Wellness: A novel
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 each other, 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.
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Community Reviews
What’s it about?
Elizabeth and Jack meet in Chicago in the early 1990’s. We watch them circle each other, meet, and finally fall in love. When we next see Jack and Elizabeth it is twenty years later and they are finally purchasing their “forever home”. This novel goes back and forth in time to help us understand what Jack and Elizabeth have become, and perhaps why. “Jack thought about that winter, how for months they were seperated by the distance of an alley. All they wanted back then was to eliminate the space between them. And now here they were, twenty years later, putting it back.”
What did it make me think about?
This book is all about the stories we tell ourselves. How enlightening…. It also makes you think about happiness, marriage, algorithms, wellness, placeboes, and love!
Should I read it?
So, as I am reading this book I am finding it enjoyable- but a very slow boil. Sometimes I wonder, “Why are we spending so much time on this period in the character’s life?”, or “Why are these details so important?”, or perhaps even, “Who edited this book?”. Well- all those thoughts go away as the story reaches its conclusion. Every bit of this story was in the book for a reason.
If you like a thought provoking novel then definitely pick this one up. You will be entertained, enlightened on lots of subjects, and rewarded for your time. So please do not rush to judgement on this book! Keep reading. Don’t be too certain of what you think…
Quote-
I couldn’t choose just one…
“All I understand for sure is that people have a very strong need to explain the world in ways that make them feel better, or safer, or more powerful, or more well liked, or more in control, but not necessarily in ways that are true. Alas, the truth is of very low importance, psychologically speaking.”
and a new favorite quote that I should remember daily-
“Believe what you believe, my dear, but believe gently. Believe compassionately. Believe with curiosity. Believe with humility. And don’t trust the arrogance of certainty.”
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