I think within this 625 page book is a 300 page book that I would be very interested in reading. Unfortunately, I’m not willing to push through all the many many tangents to get there. When I realized it was feeling like a chore to get back to this, I decided it was time to stop and DNF at 40%. Thank you very much to Knopf, Netgalley and Libro.fm for the multiple formats to read this.

I loved this book - so much depth put into the main characters, being drawn out slowly through the entire book. Despair and hope wrapped up together. Will be highly recommending it!

I loved this book. It delved into so many relevant topics that affect today’s society that I feel like anyone could relate to it on some level. At its core, it is a story of hope. I felt it could be a bit shortened. Sometimes he seemed to go on and on about things that needed less words. Other than that it was wonderful.

Wonderfully written,
funny, educational,
deep, big but well-paced.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟

I write haiku reviews but am happy to provide more feedback.

3.5 stars

I’m sure there are some who will read Wellness in one sitting but I felt that there was such a variety of information dumping that I spread it out over time a bit. As the book progressed, it was almost like a series of short stories. We started with the genesis of Jack and Elizabeth’s relationship in the 90s. I felt that segment went by too quickly and then we were suddenly 20yrs into the future. The rest of the novel fills in that 20yr back history, plus their childhood experiences before they met, and then examines the present day situation so we can appreciate how they got from there to here.

Each time the book switched from one POV to the other, I was struck by how Jack and Elizabeth seemed to be on their own island, even when they were in the same room/house. It was a stark illustration of the current state of their union.

As for the info dumping, I did find that much of the social commentary resonated with me as a GenXer. We grew up without access to the internet so I think that lends itself to insatiable curiosity and tons of commentary for external consumption about anything and everything. To paraphrase a med school saying, it was a lot of “learn one, tell one”. Hill definitely spent a big chunk of this book sharing his thoughts post “Google research” on more subjects than I cared to count!
*thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for the advance reader copy for review.

Nathan Hill tackles a lot in his sophomore novel. I really enjoyed The Nix but I think Hill took everything that worked in his debut novel and expanded it in this novel, almost to a fault. The tangents in Wellness take up a lot of space in this novel and while some of them are totally relevant and necessary, I think a lot of them could have been condensed. They also jumped around within the timeline of both the main characters which made the storyline a little harder to follow. I found myself speed-reading through some of the more boring sections so I could get back to the main storyline a little faster.

All that aside, I did really enjoy Jack and Elizabeth's characters. I found their character growth super interesting and the dynamic between both of them was almost a character in itself. Hill clearly put a lot of thought into all his side characters because they're almost fully-fleshed out and unforgettable. I mean, Brandie alone was a wild ride.

I can see how some of Hill's lessons in the book are interesting, but as with most of this book they could have been a little condensed. A lot of this book could have been stripped down or cutback without losing the charm. Overall this book was a lot of fun, it was just long though.

The book opens with a little uncomfortable “stalking through the windows” scene. It does redeem itself by showing it isn’t a one-way thing happening, so okay, let’s move on… And we jump to 20 years in the future. Literary genre can do whatever it wants, right?
Our two lovebirds, who fell in love by watching each other through their apartment windows, are now unhappily married with a kid. Tough, but good hook there because I was actually curious about what the heck happened.
As we are trying to make sense of what’s going on to this “suburban dreams on the rocks” we have glimpses of Elizabeth’s struggles when Toby was a baby/toddler. Kudos to the author for actually doing a great job showing in a realistic way how so many mothers feel at that stage of motherhood. That was one of my favorite scenes (the other, being the couple’s fight by the end of the book with the omniscient narrator interjecting. That was hilarious.)
It was hard for me to have empathy for Elizabeth, because I knew from the beginning parenthood does not follow formulas or scientifical journals, so to see her try that route was painfully cringey. Also, the reason she begins to dislike Jack was plain silly, but I think the real reason was rooted on her belief that their relationship happened just because of the experiment she never shared with him, plus her upbringing. That latter explained a lot!
Speaking of which I thought the whole placebo part was interesting, but of course people wouldn’t like it.
Jack’s parents were horrible, no question. But showing only the bad Christians in literature has been used ad nauseam that has become a cliché at this point. Stop giving them the limelight. There is more of the good kind out there, not the ones in the mainstream media.
I have to say that I was actually delightfully surprised by the end of the book. It gave me hope and warmed my heart.
Things I missed: present day with Elizabeth’s parents. We got to see Jack in his childhood environment as an adult, I think it’d be helpful to also see Elizabeth’s instead of all those pages about her ancestors or the ones with how Facebook algorithms work.
All in all it was a good read.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc! I gave this book 3.5 stars rounded up. Very well written, and some really interesting chapters.

What an interesting book, how The author Tie everything together and Made it work with different themes and concepts. The story It is bout. ELIZAB ETH. And Jack Limes told through their past. Jack's life was based in Kansas and nobody really uderstood. He was very Sickly. You have an older sister who is very much lover By her parents. I This birth was unplanned he was very sick right now siri is growing up. E l I z a b e t h It was a very interesting character because her family's past Was very tragic and ruthless. She grew up very alone because I kept moving around. They both met each other in chicago And Fill Oh love In love. They got marrie. They have a child named tob This little boy represented jack as a young child A lot of issues are in this book about how neighborhoods change how people act differently. When you're young, everything is possible. But as you get older you realize things can change every night. I also like how Jack's father Lawrence gotten involved with Facebook. I thought that was pretty Interesting put that in the book. Jack's wife r R u n a center called W e l l n e s. Together, I'm thinking of the book and it's all tied together.

I seem to be in the minority on this one. I found this dry and dragging. I loved the Nix and had high hopes for this one. A novel (very long one at that) following a couple who meet during their artistic college years and now 20 years later married life has them re-evaluating their lives, their connection their pasts. The book centers around "wellness" through the different stages in the couples lives. Jack an artist and his wife Elizabeth who works for a wellness company that tests placebo effect to test in various ways in peoples lives. If you tend to lean towards highbrow type books and Franzen this may be one for you.

Elizabeth and Jack have been together for twenty years. They met in 1993, Chicago, when they were both neighbors in an apartment complex located in a fringe neighborhood that catered to a community of budding young artists and college students. They were both recent arrivals in Chicago; she, a transplant from all-over the North East, he, coming from Kansas. They were both fleeing their previous lives and, when they met, it was love at first sight. But lately, Elizabeth has started to doubt that they were ever meant for each other, that their marriage is built to last, which leads them down rabbit holes that may have unforeseen consequences.

I had a complicated reading experience with Wellness. On one hand it is very well written, with easy, flowing prose. A novel in episodes, the chapters are styled as essays that, together, read like a novel, but somehow the result is too scattered, touching on many themes that, though topical, are addressed, then abandoned, the thread only to be picked up again in a much later chapter. I ended up becoming annoyed with this structure, the book’s length—it could have been a lot shorter—, and the lack of (apparent) focused direction. On the other hand, there’s plenty to like, for it is a novel that touches on a range of issues ranging from polyamory vs. monogamy, parenting, midlife ennui, wellness cures, child misbehavior, parental neglect and abuse, internet addiction, etc, all without missing a beat.

There were amazing passages related to the invention and commercialization of condensed milk and the origins of the Shepaug Rail Line, courtesy of the Augustines (Elizabeth’s family), the rationale behind the burning of the prairie, and the conventional thinking behind the scant depiction of the prairie in paintings despite the prairie having spanned pretty much the expanse of continental America at one point in time, and how the Internet and Facebook algorithms work. Those passages made for fascinating reading.

Despite Elizabeth, Jack, and Toby being the main characters in the story, they were not that interesting compared to some secondary characters such as Elizabeth’s father, Lawrence, Ruth, and Evelyn Baker, Brandie, Kate, and Kyle. For me, they gave a lot more depth to the novel than the protagonists did.

Overall, Wellness is a novel with a lot to say. It doesn’t work on all levels but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Thanks to the publisher for granting me access to a digital copy via Netgalley.

I really wanted to like this book but it had too many slow parts sounding too technical. I wanted more of Elizabeths marital story

Definitely one of the best books I have read in a long time! A wonderful multi-layered story about a couple and their respective families. I love the extensive bibliography at the end and how citations were included in a specific section of the book. Very unusual for fiction.

I seem to be in the minority here that as much as I thoroughly enjoyed The Nix, Nathan Hill's debut novel, his sophomore effort with Wellness fell completely flat for me. I am not denying that Hill is an excellent writer. His prose is gorgeous and he captures life and marriage extremely well. I just simply did not like the characters and although I've been married for nearly twenty years with two children, I could not relate to the problems that Jack and Elizabeth had. Basically, I found their relationship completely toxic and even though I know the point of the story is satirical, I did not care to learn what happened to them. Much of the plot seemed to wander and honestly, the extremely long chapter on social media algorithms, although interesting, was way way too long. I wish there had been a greater tie in with Elizabeth's Wellness clinic and her personality and childhood background like there was with Jack and his photography. I personally would have cut about 300 pages from the novel and it would have done a better job of achieving what I think it set out to do.

Obviously, this book has gotten a lot of acclaim and I truly believe it's more of me being a mood reader and just not feeling this one at the moment. However, I do see a lot of literary merit for the right reader. I just wasn't it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Nathan Hill, and Knopf for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Nathan Hill’s writing is extraordinary. I found myself asking if I was smart enough for this book multiple times. That said, there was SO much in depth exploration of every modern relationship and family concept known to our generation that I found myself bogged down in words many times—words and research. It made this lengthy novel feel even longer at certain points. That said, this is a BRILLIANT exploration of marriage, parenting, social media, community and “wellness”. I am haunted by multiple passages of this book, and know it will stay with me for years to come. If you get to page 80 and it isn’t working for you, it won’t work, so don’t attempt. Otherwise, the payoff is worth it.

This is my first Nathan Hill book. I absolutely loved the parts that I loved, but there were a few parts that I honestly just skimmed. He seemed to go off of tangents that didn’t add anything to the main story and its characters.

Wellness induced so many emotions in me. I felt bad for Jack, I was angry with Elizabeth, I almost cried at the end. Jack is a hopeless romantic and Elizabeth is a perfectionist who always thought she needed to do better. When they reach the best friend, comfortable phase of their marriage, she’s convinced that there has to be more.

Showing glimpses of their childhood, you see that they both grew up in quite dysfunctional families. Jack growing up poor, never feeling love and being blamed for everything. His mother resented him for even being born. Elizabeth growing up in a very wealthy household, being pushed to be the best at everything, but never being better than her short-fused father.

This book would have received 5 stars from me, had I not had to skim through about thirty percent of the book which added no real “nutritional value” to the story.

When I read what this book was about I knew I had to read it. Being married for over 30 yrs I could relate to what I was reading. The author writes with what I would say is a good insight into relationships and peoples behavior.
This is a long book so be ready.. I ended up read it a little at a time it’s one of those books you can put down and pick up where you left off at so don’t let the page count intimidate you.

Nathan Hill's "Wellness" is a beautifully written exploration of the ways in which a couple navigates the complexities of modern society without losing each other in the process.

Clocking in at 624 pages, “Wellness” is two books in one. Or, perhaps, ten books in one. While the love story remains the spine, Hill branches out into real estate, wellness culture, social media, monogamy, marriage, the arts as a profession, psychology, parenting, technology, late-stage capitalism, and American life in a way that does meander, but remains engaging enough for readers to accept the crooked path.

I lived in Chicago in the ‘90s, and Hill does a particularly good job of framing the music and art scene in that era. That was a rosy, oft unrealistically hopeful time just before 9/11, when much of the city was still accessible to artists and folks with a punk spirit and far less anxiety at the outer world.

We were never as free as we thought we were then and "Wellness" reads like a believable exploration of what would happen when an idealistic couple begins their journey in that time and space, but then must take on the subsequent years and find their place in the new normal.

Elizabeth and Jack start as voyeurs of each other, in that way two broke kids very easily could be when window treatment money is better served falling into a tip jar for the local band.

“And so here they are, lingering in the shadows. Outside, the snow falls plump and quiet. Inside, they are alone in their separate little studios, in their crumbling old buildings. Both their lights are off. They both watch for the other’s return. They sit near their windows and wait. They stare across the alley, into dark apartments, and they don’t know it, but they’re staring at each other.”

Elizabeth and Jack don’t stay in that gritty but also less complicated world. As they move up into different tax brackets, different neighborhoods, and out of the dilapidated warehouses, their own sense of self changes. By extension, their relationship must change and at times the growing is painful.

Hill wrote these two characters with a great amount of empathy and thankfully did not fall into the trap that the only way to tell a love story now is to make it a tragedy.

Nathan Hill’s voice in the fantastic novel “The Nix” is present here. His particular brand of midwestern sensibility combined with truly gorgeous turns of phrase made this another book to recommend digging into on a long weekend.
____________

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication date Sep 19th, 2023.

The Nix by Nathan Hill was one of my favorite literary fiction reads in recent years. As a result, I was excited to read Wellness. Wellness is similarly well-written and has a lot of thought-provoking passages regarding current society. In some respects, it reads like a collection of random tangents addressing whatever happened to interest Hill at the time. I read enough (40%) to know that I would rate this about 4 stars, because it is well-written and interesting. I can definitely see this being a favorite for some people. Unfortunately, I don't think I will finish it just because it wasn't really keeping my interest at the moment. The criticism of modern society was dragging me down a bit, even if it was intelligent and frequently accurate. With that being said, I could see myself returning to it in the future. Thank you, Knopf and Netgalley, for the Advanced Reader Copy.

Thanks, NetGalley and Knopf, for the Digital Review Copy.

Last night, my husband explained why he doesn’t like soup. “There’s too much broth in the way of my protein.” That’s how I felt about this book. The protein was great, but there was too much broth, and I struggled to finish it. Parts were brilliant, others heartbreaking, and many were beautiful, but there was SO MUCH ELSE. But get this: The broth was great, too!

What made up the broth? Deep dives into medical placebo, parenthood, marriage, gentrification, real estate, and social media algorithms, just to name a few. Dives so deep that the author thanked “psychologists, sociologists, neurologists, evolutionary biologists, economists, sexologists, therapists, philosophers, doctors, data scientists” in the acknowledgments…right before the BIBLIOGRAPHY.

I’ve read books like this before and have been able to let the broth “wash over me” (@_robin.reads ), but I couldn’t here because the deep dives were…fascinating. I wanted the story but also wanted the data and kept getting bogged down. Though the ending was spectacular, and I enjoyed the story, I left the table feeling overfull.

Synopsis: “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.” GoodReads