“Wellness” will undoubtedly be deemed the next Great American Novel™ because of its length and exploration of timely topics through a Middle America lens, but whereas some might view that as a compliment, I think it pigeonholes the story – and possibly alienates potential readers.

Sure, Nathan Hill explores the intersection of technology, politics and money on the conscious and subconscious self, but he went for intimacy over scale, using those elements as a framework to dissect what is, in essence, a love story.

It starts in the early 1990s, when modern bohemians (think “Rent”) Jack and Elizabeth have fled to pre-gentrification Wicker Park, Chicago, to escape repressive childhoods. They quickly become each other’s entire world and vow to maintain their anti-establishment ideals.

Twenty years later they would be nearly unrecognizable to their younger selves, having embraced the trappings of capitalism and allowing a chasm to grow between them – the product of unresolved trauma that manifests as a desire to please others over self.

These are the broadest strokes of the story, and the homebase that Hill frequently revisits. Yet between the 600+-pages is a cornucopia of interesting anecdotes and social commentaries that melded into the most interesting and entertaining book I’ve read this year.

Readers of Hill’s debut “The Nix,” know that his storytelling doesn’t follow a straight line. There’s a plot, sure, but how the novel ends is far less interesting than the journey he takes us on. And, this journey will take you everywhere from the Flint Hills of Kansas to the forests of Western Connecticut and a swingers’ club in Chicago.

Jack and Elizabeth are given near equal page-time and through flashbacks and reflection, we learn the depth of their challenges and how desperately they want to resolve them. The story is so immersive that I felt like a voyeur spying on the most personal moments of two strangers.

Whereas the scope of “The Nix” was extensive, balancing decades worth of dual POVs and introducing many characters – both real and fictional – as they experience watershed world events, “Wellness’ is far more contained but no less epic.

In many ways, I think Hill did a better job of not letting ideas or situations overshadow the characters – a minor issue with “The Nix” – but strong character arcs is only one aspect of what made this novel so engrossing.
In the author’s note, Hill said that writing a book gives him “permission” to explore the various “odd things” that grab his attention. In this case that’s the psychology of placebo, social media algorithms, fine art and, of course, long-term relationships.

Each of these topics play an important role in the plot, and I was frequently struck by the depths of Hill’s knowledge, further evidenced by the nearly 20-page bibliography that shows he did extensive research on each topic, too.

We’ve all read novels where it’s clear the author is trying to impress the reader, but Hill is the ultimate Midwesterner, effortlessly showing off while never coming across as pretentious. Thanks, in large part, to the humanistic and humorous approach he takes to each situation.

He knows these whims need to pay off, and with maybe one or two exceptions, he found a way to organically connect them in a meaningful way to Jack or Elizabeth. For instance, readers already know that social media algorithms manipulate data to optimize engagement so rather than give us a primer on the topic (which he does), it’s through the lens of how this manipulation further erodes the relationship between Jack and his father.

My one complaint is that he didn’t quite nail the ending. The last few chapters were a little scattershot and rushed, and honestly, I would’ve preferred about 60-pages trimmed from the middle to tighten the end.
Still, I had unreasonably high hopes for “Wellness” and, thankfully, they were often met and frequently exceeded.

3.5 stars. Wellness is an ambitious novel primarily about the marriage of Jack and Elizabeth, two 40-something Chicagoans (from elsewhere) who met their first year of college and never parted. Aside from the challenges of marital boredom, parental responsibilities, work, etc. we also learn about their childhoods and see some of the factors and events that went into molding Jack and Elizabeth into who they were at 19 and are now.

This novel touches on SO many psychological theories and studies that it has a bibliography at the end. It also discusses Facebook, the pop "wellness" movement, monogamy vs. non-monogamy in relationships, every generation's tendency to see older generations as "the MAN" and disdain their priorities and way of life, the gradual change from radical teens/20somethings to suburban dwellers with corporate jobs, etc.

I thought it was a very good book but I admit that some of the sections dragged on forever, particularly the chapters about the Facebook algorithms. It did serve the storyline, but it was TEDIOUS to my mind.

This is a very interesting book to try and encapsulate in a review. It is about everything and nothing. It is about two married characters and jumps around in time. It delves into their early lives, family histories, and present day lives. I ended the book feeling satisfied but unsure as to why I felt this way. The book is long, likely longer than it needs to be. It feels like several different books put together. There is some cohesiveness, but also parts that feel completely different. It was an interesting read that I recommend, but don't expect it to be like other books you have read or what you may be expecting.

I still cannot decide what to say about this novel. I guess that is the giveaway. It begins with an interesting situation of two people close enough so their windows look into each others apartments. After weeks of surreptitiously watching one another, they meet and mesh. Then we skip ahead fourteen years. Then I lost interest. I guess that sums it up.

DNF 32%. wow this was a hard one. I wanted to read this because of all the reviews of The Nix which Nathan Hill also wrote - plus overall the description of the book. I just could not get into it…I was not tied to any of the topics of what was happening. A lot of the topics seems to be extremely over explained - what made me stop and put it down was the long-wonder chapter about Toby eating. Wow that was very rough to get through.
A lot of reviews claimed they’re happy they finished it but I simply can not and had to put it down.

Nathan Hill's "The Nix" was my favorite novel of 2016. I laughed so hard and I loved every moment I spent with that novel. Even so, I was worried about requesting "Wellness" since it's more than 600 pages and what if I didn't like it?

After a lot of hemming and hawing I requested it any way and slowly started reading it, hoping it wouldn't be too hard to get through.

I spent the next three days of my vacation wanting to do nothing but read this book. I fell in love with the characters. I laughed, I cried, I was touched, I was mad. I loved following every single meandering thread of story Hill took me down and I exclaimed with joy when he brought it all back and tied it with an awesome knot.

This book singlehandedly made my vacation ten times better than it already was. I came home feeling full of joy and could not stop talking about the book to everyone I saw. I am absolutely confident it will be my favorite read of 2023.

Nathan Hill has done the impossible and his sophomore novel is even better than his breakout novel and his story is funny, meaningful, thought provoking, and tender. I loved and cherished every single minute I spent with it.

I cannot recommend it enough.

Now I really hope he hurries up and writes another novel.

with gratitude to netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

The Nix by Nathan Hill just might be my favorite book of all time, so suffice to say I have been waiting for his next release with bated breath. Although I don’t think Wellness quite hits the same heights as The Nix, there’s still a lot to like here.

Wellness paints a compelling portrait of a mature marriage, and in particular excels in creating main characters that feel finely drawn and believable. It does this be spending a lot of time defining these individuals, though perhaps a bit too much, as I felt Wellness – particularly in the first half – had some real pacing issues. At multiple points, there seemed to be a real loss of momentum and direction, although this was mostly recovered in the second half and it finished strong. Overall, I think this is a strong sophomore effort for Hill, and although I don’t believe the work quite justifies in exceptional length, I’d still eagerly recommend it to others – especially if they were fans of The Nix, like myself.

I was excited to read this book because I loved The Nix. I didn’t think this second effort was as strong, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I did get bored during some of the explanations of algorithms and prairie fires, but overall I highly recommend it to lovers of contemporary intellectual fiction.

I loved The Nix and I think I love Wellness even more. Nathan Hill is a mind-blowingly good writer who is able to attack a theme from a hundred different points and have it all fit together with flawless precision. In Wellness, Hill explores the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and how change is a force that we shouldn’t try to escape and he illustrates his points with everything from the Theseus ship analogy to algebraic topology, sex clubs, Moms of Liberty, and Psychology’s replication crisis. But this book isn’t just an intellectual exercise. Hill explores his characters with heartfelt depth and nuance, making us care about them and root for them with passion. Even the non-linear storytelling which in someone else’s hands could feel disorienting, feels as intentional as the drip fire starters that burn the plains. Overall, this is a work of ambition and excellence, in the vein of The Dutch House and Corrections, that should win every award.

3.5 stars. Oh boy, this book had a lot going on - marriage, monogamy, parenthood, wellness cults, art, philosophy, conspiracy theories, prairie fires, ill-begotten family fortunes, Facebook addictions, bat infestations, "what is the truth," and more. And the timeline jumped all over the place, without markers. That said, this was an enjoyable read!

The story centers on Jack and Elizabeth, who find young love in Chicago in the early 90s, then find themselves growing apart in the early 2010s. We go back and forth between their childhoods, the beginning of their love story, and what may be the end. I honestly enjoyed the science deep dives best - we got into the weeds on the efficacy of placebos, studies on childrearing, and Facebook algorithms - all very interesting (and hopefully accurate).

Ultimately, there were so many story threads that the ending felt rushed and somewhat cliché. Hence, the 3.5 star review.

Thank you to NetGallery and Knopf for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I was excited to read this new book by Nathan Hill. A few years back I read his other book The Nix and really enjoyed that book. Wellness is the story of Jack and Elizabeth. They meet as college students in 1990’s Chicago, eventually marry and have a child. Suddenly they are two people in their forties question their lives. What I really enjoy about Hill’s writing is the detail he goes into with the characters. There are lots of family tree subplots, most of them interesting. Actually, there many subplots in this book how we are influenced by social media, parenting, what is wellness and, and how do you avoid becoming your parents. The book is long so if you want a quick read, this is not it since the book is over 600 pages. I got sucked in and finished the book over the course of a weekend, but towards the end the book dragged a little. I am giving this 4.5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reader copy of Wellness.

Wow - such a wonderful story about living life. The story follows Jack and Elizabeth, friends from college who bond over their awkwardness and challenging childhoods. They grow up and grow together (and apart!) as they navigate life.

A HUGE book but well worth the read!

This book asks the question, what happens when our dreams for alternative quirky lifestyles are met with adult realities? At times, the characters are infuriating with entitlement, but they are also incredibly relatable. I enjoyed the pace and storytelling of this novel and would recommend,

I loved this book so much. I left a 5-star rave on Goodreads along with the pub date and comparable titles. I was really impressed with THE NIX a few years ago but this seemed to bring the authors talents to full fruition and I was deeply moved.

If you're a fan of Nathan Hill's hilarious and compelling debut novel, The Nix (a five-star read for me back in 2016!), I've got some excellent news for you: he's got a second book coming out in September and it, too, is damn good.

This one is a 624-page behemoth, but I can say with 100% confidence that Hill has retained his satirical sense of humor. Also still here is his ability to write flawlessly from multiple perspectives and his talent for putting his finger on the pulse of various cultural phenomena.

Along with being the story of a husband and wife who fell madly in love as teens but are now, decades later, disenchanted with their situation, Wellness contains multitudes--it's a seamless working in of SO MUCH into a plot. In Hill's hands, it's not too much, though, and it is clear he knows what of he speaks. For example, just to name a few, whether
•tracing the algorithms of Facebook's diabolical thought control
•fleshing out just how spectacularly marriages can fizzle under the weight of middle age and raising kids
•chronicling the anatomy of prairie fires in the Midwest
•parsing the science of the placebo effect
•exploring the laws of attraction and vision boards for positive life events
or
•detailing how sexual swinging works in open marriages

I am consistently transfixed and learning about a topic I did not know I had even the slightest interest in. (There's more, but I'll stop there!)

Thank you so much, @netgalley , for offering up this treasure, especially when I needed a goodie for my Kindle. Much of Wellness is set in Chicago and describes city living, which I have been doing in New York City the past week, so it's been perfect. Hill has written another epic!

Thank you to @netgalley for the Advanced Readers Copy of Wellness by Nathan Hill. Jack and Elizabeth meet in college in Chicago, both are kind of loners who are trying to find themselves after tough childhoods. They marry, have a son, and we are with them as they navigate life and try to keep their marriage together. I almost didn't finish this one but did keep going, I guess I'm glad I did. #wellness #nathanhill #netgalley #bookstagram #booklover #reader #bookblog #lovetoread #fictionreader #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #takeapagefrommybook #readallthebooks #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookwormproblems #bookaholic #booknerd #whattoread #readingtime #bookaddict #ilovetoread #ilovebooks

From the author of the great novel, The Nix!

Strap in for a long journey and exploration of contemporary life - marriage, art, social media algorithms and pretty much anything else you think of in terms of wellness or happiness. Wellness explores placebos and the search for what is missing in life and it's a brilliant ride.

Jack and Elizabeth are our protagonists and we follow them as they marry and parent and many of the other demons we all face in every day life. This novel is one of a kind and I hope you grab it and enjoy every minute of it! #Wellness #NathanHill #Knopf

Nathan Hill has created a magnificent contemporary-modern day mega door-stopper at 624 pages.

The characters are interesting with self-doubt angst, hopes and dreams…..
There’s an abundance of topics and themes exploring thoughts, feelings, and motivations.

Jack and Elizabeth (our love couple) first met in the 90’s while in college in Chicago. They each gave the storytelling in ‘Wellness’ personality-spice.

Chicago was thriving in the 90’s with the underground art scene inspiring creativity, individuality, and independence.

Elizabeth and Jack both came to Chicago for similar reasons—to escape where they came from.
Nathan Hill took his time developing Jack and Elizabeth—delicious time—allowing for the mystique and desire to grow between them.
We could feel the penchant yearning arousal before they even met.

They lived across the alley from each and could see into each other’s windows…
The beginning teasers (peeking into each others windows) were enthralling to read even before they eventually met.

“The boy in the window seems different…he exudes a kindness and gentleness and restraint. That’s a radical departure from the world dominating ethos Elizabeth moved to Chicago to escape. Jack Baker is considerate—or at least she believes him to be considerate, believes he would be a considerate person, a considerate lover. She believes this because of the many private scenes she is witnessed from her place at her window, his tiny small moments of careful attentiveness: the books of literature and poetry and philosophy he reads late into the night, the way he patiently looks at so many negatives until he’s found the right one, the way he hides sheepishly behind this long bangs. Even his choice of career— photographer— strikes her as pleasingly self- effacing”.

“Thus, they do not speak, and the winter nights pass slowly, glacially, the ice coating tree branches like barnacles. All season it’s the same: when his light is off, he is watching her; when her light is off, she is watching him. And on nights she isn’t home, he sits there, feeling, dejected, desperate, maybe even a little pathetic, and he gazes upon her window and feels like time is zipping away, opportunities gone, feels like he is losing a race with the life he wishes he could lead. And on the nights she isn’t home, she sits there feeling forsaken, feeling once again so bluntly dented by the world, and she examines his window like it’s an aquarium, hoping to see some wonderful thing irrupt from the gloom”.

And then they meet … at a local bar ……
“Come with” . . . “what an odd and curious delightful thing to say”.
Jack utters the first two words to Elizabeth: “Come with”.
To Elizabeth, what Jack said, sounded refreshingly and charmingly and perfect. He held out his hand and looked at her with no guile whatsoever.
None of her friends from her many private schools wouldn’t ever talk like that. They would use proper and complete sentences such as “Would you care to leave this place?”

“She’s Elizabeth; she’s from New England. He’s Jack; he’s from the Great Plains, Kansas. He’s studying photography at the Art Institute. She’s at Depaul majoring in cognitive psychology and also behavior economics and also evolutionarily biology, and also neuroscience”……
and ….
if four majors weren’t enough for Elizabeth …..she also enjoyed theater and was minoring in music theory, just for fun.
Plus….. Elizabeth planned on auditing a few courses in ethnographic sociology.
Basically, she was studying the whole human condition…..coming at it from every possible angle.

Fast forward twenty years to married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encountered cults, disguised as mindfulness support groups, polyamorous would be suitors, Facebook, wars, and something called Love Potion number nine.

A philosophical divide began when Jack and Elizabeth were putting down what they called ‘forever roots’…….
building their ‘forever house’. Disagreements began over kitchen cabinets, whether to have open shelves or closed shelves…and weather their new home should reflect their current reality (messy Tupperware and sippy toddler cups) or future aspirations (beautiful kitchen food prep designs) …. In other words, should they design their kitchen based on how they actually lived or how they wanted to live?

Construction design differences were just the beginning of troubles between Elizabeth and Jack.
Jack was teaching in the photography department in Chicago. He seemed content. He loved his wife, enjoyed, pleasing her, and loved their little boy named Toby.
Elizabeth on the other hand—was a go-getter at work and at home…. it took much more for her to feel ‘pleased’.

‘Wellness’ is the name of the company where Elizabeth works. It’s a cult-ish operation conglomerate inserting placebos as healing—ha, never mind scientifically studied medicine.

“Elizabeth’s lab was not ever explicitly called the Institute for Placebo Studies, for as soon as people saw that on the door and understood they were getting a placebo, they stopped, believing in the placebo‘s story, and thus the placebo effect no longer applied. Hence the vague and intentionally genetic name, ‘Wellness’, a word that could mean whatever they wanted it to me, convenient for a job, where the primary duty was to invent alternate stories for people to believe it, and then test the efficacy of those stories”.
“For example: How do you test whether the SlimSkirt is a good product or merely a good story? You change the story. What if instead of telling people it’s a leg-strengthening skirt, you told them it’s a movement- inhibiting skirt? what if you told them—as Elizabeth did, and a particularly satisfying and elegant study—that the skirt was designed for people with leg injuries to prevent them from overworking their leg muscles? And then you had them walk around and what Elizabeth told them was the RestrictSkirt for a month?
What would happen?”
“What happened was that these people came back complaining that their leg muscles had atrophied, and that they felt tired, and lazy, and tired, and that they’d gained weight, which, by the way, they had”.
“So, bingo. The SlimSkirt was effective due not to the thing itself but to the story surrounding the thing”.

At some point, ‘Wellness’ was being asked, for the first time, not to identify bullshit, but to create it”.

Elizabeth was so obsessive about raising her son (Toby - a toddler) perfectly…..
but at times she imagined him after years of the diet she was feed him, malnourished, obese, friendless, lonely, his brain fueled not by vitamins and minerals but by saturated fat, his skin and his hair tinted a synthetic orange”.

Elizabeth had nutty parent compulsions, like, if Toby (two-years old) stared at the laptop screen, for too long, she worried about his possible future Internet addiction. If Toby pushed another child on the playground, she worried about violent masculinity, and Toby’s future juvenile delinquency.

Given this contemporary novel is over 600 pages,
there are many topics and themes: (ha, here are a ‘few’):
….Yoga
….A workshop on psychedelic self-microdosing.
….Ebola casualties
….The Marshmallow Test
….”Dominate your day, gentleman”.
….Superfoods
….House construction
….oxidative stress
….adaptogenic herbs
….project financing
….polyamory/swinging subcultures
….epic landscapes
….Algorithm Impact, social media influence and hypertext link following (note: it’s super-tempting to skim the technical-computer-nerd-sections)…..
….Artists benefactors
….Some things were not worthy of depiction
….illegal immigrants
….” The thing about the prairie (Kansas) was easily mistaken for nothingness
….wealth (luck or perseverance)
….Church
….Worries about measuring up
…. tattooed hipsters versus capitalism?
…. Trendiness
…. Banana pancakes (boring conventional vanilla troubles and/or favorite breakfast)
…. Psychology studies
….Placebo studies
….”People were generally, universally crazy”.
….economics
….volunteering….(repairing trails, taking water samples, examining animal tracks or birds nests, sketching the enormous colorful mushrooms, discovered upon the rotting trunks of fallen trees, etc.)
….toxic poisonous bat shit
….daydreams
….health-conscious snacks—
“a veggie tray of hummus,
marinated tofu, seven varieties of potato chip things made from ingredients that we’re not in fact potatoes: beet chips, Kelp chips, chips of ancient grains” [note: this reader was laughing out loud at how funny ‘we are’ — knowing these items are serious snacks for many people. I was thinking that an ‘apple’ was starting to feel like ‘old school’ food]
….the inefficiencies of the world
….theater, art, photography…
“Leave the art-doing to the geniuses and prodigies. You need to study something practical”…..Dad had told Elizabeth”.
….Advance placement college-prep courses
….”self-sabotaging, untrustworthy, malleable, impulsive, acting according to motivations unknown even to themselves, making everyone miserable. The world described in a microeconomics textbooks were a rational and organized pursuit of maximized happiness”.
….Love
….parenting
[Jack and Elizabeth had one son named Toby]
….health and medicine, dietary supplements,
dentistry, physical therapy, Ayurvedic massage, and other wellness therapies.
…. bio chemical feedback
….marriage
….modern life more modern then life!
….etc etc!

Most….
…..overall, I enjoyed “Wellness” as much as I did “The Nix”. (Nathan Hill’s first book). I thought it was fun!!!
I laughed plenty.

Often the narrative and/or dialogue was hilarious and poignant at the same time.
Here’s an example:
“Mother Teresa?”
“That’s right. Mother Teresa once said she would not go to an anti-war rally, but she would go to a pro-peace rally. She understood that you have to focus on the thing you ‘want’, not the thing you’re ‘against’. So we’re not anti-vaping, we’re pro-health. We’re not anti-knickers, we’re pro-decency. We’re not anti-Styrofoam cup, we’re pro-environment. We’re not anti-leaf blower, we’re pro-peace and quiet” [note: I am ‘anti-leaf blower: I hate those noisy suckers].

The relationship issues between Jack and Elizabeth-later in the book when getting enticing messages about some form of swinging — were spot on authentic.

“Do you want to sleep with Kyle?
Is that what you’re so worried about?”
“I don’t know what to be worried about, Elizabeth. Sometimes I just have no idea what you’re thinking. After all this time together, still, you can be a complete mystery to me”.

Elizabeth had found everything she wanted in Jack. When she left home and came to Chicago, she had no idea what would happen. She just wanted to make a decent life, find a good guy, and maybe have a beautiful family together and living a nice home, and she got all of that.
Jack asked,
“And now you’re bored?”
“No, not bored. Just no longer seduced by the mystery of it all. Life’s big hard questions—What will happen? Who will I become?—have largely been answered. And now I feel like there’s this huge absence where the mystery used to be. And I guess that’s really what I am after”.

I really laughed at Jack’s response to Elizabeth when she said “Let’s not be so plain”.
Jack said, “There is that word again: *plain*”.
Jack realized he had become simple. He had become vanilla. So…. he was ready to go have a new adventure with Elizabeth.

The longer I thought about this book….the longer I thought about the challenges and barriers there is for anyone to feel completely satisfied about their lives:
…..boredom, physical or psychological pain, broken hearts, childhood trauma, stress, one’s own inner critic, etc. are obstacles that we all deal with….
Jack and Elizabeth were both experiencing something missing in their lives — it showed up in their jobs and their relationship—(personally I simply think they represented the human condition.
That said…..
I never once doubted that Jack loved Elizabeth — and
Elizabeth loved Jack.
I loved them both!

Was this book perfect? No — but either is life —
I loved what Ioved though -
and my goodness Nathen Hill still has it!!! This was ‘another’ ambitious undertaking.
I’m soooo glad I read it!
And….
I recommend it.

This book is a big ol' chonker - and while the topic (marriage, pursuit of wellness, time) are universival, the writing style is not. Gobbled up in lengthy sentences, and long drawn out scenes, the story is stretched and bloated as much as possible. As someone who primarily enjoys a clipped and steady pacing, I felt myself getting lost in Hill's world, and not in the romantic way.

<i>The Nix</i> 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.

<i>Wellness</i> is as prescient and biting in 2023 as <i>The Nix</i> 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 <i>The Nix</i>, but it’s awfully damn close. Because this novel of modern marriage and placebos and art and love and SO MUCH MODE is firmly in my top 10, if <i>Nix</i> 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.