First off, if Oprah puts her stamp of approval on it, I’m gonna read it.
That, coupled with the fact that I loved The Nix, influenced me to pick up a copy of Wellness by Nathan Hill for my personal library. To say that I connected with this book is an understatement. I swear Nathan Hill hid a camera in my home for the past 10 years and used it to write Elizabeth and Jack’s story. The similarities between their lives and my own was uncanny. I laughed and cried with them, while reflecting on my own past, marriage, and reconciliation of what it means to live a happy and fulfilled life. I truly cannot remember the last book I read that made me feel so emotionally connected and invested. If you are at the bottom of the bell curve in life (IYKYK), pick up Wellness and thank me later.
Synopsis:
(From Goodreads) 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.
Review:
Wellness is the definition of a character driven novel. The plot is really going nowhere fast and is more about the concept of everyday life as a middle-aged married person with a young child. It takes a great writer to make the mundaneness of life interesting and Hill has a way of writing that makes you empathetic to his characters and creates space for self-reflection. If you’ve read The Nix, you know that Hill loves a tangent. If you aren’t ok with veering off course and going down rabbit holes, this book might frustrate you, but it is one thing I love about his writing.
When I say that I felt like Hill has stalked me for the past ten years and documented my life, I truly mean it, down to how Elizabeth tells her Minecraft and YouTube obsessed possibly neurodivergent child to ‘like and subscribe’ when he goes to bed. It was like they were talking about my kids! I could not get over how much he nailed the repetitiveness that comes when you are married to your partner for years and are parenting a young child. I have been married for ten years now and we have three beautiful children, but life is monotonous most days and I can completely relate to the unrest that Jack and Elizabeth are facing. It’s hard to not look back at your younger years and fall into a nostalgic depression, but how do you fully embrace the beauty that is your current life? I loved the messages that this story shared. It isn’t one that wraps up all pretty with a bow, because life doesn’t work that way, but the ending is exactly what it should be.
There is a tangent in this book about social media algorithms that completely fascinated me. It comes into play when Hill dives into Jack's childhood and his relationship with his father as an adult. His father spends countless hours on social media, sharing sensationalized news headlines, conspiracy theories, political opinions, etc. and I am sure all of us can think of *that* person in our lives like Jack's father. Hill dives into how algorithms work, and I could not help but relate it to what is currently happening on social media regarding the Israel-Hamas war and posts, photos, and news stories about Palestinian civilian deaths, bombings, etc. being suppressed by algorithms. If you have read this, I'd love to chat because I found it to be a really interesting rabbit hole.
Rating:
5 stars
Favorite Quotes:
“Nothing really happened, or nothing in particular, as far as I know. They just stopped feeling as strongly as they once did. It’s that thing, I suppose, that happens to so many couples. The passion faded, the spark died. There really ought to be a name for that.”
“This, it turned out, was the most savage, most hurtful thing about being a parent: it wasn’t just coming face-to-face with all your own shortcomings and inadequacies, but it was also seeing those shortcomings embodied in your child.”
“The perfect placebo, she suddenly understood, was choice.”
“Our lives are bound by time, but our memories are not. In the place where we actually experience our life, up here” – pointing to his forehead – “time does not exist. Something that happens right now could take you back to something that happened twenty years ago. And for a moment, in your mind, the distance between them vanishes. It’s like there is no time.”
“If you cling too hard to what you want to see, you miss what’s really there.”
“’You have to let it breath,’ his sister had advised, and maybe that was Jack in a nutshell: he let nothing breathe. He let nothing just be. He let nothing evolve or unfold naturally, without trying to control or coerce it.”
Other book by Nathan Hill:
The Nix (click on title link for review)
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