Jack and Elizabeth meet in a romantic fever dream of artistic expression and individuality in Chicago during the 1990s, each of them bursting with desire to differentiate themselves from their oppressive families and claim a place in the underground art scene. Twenty years and a child later, they struggle to recognize each other, and the forgotten dreams of their youth taunt them. The book examines what wellness means to them throughout the various stages of their lives and relationship. As both a couple and individually, Jack and Elizabeth are forced to realize that they cannot expect their partner to complete them without individually reconciling their prior aspirations against their unfulfilling careers, the struggles of parenthood, and painful memories of their adolescence. 

 

Thank you as always to @netgalley, Nathan Hill, and @aaknopf / @penguinrandomhouse  for the ARC. I loved The Nix and was so excited to see another book by Hill, and was even more excited when my request for an advanced copy was approved. I absolutely loved this. The last chapter was probably one of the most perfect things I have ever read. I legit highlighted the whole thing. This book did an excellent job of examining relationships under the influence rapidly changing technology and the social media-era need of demonstrating perfection. There were a lot of great discussions regarding philosophy, photography and art, the placebo effect, ethics in medicine, algorithms, sexual insecurity, and the curse of wealth, among many other themes. I really enjoyed the competing narratives of Jack and Elizabeth. Ambitious but extremely well-executed, Wellness is a sprawling novel with deep themes and an incredible examination of life in the twenty first century. I highly recommend adding this to your TBR! Wellness hits shelves everywhere on September 19.

A quote I loved: “Beyond all the poetry, beyond all the songs, love is this, my dear: it’s an expansion of the self. It’s when the boundaries of the self spread out to include someone else, and what used to be them now becomes you.”

Abe one more! “Behind curtains, this, he thinks, is what lovers do—they are alchemists and architects; pioneers and fabulists; they make one thing another; they invent the world around them.”