{"id":256940,"date":"2023-12-12T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/?p=256940"},"modified":"2023-12-04T15:55:44","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T20:55:44","slug":"nathan-hill-wellness-novel-book-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/nathan-hill-wellness-novel-book-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Hill Thinks the Stories We Consume Impact Us More Than Juice Cleanses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The world within Nathan Hill\u2019s newest novel Wellness<\/a> <\/em>reflects and refracts parts of our own: the firehose of Facebook posts veering toward conspiracy; the research studies that offer insight into the development of adolescents or how to sleep better or how to eat; belief in the power of manifestation; articles that beg us to click with their claims that this one trick might save you from x, y, or z<\/em>; the turmeric shots or crystals we might incorporate in the hopes of healing; and smartwatches that tell us, well, everything<\/em> we might want to know about a body. Wellness <\/em>pulls back the curtain on the illusion that anything we could possibly want is within reach, if only we tried the right supplement or study or routine.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hill, who previously authored national bestseller The Nix<\/a><\/em>, returns with another sweeping tale, one that follows the marriage of Elizabeth and Jack, who first meet because they live in apartments whose windows face one another. The image of them both separately looking through glass to peer in and imagine the other\u2019s interior life captures many of the questions that this novel raises: How much can we really know about another person? What role do stories have in our perceptions of ourselves? Of love? Of the lives we build? How do we find happiness with ourselves, our bodies, and the ones we love when we are navigating life in a world telling us that things could always be better?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had the opportunity to speak with Hill via Zoom about intuition versus information, the coldness of algorithms, and the ways our relationships can be shaped by the narratives we give them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jacqueline Alnes: Was there a defining moment that sparked the start of <\/strong>Wellness, <\/em><\/strong>or more just the collection of all these technologies and powders and tinctures that are sold to us?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathan Hill: <\/strong>It was that era, like 2014-ish when people started getting weird on Facebook, but we weren\u2019t used to that yet. I had this creeping sensation that people were doing things and believing things and I was like, Where did this come from?<\/em> My friends and I were all doing this stuff and now, looking back on it, I\u2019m like, why was I tracking my macros? Why were we spiralizing zucchini instead of just making pasta? It started to feel like some people I knew, who were otherwise reasonable people, were living in completely different fact universes from me. We\u2019re used to this feeling now, that we can\u2019t decide on the same facts or the same reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JA: I am similarly obsessed with the 2010s. I was in college at the time and I was deep into apple cider vinegar and so many other diet \u201chacks.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n