A review by astoriareader
Wellness by Nathan Hill

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

SYNOPSIS:
  • Jack & Elizabeth are married & have a son together. They’ve been together for about twenty year, and they met in college in the early 90s while living in Wicker Park.
  • The book centers around these two characters, but it jumps around in time a lot. We get to learn their backstories & childhoods.
  • After 20 years together, Jack & Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, and Hill intertwines back stories to give us deeper insight as well.

MY THOUGHTS
  • 600 page sweeping story.
  • Deftly executed + amazing character development. Hill flushes out the back stories to our two main characters. We get to see them at their highs and their lows.
  • As a former psych major, I loved all the psychological references & the general psychological meanderings.
  • This book tackles a giant range of topics, such as love, marriage, conspiracy theories, parenting, trendy fitness programs, Facebook algorithms, placebos, polyamory, trauma, poignant social media commentary, “the Secret”, 90s culture, and provably lots more that I am forgetting.
  • Hill is a master at storytelling, and I resonated with his writing style. The book feels so real, relatable, and human.
  • I really loved the exploration of how humans grow & change. Jack & Elizabeth are not their twenty year old selves for eternity. What do we do with that? What is love? How do we evolve as humans, and what does it mean if our life partners have evolved in different ways?
  • Hill clearly researched a lot of topics & even includes a bibliography. He’s smart, and I enjoyed his commentary throughout the book.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️modern classic. 600 pages. this one will stick with me.
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