Wellness by Nathan Hill
Fiction
Narrated by Ari Fliakos
2023
Finished on May 20, 2025
Rating: 3/5 (OK)
Publisher's Blurb:
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nix, a witty and poignant new novel about marriage, middle age, tech-obsessed health culture and the bonds that keep people together.
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the '90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in Chicago's thriving underground art scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast forward twenty years to married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter cults disguised as mindfulness support groups, polyamorous would-be suitors, Facebook wars and something called Love Potion Number Nine. For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize one another, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to painful childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other.
Moving from the gritty '90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home renovation hysteria, Wellness mines the absurdities of modern technology and modern love to reveal profound, startling truths about intimacy and connection. In the follow-up to Hill's electric debut, Wellness reimagines the love story with a healthy dose of insight, irony, and heart.
I seem to be in a rut of disappointing reads. It took me over three weeks to finish listening to Wellness, which is just shy of 19 hours in length. I loved the opening chapters, enthralled by Ari Fliakos' superb narration of Nathan Hill's gorgeous prose. But the momentum began to fade somewhere around the halfway mark. The segments about Jack's father and his ignorance of Facebook's algorithms pulled me back into the story, but it wasn't long before Jack and Elizabeth's navel-gazing had my mind wandering. But I can stick with a mediocre book if the audio narrator is one that I enjoy. Had I not been listening to the audio, I would have tossed the 600+ novel across the room. Having said that, I have a print edition of The Nix, Hill's debut novel, which I was planning to read later this summer. Now I wonder if I should bother.
I received a complimentary copy from Libro.fm. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
That is a long audiobook or rather long if you are kind of not enjoying it much. If I'm absorbed in the story the experience is different. Good luck with deciding if you'll read the debut book. And have a good weekend!
ReplyDeleteKay, it wasn't a terrible book or I would have stopped listening. It was just sort of ho-hum, and I didn't have anything else ready to download that would have prompted me to quit. I guess I also wanted to see how the author would wrap up story.
DeleteThis sounds really good to me. Adding it to my list.
ReplyDeleteOh, good! I'm glad I didn't dissuade you from a potentially good read, Ti. :)
DeleteDisappointing books! What a shame.
ReplyDeleteHelen, I'm always too willing to keep listening to audiobooks even when they fail to entertain me.
DeleteI hate when that happens because I have stacks of books pending and never enough time.
ReplyDeleteMystica, I don't have a lot of audiobooks in my audio library, so it wasn't difficult to keep listening to this book. However, I do have A LOT of print books and probably wouldn't have had the patience to keep reading this if it were in print.
DeleteSometimes long books wind down for me mid-book, and I start wishing the author had been more concise. I feel about that right now about the book I'm reading for book club, Here One Moment.
ReplyDeleteDeb, it's funny how some long books get bogged down in the middle and others pick up steam. I have read a lot of huge books that I didn't want to end. This one could have been much shorter! I hope your current book gets a second wind.
DeleteI loved The Nix and have this one earmarked for summer reading. It'll be a read/listen combo, but I sure hope it doesn't take three weeks to finish. I know how easy it can be to get bogged down in long books!
ReplyDeleteGood to know that you loved The Nix, JoAnn. I may save it for the very last of my summer reading, so I don't get bogged down in the early weeks of the challenge.
DeleteI have The Nix sitting on my shelf here too. I still hope to get to it someday. But it sounds like you'll need a big break I think before taking on the author again. I heard this one was not as good or had more mixed reviews than his first. He seems to write long! I'm impressed you made it through the audio.
ReplyDeleteSusan, I suppose it's reassuring that others have said that The Nix is better than Wellness. Yeah, I can stick out a ho-hum read for a long time if I'm listening to the audio. Not so much with print editions.
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