Wellness

DNF'ed at 21% because it was feeling like it was demanding so much of me for so little substance which I get is probably the whole vibe of it intentionally, but like... that's already the world I'm in. I don't need more of it layered on top when I'm trying to, you know, rest or consume art or whatever.

Though I typically like character-driven literary fiction, this book is just too long and too unrelatable for my stage of life. I wanted to push though, especially more than halfway through it, but I could not bear the idea of reading another 300 pages. It's a book I may revisit in a decade or so. 

I had a sort of love-hate relationship with this book as I read it/listened to it. There were times when I was frustrated with the pace, the cynicism, the snark, and the unlikely plot turns. I was able to get a hardcopy from the library so that I could skim through some of the backstory sections. It was quite long.
However, I do have to say that there were also moments of brilliance, insight, and laugh out loud stories. His assessment and integration of so many modern issues, including academia (and the corporate take over), millennial angst, child rearing philosophies today, Facebook, and of course, modern marriage, were apt and often darkly funny. A couple of chapters in particular really stand out, and maybe could stand alone if I wanted to share with a friend. I'm thinking of the club scene and the time when Elizabeth takes Toby to the grocery store. I understand why this book has received so much positive attention, but I found myself wondering if it was targeted toward a slightly younger demographic — maybe those in their late 30s and 40s could more easily relate to the characters and their angst.

Jack and Elizabeth meet and fall in love and marry and have a child and buy a home...and everything falls apart. Jack and Elizabeth explore their marriage and think about their childhoods and contemplate what they have learned from science and life.

I finished this book feeling satisfied. The relationships the author described, the characters he created, the situations he shared—all felt genuine, full of conflicts and resolve and all rooted in patterns from the past.

(Merkwaardig, in het lijstje met alle boeken op de “read” plank zie ik The Nix, zijn vorige boek, staan met de sterren die ik gaf, klik ik daar op door doet Goodreads suggereren dat ik er sterren aan gehangen heb?)

We volgen Jack en Elizabeth, vanaf het moment dat ze elkaar tijdens hun studies tegenkomen, tot veel later, als ze een kind verder zijn en net hun “forever home” gekocht hebben.

“It is an odd feeling, to sense one's aliveness, for perhaps the very first time, to understand that life up until this point was not being lived, exactly; it was being endured.“

Waar ze in het begin soulmates zijn, elkaar volledig begrijpen, is de situatie twintig jaar later anders: ze leven een beetje langs elkaar heen, en er is genoeg om je aan te ergeren bij de ander.

“Elizabeth consistently implied that she'd like him to do more of the meal prep, and yet she also kept a ten-day rolling menu in her head, deviations from which caused her great aggravation. It was like she wanted him to contribute, but only in the exact and precise and singular way she imagined but never once articulated.“

Schakelend tussen beiden krijg je door flashbacks een beeld hoe het zo ver gekomen is, terwijl ze in het heden ieder op hun eigen manier proberen de boel weer beter te krijgen (maar was dat het toen wel?)

“Jack keyed all this into his phone—slowly, as he had never mastered typing on his phone the way he saw Toby doing it, with two thumbs and at blazing speed—hoping that the app would have some kind of magic answer for him, some solution to the problem of his stagnant career. It sent him a coupon for a seminar he could take to become a Realtor. Which, okay, fair enough.“

Vlot boek, maar uiteindelijk enigszins gehinderd door een aantal hoofdstukken tussendoor die een beetje aanvoelen als hoorcolleges, over onder meer zoekmachines, placebo's en wappies. (Hill schrijft in de bibliografie: “One of the great joys of writing a book is that it gives me permission to explore the various odd things that grab my attention, to dive deeply into those subjects that puzzle, amuse or amaze me. This book has many such deep dives.” - de vraag is natuurlijk eigenlijk waarom een roman als deze een bibliografie heeft :-)

Verder zou Hill best wat meer “show, don't tell” mogen toepassen...

New perspectives on lots of things.

Nathan Hill's second novel is too long (600 pages) and self-indulgent. But if you can wade through the author's eagerness to share EVERYTHING he has ever learned about (deep breath): social media algorithms, gentrification, the placebo affect, wellness culture, parenthood, young children's eating habits, landscape painting, prairie fires, and other subjects that “puzzle, amuse, or amaze” him, you will find a painfully real but hopeful story of a marriage between two broken people (and honestly, who amongst us isn't at least a little bit broken?). Recommended if you have a lot of time on your hands and don't mind reading a book by an author who apparently never heard the literary advice “Kill your darlings.”

The book is quite ambitious and covers a lot of themes that I found incredibly interesting, ranging from psychology, pseudoscientific health treatments, conspiracy theorists, media literacy, social media algorithms, love, open marriages, parenthood, and more. However, there were times when I got lost in tangents that were too far off from the plot or lingered for too long. Despite that, the book ultimately came together wonderfully. Both Jack and Elizabeth's journeys in questioning their histories, identities, and their place in the relationship broke my heart more than a few times. Jack is a romantic artist with a tendency for people-pleasing, while Elizabeth is a scientist who struggles to accept love and success. I found the tone of the book to be overall cynical, yet hopeful.

I would have given this book five stars if it were shorter and if it didn't commit one of my least favorite book offenses: chapters with no names or numbers. But all in all, I still recommend it. If you find any of the themes mentioned intriguing, then you will most likely enjoy this book. It's lengthy, but it's worth the read.

Nathan Hill's debut Nix blew me away, and Wellness is just such an assured follow-up that is so crammed full of ideas it requires its own bibliography. Hill manages to weave together so much without feeling overdone. Even when he brain-dumps, like the chapter on the internet, it reads at once obvious and yet utterly novel despite being a well worn topic. And Hill, with an abundance of confidence (seriously, the audacity to tackle any of these topics that have endured reams of examination and opinion across media) explores the challenges of parenting, marriage, gentrification, and of course, wellness itself. But what could be overly dour and heavy-handed is leavened by various hilarious recountings of Elizabeth's familial wealth, dot-com exceptionalism manifested as polyamory, and mean-girl school moms.

It's just a joy to be in the hands of such sheer writerly aplomb. From the pitch-perfect, Chicago fairy-tale, meet-cute first chapter to the abrupt jump ahead to marriage and the raising of an 8-year-old. It's a GenX reckoning that follows its own bookish logic, and while admittedly relying on some overly tidy epiphanies later on, I still can't be mad at the whole magnificent endeavor. Despite being a brick of a book, I'm still tempted to pick it up and read it again - it's that good.