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Sonja Arlow's Reviews > Wellness
Wellness
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No one can accuse this author of being a man of few words.
Excessive overthinking, poking fun at health trackers, diets, supplements, sexual experimentation, and Facebook conspiracy theories makes large sections of the book feel unnecessary.
I like segues in a book if it adds colour to the story (ie Elizabeth’s family history and Jack’s sister) but there are swaths of chapters that could have been reduced to 1 or 2 pages and still delivered the intended result.
In-between all of the above you are introduced to Jack and Elizabeth. How they met, fell in love and 20 years later struggle with a midlife crisis about their relationship and themselves.
There is a REALLY good story here if you are prepared to wade through a lot of wafting.
Excessive overthinking, poking fun at health trackers, diets, supplements, sexual experimentation, and Facebook conspiracy theories makes large sections of the book feel unnecessary.
I like segues in a book if it adds colour to the story (ie Elizabeth’s family history and Jack’s sister) but there are swaths of chapters that could have been reduced to 1 or 2 pages and still delivered the intended result.
In-between all of the above you are introduced to Jack and Elizabeth. How they met, fell in love and 20 years later struggle with a midlife crisis about their relationship and themselves.
There is a REALLY good story here if you are prepared to wade through a lot of wafting.
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Martin
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Oct 01, 2023 01:02PM
Thanks, Sonja. This will not join my ever-expanding TBR list.
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I agreed, it was way too much info about things that felt wildly unimportant.
I totally understand how these narrative side quests can seem unnecessary, but I thought they relate back to Hill's take (expressed by one of Jack's college profs) on how hyper-text is challenging the dominance of text as a way of telling a story. There is a main story, and these off-shoots are inserted in a similar way to how you might follow a link if you were reading this story in a hyper-text format, and you'd find yourself in rabbit holes that's only tangentially relate to where you started. I think Hill does bring most of this back into the main narrative eventually, which I found impressive because we did wind up in some far flung places (in this sense, it only sort of mirrors the experience of navigating the web because that very rarely ends up in a cohesive narrative).
Anyway, that's my take on why this story is structured this way, and I can see why it might not work for everyone!
I love long stories - I hate wading.
I agree completely! There are many profound and deep moments, but the repetitiveness, excessive descriptions, and story arc left me hating the book at times.
I'm halfway through this book, and want to love it as much as I did The Nix, but I'm struggling. Couldn't agree more with your comments.
AGREED! Would have been better at half the length. I admit to skimming the last 150 pages.
Like Mike said that was the point.
