Wellness
A novel
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4.0 • 26 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nix, a witty and poignant new novel about modern marriage, the often baffling pursuit of health and happiness, and the stories that bind us together
"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 nineties, 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, and now they're grappling with the routines of married life, the challenges of parenting, and the indignities of aging—not to mention cults of positive thinking, polyamorous would-be suitors, Facebook trolls, NIMBY protests, 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, they have to undertake separate personal excavations or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other.
Moving from the gritty nineties Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home-renovation hysteria, Wellness mines the absurdities of technology and modern love to reveal profound, startling truths about intimacy and connection. In this follow-up to Hill's electric debut, Wellness reimagines the love story with a healthy dose of insight, irony, and heart.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A couple sinking into middle age wonder where the magic went in Nathan Hill’s witty novel about modern life and love. Jack and Elizabeth were college students in the ’90s when they met and fell in love against the backdrop of Chicago’s hip underground music and art scene. Twenty years later, the married couple are contemplating separate bedrooms in a condo they can barely afford and contending with an eight-year-old son with chronic tantrums. As his well-meaning protagonists struggle with the everyday frustrations of suburban life, Hill repeatedly flashes back to examine how their earlier experiences—and even their family histories—make their current problems seem inevitable. As laugh-out-loud funny as Hill’s debut novel, The Nix, Wellness is a wonderfully sharp satire of contemporary life—and a surprisingly emotional read about how love can morph into something else.
Customer Reviews
It was ok…
I can’t say much other than it didn’t really keep my interest at all. Too long. Not really exciting, and the ending left a lot to be desired. Didn’t hate it. Definitely didn’t love it.
Complex
This book is the modern love story of Jack and Elizabeth who met in college in the 90s and have been together for 20 years (5 years together and 15 married). It’s a complex relationship that shows the effects of time, parenthood, work
,family, friends, research, social media and life in a long term relationship. This book is quite long. You see everything, diverging interests, growing in and out of love, the routine in their relationship and their pull to try to get the magic back. It was quite enlightening and reflective at the same time as you enter the mind of the husband and get his point of view at the same time as the wife. Everyone has baggage in this book. Nothing is permanent, especially people. It put a good perspective on what it takes to keep evolving and growing in a relationship.