Wellness by Nathan Hill
(Format used for this read: Print–hardback)
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty ’90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.
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 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.
I am going to start this review by letting yall know that it is almost 600 pages.
It is LOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGG.
And parts of it move V-E-R-Y slow.
This is one of those books I can’t even remember when I started reading it…..it seems like its been chilling on my nightstand for EVER….. every night for MONTHS I have plodded thru some chapters.
It was slow going getting thru this one.
To be fair though I have been slowing WAY DOWN with my literary consumption these days, as I mentioned in a previous review.
No particular reason I guess–just listening to more podcasts and watching more things…and getting more sleep (yall my anxiety insomnia hasn’t hit me in MONTHS and it is ABSOLUTELY GLORIOUS)
Here is the deal, yall…. this wasn’t a boring or bad read.
I found it to be interesting and emotional and thought provoking….everything just unfurled at a snail pace.
I was sitting here before I started typing, reflecting on what this book was about as a whole.
Because SO MUCH is talked about in these pages. (I mean—obviously—-it is LONG)
When I first started reading this one, I really thought it was just about personal struggles that pop up in middle age and the marital and parenting struggles that can go with it. (hello relatable!)
And a lot of the 600 words ARE indeed about those things…talked about in a realistic yet also satirical way.
But the book was also about childhoods and how we become the adults we are because of those childhoods….how we develop and change and evolve…
and the book was also about societal flaws like gentrification, “keeping up with the Jones”, neurodivergence, social media illusions, gender/sexuality/marital “norms”, diet culture, and our flawed healthcare system.
Yeah. It is a LOT of stuff, yall.
What I found to be the most intriguing part of the novel though was having chapters sprinkled throughout that did not take place in present day, but in the past…showing us how and why the two main characters are who they are and do what they do….what happened to them in their past and how all of that affects their relationships and personality in the present.
It reminded me that no matter how hard we try to overcome trauma and unpleasant events in our lives, even things that happened long ago, we never really heal until we face the hurt and effects head on….and how our unintentional reactionary behaviors can linger for years and affect those we care the most for the hardest.
I did think this was a good book but I honestly feel like if it would have been a little shorter, the pace would have gone SO MUCH FASTER….and that would have raised my opinion from “good” to “great”.
I wouldn’t call this a very uplifting book or light read….and I think listening on audiobook may be the way to go to be quite honest….because there is always that 2x speed yall know I adore and frequently use 😆
To sum it up: good book, good story, good writing….just SLOW AF.