Wellness by Nathan Hill is the literary equivalent of a meeting that could have been an email. For 607 pages, or 18 hours and 57 minutes, you will wade through narratives within arcs within stories within the main plot that, for the most part, could have each been reduced to a few pages and still had the same relevancy or impact on the overall book.

Though well written, it is hard not to feel frustrated by this excessive loquaciousness as, at the heart of it all, there is a really compelling story about the humdrum of humanity - births, deaths and marriages, midlife crises and extramarital affairs, friendships and family. However, the protracted nature of some of the side quests, and the repetitiveness of others, left me losing sight of the actual story at multiple points, and it took me weeks to listen to it as a result (I never would have stuck it out had I been reading it).

Jack and Elizabeth have been married for 20 years, meeting in college as two teens from very different backgrounds yet similarly estranged from their families of origin. They connect instantly, finding a family among the misfits they go to school with. After many years together, they settle down, have a son, and begin to lose sight of themselves, both individually and as a couple. THIS is the heart of the story - the monotony of marriage, the fighting, the things left unsaid, the growing apart and coming together. Some of the asides added colour to who Jack and Elizabeth are as people - his sister’s story, her daddy issues - but the vast majority were superfluous to requirements.

I love long books but I hate feeling like I'm searching for the story. Your reader shouldn't have to work so hard!!

I have well passed the pub date for this. I had a physical ARC also, and I really really wanted to love this… but I didn’t. I’m sorry

Jack and Elizabeth are a middle-aged couple at the dip of the curve of their marriage.

The book explores their entire relationship, from when they first met as broke students in the 1990s living across from each other and watching each other from their windows, how they got together and then at various points through their lives and watch as their son Toby grows up. We also learn their backstories and how their childhood experiences influenced who they've become and how they relate to each other.

This book went off on an excessive number of tangents, some which really held my attention and others which didn't engage me to the same level. Two of the standouts for me were the work Elizabeth did in Wellness and Laurence, Jack's father descent into online conspiracies

As a result of the various targent the book lost me along the way.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5949571695

After a slow start, this blossoms into a wonderful book. It meanders about across different perspectives, time periods and subject matters in a way that initially seems to make no sense at all, save that they are all loosely connected to the marriage of the two protagonists, Jack and Elizabeth, but all the intricate threads eventually come together into a coherent and very moving whole. The amount of research that must have gone into it is staggering. There is the occasional feeling that the two main characters are just vehicles for the plot, or a point that the author wants to make about life and the human condition, but when those points are made so thoughtfully and elegantly, who really cares? This is a truly beautiful examination of both an individual realationship and the bigger picture for all of us.
My book of the year so far.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC.

This book was divisive on my book social media. People either loved it or couldn't get through it and I unfortunately couldn't get through it. This was a DNF for me sadly.

I DNF-ed this at 25%, after realizing I will not gain anything from reading this. The plot, was there one!? I'm not sure.

Unfortunately I cannot give feedback on this book as it disappeared from my shelf even though I had downloaded it and it had not reached the expiration date. A pity as I was looking forward to reading the book. Hopefully it is just a glitch and the book will reappear and I can read it. Am giving it the average rating on NetGalley so I don’t change the stats.

This is an epic read, it’s the story of Jack and Elizabeth, it spans from their childhoods to when they met and through their marriage. It’s very funny in parts but it is also tremendously sad in parts . Elizabeth owns a company called Wellness where clients are given placebos in the forms of medication and made to think they are real. Jack is a photographer and teacher. Both of them have problematic childhoods but in very different ways . I felt for poor Jack, his mother blaming him for everything, but his love for her shines through. They have a son who has problems which Elizabeth struggles to cope with. It’s a book about marriage and love. It’s also tackles the pros and cons of technology. It is very philosophical at times and makes you think what complicated lives we lead sometimes. I enjoyed the writing and although it is a long novel , I engaged with the characters.

‘Wellness’ by Nathan Hill is set in the 1990s when Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students amid a vibrant art scene in Chicago. The novel follows the ups and downs of their relationship over the next 20 years through to middle age when they are married with a young son. Jack is a photographer while Elizabeth works at a wellness lab specialising in using placebos to treat disorders. The character development is exceptionally detailed, although some of the deep dives about psychology and algorithms could have been a little more concise. Still, unlike most doorstopper novels which deal with complex social issues – ‘Wellness’ is a hefty 600+ pages – it doesn’t take itself too seriously thanks to Hill’s sharp eye for humour and cynicism. I enjoyed Hill’s debut The Nix a lot and his second novel doesn’t disappoint. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for sending me a review copy via NetGalley.

A touching, delicate and intriguing portrait of a marriage from a sublime and sensitive new writer. There’s a lot to love in this debut and I can’t wait for more.

Wellness is the story of Jack and Elizabeth’s relationship from their first meeting in 1990s Chicago to current day. In their early days they convince themselves that they are soulmates but are now questioning this whilst trying to reconnect / regain that original spark, through somewhat questionable means.
These attempts allow the author to bring in many aspects on modern life, especially life hacks or wellness products we use telling ourselves they will improve our lives without thinking about what is really important in life.

This book resonated with me personally as I am the same age as the characters so could relate directly to how my life has changed in similar ways to theirs. I too was a 90s alternative teen an am now accepting my more settled life in early middle age. The book ultimately made me feel thankful that this isn’t really a bad thing.

The characters are multilayered, so even though I found them dislike able at times they were very believable and ultimately Imfelt compassion for them.

I have seen some criticism of the tangents the author takes but I felt they were realistic as the book spans such a length of time. To me it is understandable thatbthe characters would grapple with the many changes that have come about over the last 30 years. They were also written in such a way that brought some humour which balanced out some of the sadder parts of the story.

I don’t reread books often but this one covers so much ground that I will happily revisit this one and take time to reflect on some of the questions it brought up for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the chance to read this in return for an honest review.

It’s probably an oversimplification, but I put big books into two categories - worth it or not worth it. Unfortunately, Wellness fell into the latter category for me.

Wellness is a big book with a bit of everything - some lovely descriptive writing, a decent story of the evolution of a marriage and midlife crisis, pop psychology and social commentary. While there were elements I quite liked, it never really coalesced for me into a book that I could love.

Long-winded and verbose, with so much excessive detail and repetition, there were points in the book where I really wanted to throw it aside - the passage with their son Toby and his fussy eating was so ridiculously intense it made me hate the book for a time - and it took all my willpower to keep going. I wanted to see how the story would develop and come together so I persisted.

What did I like? I liked Jack’s story more than Elizabeth’s, in particular Jack’s father’s spiral into a world of online conspiracy theories. I liked some of the stuff on the placebo effect (to a point). The citations of multiple studies throughout the book wore on me very quickly - if I wanted a pop psychology book, I’d have read some non-fiction. At what point does meticulously researched spill over into self-indulgent over-citation?

Was it worth the commitment? No. It’s not a long book that feels like a short one. On the contrary, it felt interminable. It seems to be tipped for Booker success but I’d read The Bee Sting twice over before I’d read this again. It scraped a pass for a mediocre 2.5/5⭐️ from me.

*Many thanks to @picador for the arc via @netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.

This was absolutely incredible - I have not yet read The Nix so I didn’t know what to expect going into this book in terms of narrative style but I loved it,

It was so smart and witty, and kept my attention on every page. I also found it well paced, and loved how small details would come back round to elevate a point later in the novel. Hill has such a clever way of intuitively examining minute details of life that are, almost painfully, accurate and relatable, and I just found myself so actively engaged through the entire book.

Where to start with Wellness.

It was the @tiredmammybookclub pick for January, and if there’s one way I love to start the new year, it’s with a hefty book that takes me almost the full month to read. Step in then the latest novel from Nathan Hill, who you might remember, also wrote The Nix.

I started reading Wellness on ebook and got stuck at 2%. My brain just would not let me read any further, so I switched to audio and then it flew along for me.

This is the story of a couple; Jack and Elizabeth who we meet in the 90’s when they’re both young and hopeful, and of course, in love. The rest of the book is about them, now twenty years married with a child and struggling in their relationship. As well as career issues, their kid isn’t making friends, and as a couple they somehow get embroiled in polyamory, a mindfulness group that’s actually a cult, the wellness industry, placebo trials, and Facebook conspiracy theorist arguments.

There’s A LOT going on, is what I’m saying.

Parts of it are really engaging and then at times it just feels like a series of tangents, rather than an actual storyline.

The writing style of this book is absolutely unique and for that alone it’s an interesting one to read. That said, I’m not sure who I would recommend this too as it can be both a frustrating and a rewarding read.

I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. I am looking forward to reading The Nix though, as it sounds like a premise I would be into.

With many thanks to @netgalley for my early copy, all opinions are my own as always.

Wellness by Nathan Hill starts with Jack and Elizabeth, living opposite to each other in apartments that overlook. They are fascinated with each other, constantly watching the other. Until they meet one night & we travel forward to the future: married, with an 8 year old kid and slightly stagnant lives.

The book jumps around in timelines, we get snippets of when they first get together, as new parents and the current timeline, as well as glimpses into their childhoods and to some of the families’ history. It’s long, clocking in at 600 pages.

Ultimately it’s a study of the evolution of a relationship, how our backgrounds shape us, whether we think they do or not. One of my issues with this is that it felt like the plots of 2 or 3 books that had been rammed together as one book. Some descriptions felt over blown and laborious, I did not find myself reaching for the book & probably would have DNFd it if it wasn’t the January @tiredmammybookclub book. I only powered through thanks to the audiobook, having failed with the physical & ebook.

The parts I did enjoy I really enjoyed. I particularly liked Elizabeth’s job at Wellness, an institute for studying placebo effect. I loved reading about her family history. I also Jack’s back story. I feel like these plot points could have made interesting books in their own rights.

Overall this seems to be a marmite book: you either love it or hate it. And while I didn’t hate it, I would have loved a lot of this chiseled off, to leave the gem that I think it could have been.

Not for me at all. I had to give up after a few chapters. Have heard others raving about it. Very slow paced and I felt like it wouldn't amount to anything.

Wellness by Nathan Hill

Jack and Elizabeth are middle-aged and in the dip of the curve of marriage according to Elizabeth. We revisit them in their youth when they first met, and at various points inbetween, as well as the present day as they struggle to connect.

Wow, this book is EPIC in all senses of the word! I absolutely loved it and I'm in awe of the writer's ability to produce such an amazing piece of work - a masterpiece! I loved Jack and Elizabeth's story but the book is about so much more than their relationship. The range of topics the author covers in such an incisive and entertaining way is breathtaking. I particularly loved the unravelling and nodded along to the academic-isation of a toddler's eating, but all of them are brilliant. I could go on and on and ON but... very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Wellness is the kind of story I often enjoy - a multi-year spanning look at one couple, as they grow from young strangers to an older, married couple who have lost themselves along the way. There were moments in this that I connected with, and others which felt too drawn out, the minutiae too focused on for me to grasp it wholeheartedly. Well written, but think I would have enjoyed it more a few hundred pages shorter.

Wellness by Nathan Hill

“Jack had gotten an extravagant tattoo that he thought at the time made him unique. And yet, one look around the farmers market right now revealed how many people were equally bold and unique.”

The January pick for the @tiredmammybookclub was this modern marriage saga. Thanks to @panmacmillan for advance ecopy of this book.

I thought this book had some brilliant insights into marriage, medicine, positive vibes, manifesting, parenting. Elizabeth and Jack are two very intriguing characters. We meet them when they first meet as broke students in the 90s, the story quickly skips ahead 20 years. Now in their 40s, Elizabeth is disillusioned with her lot, and Jack isn’t far behind. Careers not going as expected, difficult relationships with their own families and navigating parenthood present some of the challenges explored here.

Risk is a common theme in the book, which I found really interesting. Managing risk as a parent, as a spouse, as an artist. Brandi was also a fantastic villain with her manifesting and general nonsense.

I enjoyed this but found it just too long, with too many tangents. If you like books that take a long look at a marriage, you’ll enjoy this.

I read this book as part of a bookclub, and read about 25% and wondered should I continue forward. At the same time, a number of others in the bookclub were saying the book was dragging and/or that they were abandoning it.
I gave it a break and went back to it - Initially I was then questioning my choice, but I kept going and it was worth it.

This is a long book and the author LOVES a tangent. There is huge detail in some sections, which is what I loved and hated about the book - if it was a tangent on a topic/area you were interested in you were in heaven, if you weren't interested in it, then it was very boring.

At the books heart is the story of a married couple and their boredom in their forties. It is a satisfying journey through their lives. We see how they first met, a story that I adored and was so sad that the book didn't continue on in their early years. We meet them 20 years later, married and parents. We get a good sense of their lives then and the social structure in which they live. And I was satisfied at the ending. I think both had gone through a journey in the book and we were brought on that journey and it makes you think about life in general. Always a good sign of a book I think.

Another fascinating part of the book was the history of the characters. We know early on that they both arrived in Chicago for university trying to escape their backgrounds. It takes time for their backgrounds to emerge and it is given to us at different times - this worked well as I physically read the book, but I know this switching back and forth is something I really struggle with on audio books. When we were brought to the mid 1800's without any context, I did wonder was this a book in a book type novel, but as it became clear, I really enjoyed this section, although I could understand how some people might think it was too much info.

So all in all, this was a great read if a bit too long and some tangents that I did not particularly like, but as character studies of individual people and how we live, I thought it was super. Would be happy to read more from this author, albeit not sure I could wholeheartedly recommend this novel to friends - they'd need to be in the space for a deep dive.

Thank you so much to Pan MacMillan for opportunity to read and review. I read a free copy via @netgalley.