marriage of a couple who may or may not be consciously uncoupling.
Nasty words have been exchanged . . . the kind of words you can't take back:
"You thought if you married a rich girl, it meant you weren't the country bumpkin you're so afraid you really are."
"Okay, and you thought if you married an artist, it meant you weren't the heartless rock you're so afraid you really are."
Hill is careful to present both sides equally, though you may end up preferring one partner over the other. From their awful childhoods - Elizabeth's viciously competitive father, and the heartbreaking image of young Jack playing D&D all by himself, to their problems raising their young son - we get to see it all unravel.
Hill's book is damned near perfect in both the writing and the observations of human behavior.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the read.
Welcome to Scenes from a Marriage of a couple who may or may not be consciously uncoupling.
Nasty words have been exchanged . . . the kind of words you can't take back:
"You thought if you married a rich girl, it meant you weren't the country bumpkin you're so afraid you really are."
"Okay, and you thought if you married an artist, it meant you weren't the heartless rock you're so afraid you really are."
Hill is careful to present both sides equally, though you may end up preferring one partner over the other. From their awful childhoods - Elizabeth's viciously competitive father, and the heartbreaking image of young Jack playing D&D all by himself, to their problems raising their young son - we get to see it all unravel.
Hill's book is damned near perfect in both the writing and the observations of human behavior.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the read.
November 13, 2023
I wasn’t planning on reading this book so soon, but when I heard that it was picked by Oprah’s Book Club (I missed the September’s announcement), I decided to order a copy from the public library, and, as it was immediately available, I couldn’t resist.
And I was completely pleased.
This was an amazing surprise and a terrific break from reading crime fiction.
The writing and the storytelling are formidable.
I didn’t want to put it down.
It’s not a book of action and there isn’t a specific plot, and it’s not just about marriage, as the synopsis suggests.
The author touches a great number of different topics that are thought provoking.
Everything was skillfully put together and with an excellent dose of humour.
I loved the structure and the characters (including the delusional ones).
It’s simply brilliant.
Some situations felt very familiar to me, specially those times when I was growing up, trying to fit in, while hiding my own self, and the time I decided to leave everyone behind, and to start somewhere else, where no one ever heard of me (and no regrets here).
Please, check the awesome review by Michael Schaub (npr News - September 20, 2023 2:05 PM ET) because it’s so perfect. Excerpts below:
“Wellness is a stunning novel about the stories that we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time — it's beyond remarkable, both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.”
“Wellness is a perfect novel for our age, filled with a deep awareness of the Internet-poisoned, marketing-driven engineered emptiness of modern times, but also a compassionate optimism about our ability to find and maintain love nonetheless. It's a monumental achievement: a masterpiece by an author who has, in the space of two novels, become indispensable.”
Excuse me, as I’m running to get a copy of “The Nix”.
ebook (Kobo): 629 pages (default), 195k words
Hardcover (Knopf): 624 pages
And I was completely pleased.
This was an amazing surprise and a terrific break from reading crime fiction.
The writing and the storytelling are formidable.
I didn’t want to put it down.
It’s not a book of action and there isn’t a specific plot, and it’s not just about marriage, as the synopsis suggests.
The author touches a great number of different topics that are thought provoking.
Everything was skillfully put together and with an excellent dose of humour.
I loved the structure and the characters (including the delusional ones).
It’s simply brilliant.
Some situations felt very familiar to me, specially those times when I was growing up, trying to fit in, while hiding my own self, and the time I decided to leave everyone behind, and to start somewhere else, where no one ever heard of me (and no regrets here).
Please, check the awesome review by Michael Schaub (npr News - September 20, 2023 2:05 PM ET) because it’s so perfect. Excerpts below:
“Wellness is a stunning novel about the stories that we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time — it's beyond remarkable, both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.”
“Wellness is a perfect novel for our age, filled with a deep awareness of the Internet-poisoned, marketing-driven engineered emptiness of modern times, but also a compassionate optimism about our ability to find and maintain love nonetheless. It's a monumental achievement: a masterpiece by an author who has, in the space of two novels, become indispensable.”
Excuse me, as I’m running to get a copy of “The Nix”.
ebook (Kobo): 629 pages (default), 195k words
Hardcover (Knopf): 624 pages
November 27, 2023
The struggle was real trying to finish this book. It was SO long and I honestly found it to be quite boring. I have a tough time stopping a book once I start because I’m stubborn… and this made me feel like a little kid having to sit down and do homework. I will say that the author himself is talented and that there were some clever ideas within the book… but overall, it just wasn’t for me.
August 27, 2023
I'm a huge Jonathan Franzen fan, and while the Nix evoked Franzen a little bit for me, this book evoked him a LOT. And that's a good thing.
Wellness use the story of a relationship and a marriage as a framework on which to hang Hill's tremendous intellectual curiosity. Yes, it's a story of two people as their passion for one another waxes and wanes. But I think Hill's real love is non-fiction. He weaves in so many interesting deep dives - - mostly into different aspects of psychology with a touch of business and a bit of university politics. Both leading characters have trauma in their background, and Hill gives plenty of space to slowly reveal their backgrounds and the impact on their relationships and their careers and their child rearing practices.
All in all, I really liked it. It's a bit of a messy ramble of a book, and if you aren't interested in psychology, I don't think the plot line is enough to sustain the reader on its own. I love non-fiction, and to have it embedded in a fictional story made me feel like I really know who Hill is. Or at least made me feel like I'd love to meet him in person. All in all, a fun, well-paced, interesting, literary read . . .perhaps a little self indulgent on the author's part from time to time, but I was there for it.
Wellness use the story of a relationship and a marriage as a framework on which to hang Hill's tremendous intellectual curiosity. Yes, it's a story of two people as their passion for one another waxes and wanes. But I think Hill's real love is non-fiction. He weaves in so many interesting deep dives - - mostly into different aspects of psychology with a touch of business and a bit of university politics. Both leading characters have trauma in their background, and Hill gives plenty of space to slowly reveal their backgrounds and the impact on their relationships and their careers and their child rearing practices.
All in all, I really liked it. It's a bit of a messy ramble of a book, and if you aren't interested in psychology, I don't think the plot line is enough to sustain the reader on its own. I love non-fiction, and to have it embedded in a fictional story made me feel like I really know who Hill is. Or at least made me feel like I'd love to meet him in person. All in all, a fun, well-paced, interesting, literary read . . .perhaps a little self indulgent on the author's part from time to time, but I was there for it.
September 29, 2023
It's been seven years since Nathan Hill's debut novel, "The Nix", and it's now easy to imagine that it has taken all of that time to write this new 624-page book. Written with his typical sardonic wit, the author truly inhabits the lives of his characters as he dissects their marriage and their lives.
In 1993, Jack is a photographic art student who comes to Chicago from a farming family in Kansas. He meets and falls in love with Elizabeth, a science, psychology, economics, and theatre major from a rich family in New England. They come from very different backgrounds, but are both seeking freedom "from their pasts, their families, and their mislaid childhoods".
The narrative navigates through the chapters of Jack and Elizabeth's lives and the evolution of their marriage where, by 2014, they find themselves in a period of mid-life unhappiness. They try to figure out how they fit together economically, educationally, sexually, and socially. The story seems to revolve around an excessive amount of overthinking, while poking fun at home gyms, health trackers, diets, supplements, sexual experimentation, fitness gurus and the internet in general.
We also learn a lot about Elizabeth's ancestors and their wild money-making pyramid schemes with lumber, textiles, and metals through the years. Then, it's Elizabeth's work, within Wellness research and with the use of placebos to treat multiple disorders and dupe customers with real problems, that takes center stage.
Unfortunately, at about halfway through this lengthy telling, it all became a little bit too much for me; too explanatory, too researched, too hypercritical. I began to ask myself if I should just throw in the towel. However, I persevered, but at 70% into the book, when the story went deeply into the analytics and algorithms used to run Facebook, my mind started to wander, and everything began to blur. I started to do what I never do when reading -- I skimmed.
I started reading this book with eager anticipation because I loved Nathan Hill's debut novel, The Nix, and I gave it five stars. In retrospect, I feel that I was probably not the right audience for this newest book and hopefully my review will just be an outlier.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
In 1993, Jack is a photographic art student who comes to Chicago from a farming family in Kansas. He meets and falls in love with Elizabeth, a science, psychology, economics, and theatre major from a rich family in New England. They come from very different backgrounds, but are both seeking freedom "from their pasts, their families, and their mislaid childhoods".
The narrative navigates through the chapters of Jack and Elizabeth's lives and the evolution of their marriage where, by 2014, they find themselves in a period of mid-life unhappiness. They try to figure out how they fit together economically, educationally, sexually, and socially. The story seems to revolve around an excessive amount of overthinking, while poking fun at home gyms, health trackers, diets, supplements, sexual experimentation, fitness gurus and the internet in general.
We also learn a lot about Elizabeth's ancestors and their wild money-making pyramid schemes with lumber, textiles, and metals through the years. Then, it's Elizabeth's work, within Wellness research and with the use of placebos to treat multiple disorders and dupe customers with real problems, that takes center stage.
Unfortunately, at about halfway through this lengthy telling, it all became a little bit too much for me; too explanatory, too researched, too hypercritical. I began to ask myself if I should just throw in the towel. However, I persevered, but at 70% into the book, when the story went deeply into the analytics and algorithms used to run Facebook, my mind started to wander, and everything began to blur. I started to do what I never do when reading -- I skimmed.
I started reading this book with eager anticipation because I loved Nathan Hill's debut novel, The Nix, and I gave it five stars. In retrospect, I feel that I was probably not the right audience for this newest book and hopefully my review will just be an outlier.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
January 12, 2024
Nathan Hill’s The Nix was one of my favourite reads of 2016/17. A brilliant mix of tragedy and hilarity, it was a family saga with some political history and the birth and growth of online gaming and social media thrown in for good measure. He hasn’t published a book since, so when I spotted this one I was quick to grab a copy.
This novel tells the story of Jack and Elizabeth: how they met, married and how their union eventually became stale. So in one sense it’s a love story that’s all too familiar, but that’s discounting the author’s ability to get right under the skin of interesting people and his knack of homing in on interesting themes that run along side their story. This sets him apart from other, less inspiring, writers. The supporting themes this time around include health scams, polyamory and how social media enables conspiracy theories get a foothold.
Looking back on my review of his previous book, I commented that ‘some sections do jabber on a bit’. This is evident here too, particularly when the author launches into a lengthy (if interesting) exploration of how social media algorithms work. But overall it’s an intelligent and well written account of love and living in the modern world. It’s another five star rating for me. I just hope I don’t have to wait another seven years for his next novel.
This novel tells the story of Jack and Elizabeth: how they met, married and how their union eventually became stale. So in one sense it’s a love story that’s all too familiar, but that’s discounting the author’s ability to get right under the skin of interesting people and his knack of homing in on interesting themes that run along side their story. This sets him apart from other, less inspiring, writers. The supporting themes this time around include health scams, polyamory and how social media enables conspiracy theories get a foothold.
Looking back on my review of his previous book, I commented that ‘some sections do jabber on a bit’. This is evident here too, particularly when the author launches into a lengthy (if interesting) exploration of how social media algorithms work. But overall it’s an intelligent and well written account of love and living in the modern world. It’s another five star rating for me. I just hope I don’t have to wait another seven years for his next novel.
October 6, 2023
This author's editor hates him or was terrified of him. This book needed a red pen and the letter X to cut so much of the unnecessary yet incredibly painful to endure portions.
November 20, 2023
I've been a delinquent goodreviewer, but I just came here to say that this one was spectacular. There is a scene in it, that I will not spoil, that may be the most beautiful prose I've ever read.
November 26, 2023
If Wellness were an opera – or a theater performance – I’d be leaping to my feet, throwing my hands above my head, yelling, “Bravo!” This is a brilliant book, masterfully conceived, stunningly written, and thoughtfully executed. I don’t often say that a book of fiction changes the way I look at myself and the world around me, but I’ll say it about Wellness.
The book focuses on Jack and Elizabeth, products of dysfunctional families, who arrive in Chicago and “meet cute”, watching each other from their separate apartment windows in Wicker Park (bonus points if you’ve lived significant time in Chicago, as I have.) They marry, have a son, and achieve a modicum of fame in their fields.
Jack is a photographer who “photographs nothing”; he captures nothing on film, using solvents and fixers involved in photographic processing. Elizabeth, who is an integral part of a group called Wellness, which cures ill people with placebos, also deals with nothingness. Both are defined with emptiness, blankness, and absence. She parcels out her intimacies and he is an emotional hydra, “a sucking pit of need.”
They are living in our too-familiar world where truth does not exist. Everything is deconstructed – language, speech, reality itself. It’s a world where “the actual world has become one big hypertext, and nobody knows how to read it. It’s a free-for-all where people build whatever story they want out of the world’s innumerable available scraps.”
What stories do we tell ourselves and which stories do we inaccurately share? Nathan Hill takes a deep dive into wellness and placebos (the truth is that placebos are as effective as medical interventions for about half of chronic conditions; it’s the belief that something is being done that activates the mind to promote healing. Most of the stories we soothe ourselves with (from the benefits of relentlessly positive thinking to juice cleanses and vitamin supplement therapy) are not accurate. And the section on Facebook and other social media addictions is worth the entire price of this book and then some. The author breaks down how the different algorithms – the bots – hook us and then reinforce our most irrational thoughts, tethering us to a spot that feels safe and secure and making us feel we’re in control. Our inflexible certainty on issues from politics to government’s interference with medicine to the world-as-simulation is a pacifier for what we’re actually saying: “I am in great pain, and nobody is paying attention.”
This is not, though, a book about philosophies, though. At its core, it’s a book about imperfect lovers – who often wonder, “Could you ever love someone as broken, or pathetic, as me?” can get to that one affirmative word they want to hear: YES. And it’s about how together, lovers invent the world around them. This is just a fantastic book. If I could give it ten stars, I would.
The book focuses on Jack and Elizabeth, products of dysfunctional families, who arrive in Chicago and “meet cute”, watching each other from their separate apartment windows in Wicker Park (bonus points if you’ve lived significant time in Chicago, as I have.) They marry, have a son, and achieve a modicum of fame in their fields.
Jack is a photographer who “photographs nothing”; he captures nothing on film, using solvents and fixers involved in photographic processing. Elizabeth, who is an integral part of a group called Wellness, which cures ill people with placebos, also deals with nothingness. Both are defined with emptiness, blankness, and absence. She parcels out her intimacies and he is an emotional hydra, “a sucking pit of need.”
They are living in our too-familiar world where truth does not exist. Everything is deconstructed – language, speech, reality itself. It’s a world where “the actual world has become one big hypertext, and nobody knows how to read it. It’s a free-for-all where people build whatever story they want out of the world’s innumerable available scraps.”
What stories do we tell ourselves and which stories do we inaccurately share? Nathan Hill takes a deep dive into wellness and placebos (the truth is that placebos are as effective as medical interventions for about half of chronic conditions; it’s the belief that something is being done that activates the mind to promote healing. Most of the stories we soothe ourselves with (from the benefits of relentlessly positive thinking to juice cleanses and vitamin supplement therapy) are not accurate. And the section on Facebook and other social media addictions is worth the entire price of this book and then some. The author breaks down how the different algorithms – the bots – hook us and then reinforce our most irrational thoughts, tethering us to a spot that feels safe and secure and making us feel we’re in control. Our inflexible certainty on issues from politics to government’s interference with medicine to the world-as-simulation is a pacifier for what we’re actually saying: “I am in great pain, and nobody is paying attention.”
This is not, though, a book about philosophies, though. At its core, it’s a book about imperfect lovers – who often wonder, “Could you ever love someone as broken, or pathetic, as me?” can get to that one affirmative word they want to hear: YES. And it’s about how together, lovers invent the world around them. This is just a fantastic book. If I could give it ten stars, I would.
October 8, 2023
I had previously read and loved Nathan Hill’s The Nix, so when I saw he had written a new book, I immediately asked for an advance reader’s copy. Hill is a talented writer with great insight into human nature. This book tells the story of Jack and Elizabeth, a couple who meet in college, get married, have a child, and find that they are drifting apart after twenty years. The storyline follows their relationship.
It starts in the 1990s in Chicago, and the setting is vividly described and easily visualized. We learn of Jack’s background in photographic art and Elizabeth’s work in psychology. It is character driven and, by the end, I felt like I knew these two. As the story progresses, we understand many of the reasons they were initially drawn together and the lingering impact of their childhood traumas.
The writing is top rate. The narrative is a mixture of social commentary and an easily relatable story about the ups and downs of married life. It touches on a variety of topics with humor and insight, including “new age” concepts, wellness, the placebo effect, parenting, and social media algorithms. I am impressed by the author’s ability to weave into the story a wide variety of topics. It is rather long, but read it slowly and always looked forward to picking it up where I left off. I love Nathan Hill’s writing style and will read anything he writes.
I received an advance reader’s copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
It starts in the 1990s in Chicago, and the setting is vividly described and easily visualized. We learn of Jack’s background in photographic art and Elizabeth’s work in psychology. It is character driven and, by the end, I felt like I knew these two. As the story progresses, we understand many of the reasons they were initially drawn together and the lingering impact of their childhood traumas.
The writing is top rate. The narrative is a mixture of social commentary and an easily relatable story about the ups and downs of married life. It touches on a variety of topics with humor and insight, including “new age” concepts, wellness, the placebo effect, parenting, and social media algorithms. I am impressed by the author’s ability to weave into the story a wide variety of topics. It is rather long, but read it slowly and always looked forward to picking it up where I left off. I love Nathan Hill’s writing style and will read anything he writes.
I received an advance reader’s copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
October 17, 2023
As with The Nix, Nathan Hill has written a huge examination of the current situation, delineating society and all its nooks and crannies. Following a couple from the '90's through the next 20 years, the inevitable rollercoaster of any relationship, with forays into specialized fields including the insidious effect on unsuspecting minds of Facebook algorithms. I particularly liked the part the placebo effect experiments played. Surprising, imminently readable. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next, but it'll probably be another five years.
November 15, 2023
Incredible fiction that defines the current era.
Ok here’s the short of my review: this is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. This is fiction that is so well written and so relevant to modern life that it defines the current zeitgeist with its story. This is a book most concretely about a marriage between Jack and Elizabeth. It’s told over a kaleidoscope narration of when the couple meets in college and then twenty years later where their marriage has been predictably calcified and now complicated by a child and all the other highly relatable stressors of life. This story has some of the most fleshed out characters I’ve ever read. Nathan Hill takes his time telling the backstory of these two extremely traumatized individuals with wit, humor, drama and also extremely engaging information. Nathan Hill is an absolutely brilliant writer and storyteller and this book will draw you in with the first sentence and keep you there until the last sentence.
I laughed and definitely cried listening to the audiobook (which was also a phenomenal performance.) The very ending of this book left me in literal tears. How the backstory of the two main characters informs their current actions and their relationship with one another is simply one of the best things I’ve ever read.
This book is a perfect picture of life in the 2010s and now. In a generation, when people want to know what life was like for an adult right now, particularly married and with children, they should read this book and they will get a very good glimpse. This book is about the fracturing that has occurred. A fracturing of individuals because of the failure of their parents and communities. The fracturing of society into rural and coastal elites. A fracturing of our attention by the disruption of surveillance capitalism shoe-horned through social media. It’s also about a fracturing of understanding one another and the alienation that is imposed upon us by default of a culture that has become hollowed out and atomized for monetization. This book is about the endless "life hacks" that only mask the deeper issues that people have and obfuscate the solutions which are developing deeper connections with one another with compassion and understanding.
But please believe me: this book is not about cynicism. This book is about so much more than just being cynical of our society. This book is about the hope of pioneering into a new era and with that hope, the compulsion to try and understand where we are and how to move forward together knowing that life is more about coping than trying to obtain certainty.
Nathan Hill is clearly a smart guy and he brought a lot of concepts that you can tell he wants to talk about. He uses this book as his opportunity to riff on lots of social and cultural issues and he does it with style, humor and compassion.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It is so, so real but also a balm for the modern soul.
Ok here’s the short of my review: this is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. This is fiction that is so well written and so relevant to modern life that it defines the current zeitgeist with its story. This is a book most concretely about a marriage between Jack and Elizabeth. It’s told over a kaleidoscope narration of when the couple meets in college and then twenty years later where their marriage has been predictably calcified and now complicated by a child and all the other highly relatable stressors of life. This story has some of the most fleshed out characters I’ve ever read. Nathan Hill takes his time telling the backstory of these two extremely traumatized individuals with wit, humor, drama and also extremely engaging information. Nathan Hill is an absolutely brilliant writer and storyteller and this book will draw you in with the first sentence and keep you there until the last sentence.
I laughed and definitely cried listening to the audiobook (which was also a phenomenal performance.) The very ending of this book left me in literal tears. How the backstory of the two main characters informs their current actions and their relationship with one another is simply one of the best things I’ve ever read.
This book is a perfect picture of life in the 2010s and now. In a generation, when people want to know what life was like for an adult right now, particularly married and with children, they should read this book and they will get a very good glimpse. This book is about the fracturing that has occurred. A fracturing of individuals because of the failure of their parents and communities. The fracturing of society into rural and coastal elites. A fracturing of our attention by the disruption of surveillance capitalism shoe-horned through social media. It’s also about a fracturing of understanding one another and the alienation that is imposed upon us by default of a culture that has become hollowed out and atomized for monetization. This book is about the endless "life hacks" that only mask the deeper issues that people have and obfuscate the solutions which are developing deeper connections with one another with compassion and understanding.
But please believe me: this book is not about cynicism. This book is about so much more than just being cynical of our society. This book is about the hope of pioneering into a new era and with that hope, the compulsion to try and understand where we are and how to move forward together knowing that life is more about coping than trying to obtain certainty.
Nathan Hill is clearly a smart guy and he brought a lot of concepts that you can tell he wants to talk about. He uses this book as his opportunity to riff on lots of social and cultural issues and he does it with style, humor and compassion.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It is so, so real but also a balm for the modern soul.
October 30, 2023
Some of the novels I read this year came close but none of them managed for me to achieve a 5-star level of sheer admiration. 'Wellness' eventually managed to do so and I am so happy that I can add already the second novel of Nathan Hill to my list of all-time-favourites.
This is a masterful dissection of the institution of marriage and romantic relationships. Multiple timelines introduce us to a complex and a dazzling love story between Jack and Elizabeth, from its origins to their childhoods and back towards much older years of their lives. I loved the vastness of this fascinating material, it's not only a book about love, its beauty and perils, but also about upbringing and its influence on our character and choices, misinformation, social media addiction, algorithms, placebo effects and even gentrification or American prairie. It's thoroughly researched and even parts of it contain multiple references to scientific research from the field of social psychology what I truly enjoyed. This is a novel to read and to keep in your thoughts for forever. The novel to come back to and a novel to discuss with friends on a cozy wintery night drinking a glass of wine or a pint of beer. And Nathan is so good with words - for the ones still not convinced I am leaving a small passage that left me awestruck by his craftsmanship:
'Think about it. Your husband photographs nothing, and you prescribe nothing. He captures nothing on film, and you capture nothing in pills. He practices the art of nothingness, while you practice the science of nothingness. You're both obsessed with it: nothingness, emptiness, blankness, absence. Don't you find that really meaningful?'
This is a masterful dissection of the institution of marriage and romantic relationships. Multiple timelines introduce us to a complex and a dazzling love story between Jack and Elizabeth, from its origins to their childhoods and back towards much older years of their lives. I loved the vastness of this fascinating material, it's not only a book about love, its beauty and perils, but also about upbringing and its influence on our character and choices, misinformation, social media addiction, algorithms, placebo effects and even gentrification or American prairie. It's thoroughly researched and even parts of it contain multiple references to scientific research from the field of social psychology what I truly enjoyed. This is a novel to read and to keep in your thoughts for forever. The novel to come back to and a novel to discuss with friends on a cozy wintery night drinking a glass of wine or a pint of beer. And Nathan is so good with words - for the ones still not convinced I am leaving a small passage that left me awestruck by his craftsmanship:
'Think about it. Your husband photographs nothing, and you prescribe nothing. He captures nothing on film, and you capture nothing in pills. He practices the art of nothingness, while you practice the science of nothingness. You're both obsessed with it: nothingness, emptiness, blankness, absence. Don't you find that really meaningful?'
November 16, 2023
Of the 2023's best books! Relatable, wildly humorous, witty, smart, and impeccably researched. Absolutely brilliant.
December 17, 2023
This wonderful and unique story of a couple held my attention. At one level, this is the story of a relationship and marriage. The reader meets Jack and Elizabeth when they have each moved to an “artsy” neighborhood in Chicago. We watch as their relationship grows and as they marry and have a son. Jack is an artist and professor, while Elizabeth is a social scientist and runs a company called “Wellness”. The novel goes very deeply into their emotional lives, which, of course, are complicated and highly affected by their childhoods. We learn that Jack and Elizabeth grew up in emotionally challenging (to say the least) households, however, Jack grew up on the Kansas prairie while Elizabeth grew up with ill-begotten wealth in New England. We watch their resulting adult angst in detail. However, this novel is more than just a story about two rather damaged people (aren’t we all?!) in a relationship. It is also a well-researched tome about many aspects of our society. Hill explains about the effect of Facebook algorithms; we watch as Jack follows a trendy whole-life fitness program; we get a detailed understanding of the real estate market and the Kansas prairie; we learn about this origination of sweet condensed milk; and there are many other fascinating fact/stories. I felt that the most important one was Wellness itself (Elizabeth’s company). The entire business is based upon the effect of placebos and how many people mentally programmed to make them work – i.e. believe that they work. Of course, when the “patients” discover the truth, things go awry. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel which was not only a well done tale of a relationship, but also a textbook and commentary on a number of facets of our modern lives.
October 19, 2023
This was a burrito that should have been a taco.
November 16, 2023
Niet toevallig dat John Irving de lof zong van ‘De Nix’, het onvolprezen debuut van Nathan Hill.
Het leek immers alsof de creator van Garp en Owen Meany gereïncarneerd was in een vijftig jaar jonger lichaam. Eentje met dezelfde messcherpe geest bovendien.
Razend benieuwd dus of Irving twee punt nul dat kunstje nog eens kon overdoen en het antwoord is: Oh My God Yeah.
‘Welzijn’, klassiek Amerikaans van opzet, vertelt het verhaal van Jack en Elizabeth: van hoe ze elkaar leren kennen tot hoe ze zichzelf en elkaar verliezen.
Niet chronologisch en al zeker niet rechtlijnig, maar breed meanderend, met zijsprongen en bespiegelingen, vol stapjes voor- en achteruit in de tijd.
Elk opzet, hoe minuscuul ook, krijgt zijn betekenis in het grote plaatje, elk kleurrijk personage heeft zijn rol in het circus.
Dat Hill er bovendien in slaagt je op pakweg bladzijde 500 voor de zoveelste keer te verrassen met een dramatische wending, die je nóg eens 100 pagina’s later op het puntje van je stoel doet belanden, in de overtuiging dat je het onheilspellende einde kunt voorspellen - je moet het maar doen.
Vooral omdat de voorspelling tóch niet bleek te kloppen.
Niet nix, zo’n alom geprezen debuut opvolgen.
Hill doet het met verve en bravoure.
Het leek immers alsof de creator van Garp en Owen Meany gereïncarneerd was in een vijftig jaar jonger lichaam. Eentje met dezelfde messcherpe geest bovendien.
Razend benieuwd dus of Irving twee punt nul dat kunstje nog eens kon overdoen en het antwoord is: Oh My God Yeah.
‘Welzijn’, klassiek Amerikaans van opzet, vertelt het verhaal van Jack en Elizabeth: van hoe ze elkaar leren kennen tot hoe ze zichzelf en elkaar verliezen.
Niet chronologisch en al zeker niet rechtlijnig, maar breed meanderend, met zijsprongen en bespiegelingen, vol stapjes voor- en achteruit in de tijd.
Elk opzet, hoe minuscuul ook, krijgt zijn betekenis in het grote plaatje, elk kleurrijk personage heeft zijn rol in het circus.
Dat Hill er bovendien in slaagt je op pakweg bladzijde 500 voor de zoveelste keer te verrassen met een dramatische wending, die je nóg eens 100 pagina’s later op het puntje van je stoel doet belanden, in de overtuiging dat je het onheilspellende einde kunt voorspellen - je moet het maar doen.
Vooral omdat de voorspelling tóch niet bleek te kloppen.
Niet nix, zo’n alom geprezen debuut opvolgen.
Hill doet het met verve en bravoure.
July 6, 2023
Through the eyes of Jack and Elizabeth, we get a real good look at the idea of 'Wellness'. For Jack and Elizabeth, this term is defined differently through the stages of their life. Does that it mean being the aspiring artist/entrepreneur, the perfect mom/dad, the perfect husband/wife? With the added physical and emotional factors of life added into the mix, the term well-being becomes completely subjective.
October 26, 2023
A big, fat, beautifully structured book about marriage and so much more, chock full of humor and warmth and insights about everything from social media algorithms to the power of placebos. Very much a “how we live today” novel.
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