I want to relax so hard. I want to win at serenity. Because, as journalist and author Rina Raphael explains in her new book, "The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care": "As Americans, we're strivers." Indeed, over the past few years, that ethos has helped fuel an explosively lucrative industry of products and services aimed almost exclusively at anxious, burned out, semi-affluent American women. While the patriarchy is yet to be smashed, maybe a sheet mask and detox diet will serve as a temporary salve.
As a writer, Raphael has been covering the wellness phenomenon for years. She has also, by her own admission, at times embraced it. And the intimate balance she strikes between her skeptical, curious investigation and her honest relationship with consumerism gives "The Gospel of Wellness" its intelligent, emotional punch. She doesn't denigrate women for being influenced by a powerful and persuasive industry; instead she unpacks why modern wellness has become such a juggernaut, and the class and gender dynamics that drive it.
