Wellness Book Review

Wellness

by Nathan Hill

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Ginasbookreport Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Literature / Fiction
Read This If You Love: Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow / John Irving novels

“But it also explains why love sometimes feels fleeting, why it seems to occasionally go away. Because it’s a thing. And things can run out.”

Wellness by Nathan Hill is a story of marriage, evolving individuals, and the pursuit of what constitutes health and happiness. Spanning decades from childhood through middle age, the novel touches on 1990s nostalgia while examining the time via the evolved lens of today and also delves into our obsession with wellness culture. Jack and Elizabeth fell in love as neighbors before they even met. It’s a lovely story to the beginning of their life together, but was any of it real? Now decades into their marriage, they are facing the daily challenges of life while confronting the childhoods that shaped them. Elizabeth has always been an overachiever and now she wants her marriage to be more. Jack is just happy in love and wants nothing more than to make Elizabeth happy. So why is this all so difficult? 

Ugh. There were chapters of this book that I LOVED. Then, it would switch to a different timeline and character focus and I would quickly fall out of interest. Balancing it all out, I gave it four stars because, despite the long length, I still finished it even with those “off” sections. I greatly appreciated the authors humorous take on the examination and exasperation that comes from trying to be healthy and well in today’s world where every answer is somehow wrong and right. From life coaches to the “I’m an expert because I say I am” influencers, it really is exhausting! And don’t get me started on all the word art and inspirational sayings. Elizabeth’s career and ethics exhibit everything I find unauthentic about the wellness industry. It was a great way to examine the emptiness behind so many “causes.”

I found the passages in the New Relationship Energy section to impeccably capture the beginning stages of love. The portions discussing what love is, where it resides, and finding/believing in love were beautifully constructed. The author also captures how fleeting moments in youth shape your life without any self awareness. Overall, it was an enjoyable book, and I can see why it was on so many best of 2023 lists.