Rating: 
Summary: The road to what???
Review: After seeing the movie a few years ago (and thinking it was quite odd) I decided to take a shot at the book. At first it started out great and I was really interested in the storyline. The idea of 4 time a day enemas and cleansing the colon had me hooked! However then the book got going and I realized there was more to the story than the cleansing of the colon. About halfway through the book I started to get bored. I took a look at my to-be-read book pile and longed for something else. WELLVILLE did not have a plot that I could see. The book was all 'story' and very little climax. Once I finished it I was disappointed and glad for it to be over with at the same time.
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Summary: "A steak is every bit as deadly as a gun."
Review: At the turn of the 20th century Battle Creek, Michigan was a magnet for the health-conscious while simultaneously attracting breakfast food speculators from around the country. In THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE T.C. Boyle spins an insightful and entertaining tale combining both of these historical movements. After surviving many attempts to making breakfast food products that were sabotaged by his jealous brother, he turned his attention to developing a sanitarium to launch his firm beliefs in a scientific diet that will treat the nation's ill health. After much hard work and determinism Kellogg's dream soon materialized as the sick traveled from afar to undergo daily enemas and milk diets in an effort to cleanse their systems. According to the back cover this book is "wickedly comic" and "a comic tour de force", but I felt that this book wasn't all that laugh-out-loud funny. Sure, there is a plenty of T.C. Boyle's smart and intelligent prose but rarely did I find myself giggling while reading. The only passages that made me smile included the antics of Dr. Kellogg's disobedient foster son, especially the Christmas caroling scene. All in all, I appreciated this book for its unique glimpse into this often-forgotten piece of American history; it's difficult to go wrong with T.C. Boyle as he always seems to spin an entertaining story.
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Summary: Near Perfect Crazy and Corny HealthFood Odyssey!
Review: First, TC Boyle has to be about the funniest, and most laughably bizarre authors out there. This account of the beginnings of a true American turn of the last century business success is as jumpy as some of the popping cereal that we consume today, over a century later. It is also a nifty time travel with all the inventions, crackpots, and quackeries so prevalent then. And the people are just as quirky. My only complaint is the scatological parts, mainly at the end, but if you don't mind that, then pick up this book for fun and laughs you'll remember years after you read this! (And I read it about 7 years ago!)
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Summary: Guaranteed to QUACK you up!
Review: How does T.C. Boyle find these obscure figures from history and bring such life to them? John Harvey Kellogg of cereal fame certainly ranks as one of the oddball physicians of all time. At Battle Creek, Michigan, birthplace of the Corn Flake, Dr. Kellogg ran a health-nut hotel known as the "San" in the era of Henry Ford and Upton Sinclair, (both of whom were patients of the place.) Kellogg's predilection for his new "biologic living" meant strange meatless diets for his patients, regimens of heavy breathing, regular doses of electricity and radium, strict celibacy, and above all, thoroughly cleansed bowels. The Battle Creek Sanitarium -- you can look it up -- it was real. Alone, this boggles the mind. Then our author begins his fiction.
Into this peculiar environment, Boyle drops Mr. & Mrs. William Lightbody of Peterskill, NY as patients of the San; Charlie Ossining, President-in-Chief of a startup breakfast cereal firm; George Kellogg, malcontent son of the famed sanitarium director; Goodloe H. Bender, a free spending business promoter; and a host of assorted iconoclast physicians and malady stricken patients. Colorful characters all. Over the course of 476 pages, we are acquainted intimately with the diets, regimens and other prescriptions assigned the patients of the San. We follow the ups and downs (and deaths!) of these patients, as well as that of the Per-Fo (short for Perfect Food - "It Makes Active Blood!") Company run by Ossining and Bender.
TRTW is a cover-to-cover grin, a farcical look back at a slice in time starring the conniving, the gullible and the deluded. If you can procure the hardcopy version, you'll enjoy the accompanying period photographs of questionable medical practices prevalent at the San.
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Summary: Highly Entertaining -- never a dull moment!
Review: I'm so glad I finally read T.C. Boyle's "The Road to Wellville." From the moment you begin reading, you will be (or, should be) sucked into the story. I've been waiting for a novel to come along and do this to me but also have some sort of substance to it. Every character was unique in his/her own way, and since this novel is based somewhat on history, you also get to learn a bit about Mr. Kellogg (of "san" and cereal fame) and others. I really like how Boyle took one tiny piece of our US history and just blew it up -- adding fiction to the history -- so that I've learned a bit more about something I wouldn't normally learn about. Who knew that the cereal business was so competitive let alone ruthless? Who knew that people flocked to the "san" for treatments we wouldn't necessarily put up with now? Who knew that specialized diets existed then as they do now -- and interestingly enough, they're fairly similar? Boyles can do what others have a hard time doing -- he can create a great story based on history and never make it dull. He never lapses into long, drawn-out explanations of things. He just gives you enough so that you get it and then he moves on. You can always research on your own! And, he really knows how to create multi-faceted characters. You can feel their happiness, their excitement, their shame, their sadness. I would recommend this to anyone who's looking for a great read. Don't let the length fool you -- it's a really quick read giving the circumstances. Go to it!
Rating:
Summary: Lots of fun
Review: In the masterful style that only TC Boyle can do, he sets a story in early 20th century Battle Creek, where Dr. John Harvey Kellogg invited the cornflake, among numerous other health products. A parody of what happens when health-consciousness is taken too far.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of fun
Review: In the masterful style that only TC Boyle can do, he sets a story in early 20th century Battle Creek, where Dr. John Harvey Kellogg invited the cornflake, among numerous other health products. A parody of what happens when health-consciousness is taken too far.
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Summary: Father Knows Best, Or So He Says
Review: John Harvey Kellogg was a man ahead of his time. From the family that invented the corn flake, Dr. Kellogg ran a Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, that was one of the first of its kind in America. Concerned with the physiologic health of its inmates (mostly from the wealthy and upper middle class population), Dr. Kellogg prescribed lots of exercise, enemas, a diet consisting of milk, vegetables, fruits, and grains. No meat of any kind was allowed. The inbibing of alcohol was forbidden as was any kind of sexual activity. Sleeping quarters, even for husbands and wives, were strictly segregated. Dr. Kellogg also performed various experiments to create different types of foods (e.g. corn pulp). He even kept a laboratory holding containers of various animals' feces which Dr. Kellogg believed had the same nutritional value as a steak. Dr. Kellogg was a rigid, self-righteous man who thoroughly believed in his infallability. Never mind that one of his patient's skin was steadily becoming green and that another one was accidentally electrocuted while lolling in a sinusodial bath. We later learn that Dr. Kellogg misdiagnosed one of his patients as having "autointoxication" (all of his patients were allegedly suffering from this malady), when what he really had was an intestinal ulcer. Nor would Dr. Kellogg brook any disagreements with him or his methods. Besides his closest competitor, C.W. Post (whose slogan, "the road to wellville" Dr. Kellogg thoroughly despised), the individual who gave Dr. Kellogg the most trouble was his adopted son, George, who was extraordinarily hostile, rebellious, and downright psychotic. Dr. Kellogg believed that George was the only failure in his brood of 42 adopted children. _The Road To Wellville_ is populated with many colorful and eccentric characters. These include the businessman Will Lightbody (whose name perfectly described him) and his wife, Eleanor, who convinced her husband to accompany her to the San. Both, according to Dr. Kellogg were very ill. Will, who occasionally strayed from the San to partake of hamburger sandwiches and liquid libations, must endure severe punishment for his recalcitrance. Eleanor was befriended by Lionel Badger, in whom Dr. Kellogg deeply mistrusted, and who was a radical anti-vivisectionist and a thorough believer in nudism. Eleanor was also treated outside the San by the German, monocle wearing Dr. Spitzvogel, who would have gone to prison if his methods were judged by today's standards. There is young Charlie Ossining, whom Will and Eleanor met while on their train trip to Battle Creek. Will and others invest in Charlie's breakfast food scheme. Charlie hoped that his venture would enable him to cash in during the then current breakfast food craze. Unfortunately, Charlie's plans go awry because he must contend with Bender, his flagrently dishonest business partner. T.C. Boyle tell his novel with lots of verve, humor, warmth, and humanity. Because Boyle cares deeply about his characters, so do we. What makes _The Road To Wellville_ so poignant is its relevance to today's world. Who amongst us is not familiar with the various diet fads that promise to make the obese lose up to 30 lbs. in two weeks? New health and sports clubs constantly crop up everywhere that brag about their latest state of the art exercise equipment. And who has not seen TV advertisements hawking all sorts of gadgets, and what not that were specially designed to build up men's abs or to flatten women's tummys? So order _The Road To Wellville_ now, and if you do not find it thoroughly enjoyable, engaging, and funny, your local book store owner will totally refund your money.
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Summary: If Dickens Were a Smartass
Review: The jovial tone of this dark and wicked novel is winning. This is a wonderful read and very very funny. The comic style and the high jinks are tempered by the dark and ernst illumination of our contemporary non-smoking non-fat health craze, but my god, who knew it'd be so facinating and weird and true? If you liked the movie, this is ten times better. If you didn't, it's a hundred times better. Bizarre and always entertaing, Boyle is one of our greatest living authors.
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Summary: Hilarious satire with a timely message
Review: The Road to Wellville is going on my list of absolute favourite books. This is one of the funniest novels I have ever read, and also one of the most educational. T. Coraghessan Boyle has perfected the art of understatement. One of my favourite parts is when Eleanor Lightbody is receiving her German therapeutic massage: "She sank beneath it, dreaming of those sylvan glades, of men and women alike gamboling through Bavarian meadows, as naked as God made them, and she felt herself moving, too, the gentlest friction of her hips against the leather padding, moving forward and downwards and ever so therapeutically into that firm sure touch." Trust me, when you get to that part of the book, all will make sense in a most delightful way! This is a chronicle of the scatological misadventures of the spa/health set of the 1890s/1900s. Why do I say scatological? Well, John Kellogg (inventor of corn flakes and peanut butter) was obsessed with the alimentary canal. He believed a strict regimen of no fewer than five enemas per day was necessary for good health. His obsession with defecatory health permeates the novel and gives it its own unique...er...flavour. But the novel is not a coprocentric treatise. It is a hilarious, rollicking journey through the life of a quack who didn't know he was a quack, and through the lives of those he effected. I was first introduced to this tale through the critically-panned film version (which I personally enjoyed very much!). The book shares many common plot elements with the story, but, as is the usual case, is far superior to its film adaptation. It is also a very quick and easy read. It's easy to disassociate myself from the ridiculous treatments included in this book (breathing in radium as a means of treating jaundice is a perfect example), but, I can't help but think T. Coraghessan Boyle may have meant this book to serve also as a cautionary tale. Sure, it's fun to laugh at those silly people of a hundred years ago, but similarly ridiculous and life-threatening "treatments" are being given out now under the guise of holistic healing.
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