The Road to Wellville

by T. Coraghessan Boyle

Will Lightbody is a man with a stomach ailment whose only sin is loving his wife, Eleanor, too much. Eleanor is a health nut of the first stripe, and when in 1907 she journeys to Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's infamous Battle Creek Spa to live out the vegetarian ethos, poor Will goes too.
So begins T. Coraghessan Boyle's wickedly comic look at turn-of-the-century fanatics in search of the magic pill to prolong their lives - or the profit to be had from manufacturing it. Brimming with a Dickensian cast of characters and laced with wildly wonderful plot twists, Jane Smiley in The New York Times Book Review called The Road to Wellville "a marvel, enjoyable from beginning to end."

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor, Historical, Novels, Book Club, Literature

496 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1993

About the author

T. Coraghessan Boyle (also known as T.C. Boyle, is a U.S. novelist and short story writer. Since the late 1970s, he has published eighteen novels and twleve collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York. He is married with three children. Boyle has been a
Professor of English at the University of Southern California since 1978, when he founded the school's undergraduate creative writing program.

He grew up in the small town on the Hudson Valley that he regularly fictionalizes as Peterskill (as in widely anthologized short story Greasy Lake). Boyle changed his middle name when he was 17 and exclusively used Coraghessan for much of his career, but now also goes by T.C. Boyle.

Reviews

[Warwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fat, picaresque novel focuses on the elite but quackish sanitarium run by Dr JH Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan, in the early days of breakfast cereals. Kellogg was a powerful orator, a staunch vegetarian and a proponent of the kind of health fads that we'd nowadays class as alternative medicine; he also had some morbidly puritanical ideas about sex (cornflakes, famously, were originally intended to stop people masturbating – on what principle, I'm not sure, unless he planned to scatter them in people's beds).

The closed world of the sanitarium is a promisingly insular setting for the kind of comic novel that TC Boyle likes to write, and he manages to take in everything here from yogurt enemas, through insane diets (‘protose patties with gluten mush’, anyone?), budding entrepreneurs, down-and-outs, tycoons, alcoholism, opioid addiction, animal experimentation and the nascent nudist movement, all the way to the infamous ‘womb massage’ treatment for hysteria.

In a novel of two hundred pages, all this would have been a riot; at just shy of five hundred, I found it ultimately exhausting. Boyle's sense of humour does not quite agree with me: his main technique involves setting his characters up for great success, allowing them to reach the brink of attaining something wonderful, and then making sure that they fail in the most humiliating and unpleasant way possible at the last minute. I think this is supposed to be comic, but the effect on me was draining. (I vaguely remember feeling something similar during the last TC Boyle book I read, Water Music, too.) In this case, the ending turned out to be quite a happy one, which, unusually for me, actually made up for a lot.

It's almost worth dipping into The Road to Wellville just to sample the mood of this strange time and place, which really is fascinating. But overall, it's not so much Gr-r-reat! as Aver-r-rage! No I'm not proud of it.

Edit: Last night we watched the film version from 1994, directed by Alan Parker. It's great fun, and solves a lot of the problems with the book's plot – and it only requires an investment of two hours. So on balance, I'd recommend that instead.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das ist definitiv der schlechteste oder zweitschlechteste Boyle, den ich jemals gelesen habe. Von den 620 Seiten kann man mindestens 300 ungeschaut in den Mistkübel werfen, vielleicht wäre es sowieso besser gewesen, T.C. hätte gleich auf Seite 280 aufgehört, diesen Roman zu schreiben. Seit dem Moralkapitel und dem ersten Live-Toten im Strombad mit seinen Konzequenzen war die Story so zäh, als wäre ich mit klatschnassen schweren medizinischen Fußwickeln durch Maissirup gewatet.

Die beiden Erzählstränge laufen dem Schriftsteller mit dem normalerweise unvergleichlichen erzählerischen Talent, für den ich Boyle immer schon gehalten habe, völlig aus dem Ruder. Sie verhalten sich wie ein Hochgeschwindigkeits-Intercity-Zug zu einem Regional-Bummerlzug, der an jedem Misthaufen anhält. Sie halten einfach beide nur gelegentlich in ein paar Stationen gemeinsam und dann auch noch zu völlig unterschiedlichen Zeiten. So verpasst der Leser einfach immer den Anschluss und friert frustriert in den zugigen Wartehallen des Plots. Dieser Umstand nervte mich derart, dass ich völlig das Interesse am Handlungsstrang Per-Fo mit Charly Ossinig und Bender verlor, oft wollte ich schon widerwillig diese Kapitel überblättern, hab mich aber dann doch mühevoll durchgebissen. Zugegeben nach mehr als 600 Seiten an der Endhaltestelle wird alles konsitent zusammengefügt, aber das ist viel zu spät und hat außerdem einiges von meiner wertvollen Leseaufmerksamkeit sinnloserweise und schändlich vergeudet.

Ansonsten gibt es natürlich nicht nur Schlechtes von Willkommen in Wellville zu berichten. Die moralinsauren Gesundheitskapitel sind wundervoll und hacken in gewohnter TC-Manier bösartig satirisch und enlarvend auf die bessere Gesellschaft ein. Alle Figuren insbesondere Dr. Kellogg und die Lighthouses sind wundervoll gezeichnet. Die Szenen der Lighthouse-Ehe muss man sich überhaupt mal auf der Zunge zergehen lassen, die strotzen nur so von Einfallsreichtum und tiefenpsychologischen Einsichten, was man sich durch kleine impertinente Nadelstiche gegenseitig antun und wie man sich das Leben schwermachen kann.

Witzig grotesk wütet Dr. Kellogg gleich einem Ritter in Rüstung gewappnet mit moralischer und medizinischer Empörung mit unverrückbarer Meinung gegen jegliche Bedürfnisbefriedigung. Das fängt beim lustfeindlichen Essen an, verteufelt Alkohol und Tabak, entzieht allen Menschen in seiner Umgebung auch seinen Kindern irgendwelche Gefühle der Zuwendung und hört beim Schlafen und bei Sex auf.

Alles ist nicht nur moralisch verwerflich und unnötige Zeitverschwendung, Kellogg legt für sich und seine Patienten auch medizinische Gründe zurecht, fälscht Fakten und Daten wie unter dem Mikroskop, das alles ungesund sei, obwohl er genau weiß, dass er alle für dumm verkauft. Die berechtigte Frage nach dem Aussterben der gesamten Menschheit beim gänzlichen Verzicht auch auf ehelichen Sex wiegelt er ab. Sie sollte offensichtlich aussterben. Kellogg adoptiert, anstatt diesen grauslichen Sex zu praktizieren, wie ein Wilder irgendwelche Kinder und fühlt sich dadurch auch noch zum Empfänger von unendlicher Dankbarkeit berechtigt.

Alles dient seiner Mission, die tierquälerische Erziehung eines Wolfes zum Vegetarier (der ihm letztendlich auch undankbar ins Bein beißt), die Manipulation des Publikums, Bakterien und Würmer im Fleisch unter dem Mikroskop zu entdecken, dieser unvergleichliche Sauberkeitswahn mit mehr als 5 Darmspülungen am Tag und das operative Herumgestochere in den Därmen der Patienten. Wenn man die Figur Kellogg entwicklungspsychologisch analysiert, muss man sagen, dass bei diesem Herrn in der annalen Phase nicht nur ein bisschen was schiefgegangen, sondern der Schaden quasi derart gravierend irreparabel und nur durch eine Lobotomie behebbar wäre. Diese Zwangsstörung lebt er aus und transferiert sie auch gleich mit medizinischen Theorien garniert auf die Umwelt - sowas nennt man in der Psychologie Übertragung. Dabei werden seine verrückten unverrückbaren Theorien auch nach einigen Toten im Sanatorium (sowohl auf menschlicher als auch auf tierischer Seite) nie auf Fehler untersucht, ein bisschen Fehleranalyse und Skrupel leistet sich der große Zampano nie. Da wird ordentlich die Realität verdrängt, Fakten mit der Mission geglättet, uminterpretiert und wieder in Einklang gebracht. Ein großartiger Ungustl - wirklich gut beschrieben.

Auch der Boylsche Humor blitzt natürlich in diesem ewig langen Roman in gewohnter Manier durch:
"Will klammerte sich an die Speisekarte, als wäre sie ein Seil, das über eine Grube mit Krokodilen gespannt war. Seine Tischnachbarn waren verstummt, konzentrierten sich auf seine gedankenreichen Erwägungen. Hier ging es nicht einfach ums Essen, das war Wissenschaft."

Letztendlich bleiben bei diesem Werk nur 2,5 Sterne auf der Guthabenseite, weil es einerseits eben gar so lang war. Andererseits hat es mich nicht ganz so schlimm wie die Korrekturen von Franzen genervt, da zwar der Plot grottenschlecht, aber die Figuren in gewohnter Qualität konzipiert sind. Aus diesem Grund bzw. weil ich auch ein Fan vom T.C. bin, runde ich wohlwollend auf 3 Sterne auf.

Fazit: Wie ich schon bei meiner Asterix-Besprechung diese Woche ausgeführt habe: Lest einen Boyle, aber bitte einen anderen.

[Fuchsia Groan · Rating 2 out of 5]

El balneario de Battle Creek lo tenía todo para gustarme. Una historia completamente disparatada basada en hechos reales, la duda inicial y siempre agradable de si Kellogg sería un fanático convencido de sus propias teorías o un oportunista (comprendía muy bien que la rareza era una prerrogativa de los ricos, y que su trabajo y su misión consistían en explotarla lo mejor que pudiera), el autor, T.C. Boyle, que tiene un estilo que me gusta, un humor absurdo, una ironía con la que conecto... pero una vez superadas las primeras cien páginas, la novela no me ha gustado prácticamente nada.

La presentación del sanatorio, el no va más del negocio de la salud, hotel de lujo, hospital y balneario al mismo tiempo, y sus dinámicas, consistentes en una dieta severa (filetes de Protose, sumidades de remolacha y caldo de nueces con especias), cinco enemas diarios, como mínimo, la supresión de cualquier tipo de actividad sexual (lo más triste de la existencia humana), y los discursos iniciales del Dr. Kellogg, son lo mejor de la novela y llegué incluso a soltar alguna carcajada, pero a partir de ahí cada subtrama es volver una y otra vez sobre lo mismo, perdiendo todo el interés.

Demasiada abstinencia para mi gusto, poco me importa si es cierto que incluso los más jóvenes, saludables y vigorosos de nosotros se ven afectados, amigos míos, por los debilitantes efectos de los excesos sexuales.

[Donna Napier · Rating 4 out of 5]

TC Boyle is one of my favorite authors because I simply fall in love with his sentences. The man writes such incredible sentences! The Road to Wellville is a captivating story, too, so between the brilliant sentence structure and the fascinating story line, I was spellbound until the ending. Unfortunately, like other TC Boyle novels I've read, the ending missed the mark for me. It seems that Boyle paints himself into a corner and then just decides that the only way out is to walk back across the wet paint. Still, I would recommend the Road to Wellville. The journey across the room and into the corner is well worth the read.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I'd be hard-pressed to name another author who so effectively combines humor with dread. In every book by T.C. Boyle – this one included – I cringe as I read because I know some horrible reckoning will befall most of the main characters, but the journey to that reckoning is so frequently punctuated with humor and absurdity that I feel terrible enjoying these characters' downfalls so damn much.

Like so many of Boyle's other books, The Road to Wellville is based at least partially in fact. This time he trains his eye on the health food and clean-living "sanitarium" ("San," for short) run by John Harvey Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan in the early days of the 20th century. The story nimbly takes in Kellogg's fanaticism (his prescription for the San's patients seems to mainly revolve around seaweed and enemas), the sad lives of a few of the San's patients, a pair of traveling hucksters who hope to cash in on the new breakfast cereal craze, and Kellogg's ne'er-do-well adoptive son.

Of these characters, Boyle is most interested in the way three men's lives intersect: Kellogg; Will Lightbody, a patient whose digestive system has been wrecked, Kellogg believes, by a life of eating meat and drinking booze; and Charlie Ossining, the younger of the pair who hopes to make his name in breakfast food. Multiple games of cat and mouse ensue, as Kellogg tries to get Lightbody to buy into the San's health food regimen; Ossining tries to get Lightbody to invest in his new brand of cereal; and Lightbody just wants to eat steak and get it on with his nubile nurse. The book is always funny, but there are always those tendrils of dread twining their way into and through the book's pages, reminding us that this is T.C. Boyle, after all, and this surely won't end well for anyone.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wortgewandt ist er ja, ich finde großartig, wie Boyle alle Figuren und ihr Verhalten hier auf den Punkt vorführt. Aber diese unnötigen Längen, dieses Kreisen und nur schleppend vorwärts kommen, ging mir immer mehr auf die Nerven.

[JTT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Done to a turn, like a Porterhouse steak, grilled to a perfect medium rare. Or should I say: "like a Protose Pattie perfectly congealed." This is an excellent, well-written, funny novel about Kellogg and Battle Creek in its heyday. An incredible amount of research must have been undertaken in order to craft such a classic piece of American fiction. I don't know how TC Boyle does it. Like his book on the Kinseys, he writes with so much confidence and factual detail you'd think he'd lived in these times and these places and had access to the most intimate personal thoughts and events in his characters' lives. I'll remember this book every time I eat a bowl of cereal or hear some quack on TV touting the latest energy drink or vitamin.

[Carla Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting story of the hilarious Edwardian Patent Medication Situation, Sanitariums and the Breakfast Food Bubble with its Cereal Profiteers, set in 1907 at the Kelllogg Health Spa in Battle Creek, Michigan. Based on real life history. But I am unable to fully say I enjoyed this. Because I can not understand why this book is so long (Penguin paperback 476 pages). Not that much happens and it doesn't span that much time. I would remove at least a third. There is a good book in there.

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical fiction based on the real life character of Dr. Kellogg, whose name is still featured on cereal boxes. Less well-known is the motivation behind the creation of these breakfast foods (they were believed to "moderate" the libido).

This novel follows medical fads and fashion, and does so in a way that amuses the reader — and illuminates the modern era.

[Chance Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Road to Wellville is an at-times fascinating, at-times dull historical fiction about John Harvey Kellogg and his cult-like following of health nuts at the turn of the century. The fascinating parts are really fascinating and the dull parts are, thankfully, not that dull, thanks to T.C. Boyle's expertise with the English language. If thinks had moved along at a brisker pace, it would have held my attention better.

This is billed as a comic novel, but maybe the long passages made me too drowsy to see the comedy. Unless I was supposed to laugh at how silly these people were. Oh, they thought eating corn flakes would make them immortal, oh, ha-ha, chuckles all around. I don't think mocking is the point of the novel; however, the ridiculously farcical ending makes me wonder (an angry wolf, a feisty monkey, a someone throwing jars of fecal samples). Although I did laugh when Kellogg ordered that the goose be given an enema, laughing at these people for their misguided, archaic efforts at health would be shortsighted. In a hundred years, what we're doing /today/ will be considered silly, ridiculous, and maybe downright dangerous, just as much as the sinusoidal baths and the yogurt enemas of the early 1900s.

[Michael Behrmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dies ist der schwächste Roman von T.C. Boyle den ich bisher gelesen habe. Und das liegt fast ausschließlich daran dass er schlicht deutlich zu lang ist. Ganz offenbar hat Boyle vorher eine Menge recherchiert und konnte dann der Versuchung nicht widerstehen möglichst viele seiner Funde auch in irgendeiner Weise im Text unterzubringen. Nun ist für sich genommen praktisch jedes der vielen skurrilen und erstaunlichen Details über das Leben in Battle Creek zu Anfang des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts wirklich interessant, oft überaus witzig und eigentlich immer auch ziemlich verblüffend, aber in ihrer puren Vielzahl führen sie dann eben doch zu einigen etwas langatmigen Passagen. Erschwerend kommt hinzu dass die Geschichte, genau genommen die vielen lange Zeit nur sehr lose verbundenen Parallel-Geschichten, nur langsam Fahrt aufnehmen. Irgendwann tun sie es aber doch, und die letzten rund zweihundert Seiten sind dann auch wieder auf dem Niveau wie man es von diesem Autor eigentlich gewohnt ist. Also ganz großartig. Trotzdem kann ich jedem der noch nie etwas von Boyle gelesen hat nur dringend davon abraten ausgerechnet mit „Willkommen in Wellville“ anzufangen. Allen Fans aber sei gesagt, dass, den beschriebenen Schwächen zum Trotz, hier mehr als genug von dem drinsteckt was wir an Boyle so lieben um die Lektüre definitiv nicht zu bereuen.
3,5 Sterne

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this so long ago that all i can remember is that i started skeptical and warmed up fast to this relevant spoof

[Joseph D'Lacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

My judgement is utterly coloured by that fact that I saw the film adaptation first and adored it.

There was never any chance that the novel could live up to the memories I already had in my mind's eye when reading it. So, for me at least, this is one of those very rare occasions upon which the film gets five stars, the book only four.

T. C. Boyle is an accomplished and skilful novelist, whose ability to make the past seem real and immediate is extraordinary. However, in terms of pace, Alan Parker's script turns Boyle's leisurely exploration of life at John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanatorium into a laugh-a-minute romp. You should see the movie if you have the chance.

Of course, this should take nothing away from the success of the novel itself.

Boyle's treatment of the subject matter is far more in-depth and his character studies, which appear to follow a good deal of prior research, are brilliant. If you like fiction that's based on historical fact - my faves would be Shogun, Aztec and Lonesome Dove among others - then you ought to lap this book up.

In terms of style and use of language, Boyle is a master and the book is a work of art. I love the intertwining threads of story because all of them turn on the anxieties, neuroses and dishonesties that bubble below the surface - most especially in 'polite' society.

So, I think you'll have fun with what is a sardonic yet well-observed trip back in time; a story that lays bare the birth of the Health and Wellbeing obsessions society still suffers from - yes, suffers from - today: They are as much an illness as illness itself.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, really, but goodreads' war on subtlety continues. as a stylistic exercise this is a triumph. as an actual novel, something south of there, although not like antarctica south. very much in the vein of new yorker humor articles -- where my response is "ah, i see this person is making a joke" as opposed to actually laughing or feeling amused. there were a few exceptions: the repetition of "womb manipulation" toward the end gets pretty funny. but a lot of the other stuff really felt formuliac. from the second the chimp was introduced in act i, i knew that it would go on a rampage before the novel was over. i plowed through the 476 pages because i liked the characters, even if the book was a little mean to them. this could have been the premise of a really good 240 page novel, or an even better 120 page novel. the idea here is, what if someone re-wrote "the magic mountain" but played just for laughs. but glad to have painted a TC boyle novel on my fuselage just for breadth of perspective.

[Aurora · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those hard to rate books. It's funny and the subject and time period are surprising and compelling to me. But after a certain point, the story just stops moving forward. To stereotype wildly, this seems to happen to me often with modern fiction- I like the characters and the story, but somewhere in the middle things just start to amble, and the thing ends up being 400 pages for no good reason.

Historical fiction is so weird, anyway. Somewhere in the middle of this, I thought "why am I not just reading a nonfiction book about the Kellogg sanitarium?"If I have to read a whole book about enema machines, I think maybe I'd rather know fact from fiction. So I can confidently tell everyone gross historical facts!

[Annette Kaiser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das Buch war anfangs sehr langatmig, bis es richtig spannend wurde vergingen 400 Seiten. Nach dem Buch habe ich den Film gesehen, er war amüsant und kurzweilig. Nur das Ende war deutlich verfälscht. Aber sicherlich ein Klassiker, um den Hype um die gesunde Ernährung des Herrn Kellog in den zwanziger Jahren zu verstehen.

[Armin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eigentlich zweieinhalb, aber ich habe so meine Gründe diesen literarischen Hochstapler ein wenig abzuwerten. Alles weitere später.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Random thoughts about T.C. Boyle’s amusing and interesting The Road to Wellville, which Goodreads says I’ve read before but I haven’t. So either Goodreads is wrong or I’m a lying liar who lies:

Provenance: Picked up from a Little Free Library in my neighborhood while out walking my dog.

Expectations: Although I had given this four stars, I hadn’t read it, so I really didn’t know what to expect.

The Story: Will and Elanor Lightbody go to Battle Creek, Michigan, for an extended stay at Dr. Kellogg’s Sanitarium, where all of the latest health fads (vegetarianism, daily enemas, deep breathing exercises, etc.) are part of the daily routine.

In a separate but connected plot line, Charlie Ossining comes to Battle Creek to make his fortune running a startup breakfast food business with his partner, Bender.

Nothing, in either story, goes as planned.

What it's really about: The obsession with health and diet, and the people who take advantage of those seeking it. Though the story takes place at the turn of the 20th century, the message is timeless.

Boyle fictionalizes what was happening in the early 1900’s, but the same is true today. Humans are obsessed with prolonging their lives and living as healthy a lifestyle as possible. From Dr. Kellogg’s methods to vibrating exercisers to Ozempic, people are always trying to be healthier and lose weight, and there are others who seeks to profit from that.

Not that Kellogg is a charlatan. He truly believes that his methods prolong better health and longer life. He is more of a quack who thinks that he is doing much good for the world. His patients come to the Sanitarium and give themselves over to him, never questioning his methods but blindly following along with whatever he and his staff prescribes.

At the same time, Charlie Ossining, like many others of that time, are trying to become rich and famous. With the advent of Corn Flakes, Grape Nuts, and other popular cereals, getting into the breakfast food business is a way to do that. It’s the early 20th century’s cryptocurrency.

Like the Lightbody’s, Charlie comes to Battle Creek naïve and trusting, setting him up to be taken advantage of by Bender. Bender is truly bad, scamming Charlie and his investors out of their money.

This is all told in a comic, farcical manner with many moments of humor. In the end, the Lightbody’s and Charlie learn some valuable lessons and come out the other side ultimately for the better.

Could this be a movie or tv series?: This was a 1994 film starring Matthew Broderick and Bridget Fonda as the Lightbody’s and Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Kellogg.

Of Note: In addition to the above, John Cusack plays Charlie, Dana Carvey plays Dr. Kellogg’s estranged adopted son George, Lara Flynn Boyle plays another Sanitarium guest, and Michael Lerner plays Bender.

One of the messages of the book is that one size does not fit all when it comes to health. Sanitarium patients die because the doctors and nurses are so wedded to their solutions that they don’t realize when someone doesn’t fit that mold. In fact, patients seeking other treatments or “cures” outside of the Sanitarium is highly discouraged. So there is an element of anti-“groupthink” that is also relevant today. The book makes gentle fun of people who go along with something crazy just because everyone else is going along with it.

Picking Nits: I think that the book is too long by about a third. Near the end, I found myself skimming the descriptive paragraphs.

If you don’t like farce, there will be moments in this book that will be difficult for you. Some of the bad guys are so cartoonish that you want to yell at the good guy to run away and save themselves.

Recommendation: It’s a good book, if a bit overlong. Again, I have never read this so I don’t know how or why I hard it rated at four stars, except to say that I was clearly trying to deceive all of you. Still, there is humor and some beautiful writing in it.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remembering the failed movie based on The Road to Wellville (that I didn’t see until it was on television and, even then, it was sliced up for broadcast television (Remember? Before streaming and broadband capabilities? You had to wait until someone put the film on the air.)), I don’t know quite how it failed with the fabulous casting. Bridgett Fonda was the perfect image of the beautiful, wealthy, self-indulgent, and slightly frigid spouse of Matthew Broderick as the frustrated husband trying to please his implacable wife by submitting to the most humiliating prescriptions for his indigestion. His wife nearly killed him by trying to cure him at home and then, as he visited Dr. John H. Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium. Dana Carvey at his craziest was perfect as George Kellogg, one of Kellogg’s 42 adopted children who was most disappointing to him and proves something of the antagonist in this story. John Cusack plays a would-be rival who is cleverly duped into underwriting another venture and, of course, the only individual I could imagine more interesting in the role of Dr. Kellogg would have been the late John Houseman. After recently reading the book, I plan to find a DVD or streaming version of the film and view it again.

Ah, but the book! T. Coraghessan Boyle is an author heretofore avoided by yours truly. People raved about him and I thought he was just a fad. I found out that his writing is extremely substantial and a lot more satisfying than the vegetarian foods experienced by the residents of the sanitorium. I found myself taken by descriptions of the winter wind (“The wind was still up and the Doctor, momentarily distracted, heard it come and crouch in the trees with the forlorn wail of a demon lover risen from the grave to take its own back again.” (pp. 280-1)), the near-sexual ecstasy of a “colon wash” (“Will felt the hot fluid surprise of it, his insides flooding as if a dam had burst, as if all the tropical rivers of the world were suddenly flowing through him, irrigating him, flushing cleansing, churning away at his deepest nooks and recesses in a tumultuous cathartic rush. It was the most mortifying and exquisite moment of his life.” (pp. 61-62), and the reappearance of the dissipated and disappointing son (“There was a man there, medium height, unshaven, his hair wildly unkempt, his suit like cheesecloth, smudges of dirt on his visible flesh like deep blue bruises.” (p. 317)

The Road to Wellville is a fascinating novel. I learned a lot and it spurred me to do additional research. I learned about fascinating paraphernalia regarding alleged health improvement and received a pretty nice picture of 19th century quackery regarding patent medicines and health fads. My biggest frustration with the book was the lack of an afterward where, in most historical fiction I read, the author untangles the fact from the speculation and the carefully concocted fiction. It’s incredibly helpful to the reader, as well as giving extra confidence in the author and an incentive to read more of the author’s work. Right now, I have to say, “Not automatically!” It will depend on the subject matter.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see how this would make a nice movie. There are some humorous scenes in it for sure. But the author became extremely redundant. Yes, I get it that the patients at Dr. Kellogg's sanitarium undergo enemas multiple times per day, have starvation-level vegetarian diets prescribed to them, are forbidden to have sex, and engage in many other unorthodoxed treatments. After half the book was over, these facts were being rehashed over and over and over when the author could have just resolved the book.

I rarely ever say this, but:
Watch the movie. Skip the book.

[Patrick Barry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I struggled mightily with the story of a Kellogg brother who ran a health sanitarium in Battle Creek Michigan. There were more flakes in the story than the cereal and I found none of the characters likable. Maybe I might have enjoyed it more if I had read it near the time of publication when vegan sensibilities were less prominent. The book was a long one, but in the end I felt like Fauna the wolf, given a lot to eat, but no meat.

[Straw · Rating 5 out of 5]

There isn't a TC Boyle book that I don't love. This one seems like a cut from today; rather, than a book about the past. Doctors revered as gods, money buying health, a thousand hucksters out there hustling so we call all live forever....I mean.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of T.C. Boyle for many years and have read several of his novels and short story collections. For the most part, I have enjoyed them all and really feel that Boyle is a masterful writer and storyteller. Many of his novels are based on actual persons and events including THE INNER CIRCLE about Kinsey and his sex research, THE WOMEN about Frank Lloyd Wright and his wives, and WATER MUSIC about the African explorer Mungo Park. In THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE, Boyle satirizes the inventor of the corn flake, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, and his celebrated spa in Battle Creek, Michigan, that was supposed to cure all ills. Kellogg used a variety of treatments (mostly quackery) at his spa including enforcing a strict vegetarian diet, a five-enema-a-day regimen, and treatments such as the sinusoidal electric bath. In the novel, Will and Eleanor Lightbody of Peterskill, New York, come into the sanatorium as patients. Eleanor is a zealot about the San's treatments but Will is made miserable with his diet including weeks of nothing but milk or grapes, the daily enemas, and the shocking bath treatments. In a parallel storyline, Charlie Ossining, comes to town to start his own breakfast-food company with his partner Bender. Then there is Kellogg's adopted wayward son George who has been out to get even with Kellogg for years. This all leads to a wacky storyline that is full of unexpected drama and over-the-top funny situations.

As usual, I enjoyed this Boyle look at a part of history that I wasn't at all familiar with. I'm sure he took a lot of liberties in telling this one but this made it all the more engaging to read. The copy of the book that I read was a tie-in to the movie version made in 1994 that starred Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Kellogg. I will be looking out for it. And I will be looking forward to reading more by Boyle.

[Rauf · Rating 3 out of 5]

1907.
Battle Creek, Michigan.

The American bourgeois were lining up to get top treatments for their sick, frail bodies at the Sanatorium. Most of them suffered the same ailment: their colons were shot to hell. The man in charge (and who could save them) was Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Surgeon, inventor, author, cap'n of industry. His methods were simple but very challenging.
Stop eating meat, stop drinking, stop smoking. Don't worry. The menu in the San living room would make you want to forget those foul things.
Like, who'd want the biggest, juiciest steak money could buy when you could have some prottose patties instead? If that's not what you fancy, there was bean tapioca soup, nuttolene, prune fritters, corn pulp, glutten mush and since the inventor was running the place, cornflakes (the real one, not the bastardized sugary version).
Mmmmm. Glutten mush. Yummy, eh?
Scotch, bourbon, brandy, these were for degenerates. Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of kumyss or kaffir tea? Or some milk? How's about a yoghurt?
While you're at it, you could say adieu to sex too. Kellogg really, really despised sex. Killed a lot of women, he argued. He didn't even do it with the missus.
But Dr. K's main weapon to heal his patients' ravaged colon was a daily dose of enema. Five times a day. Good for what ails ya. Makes those colon squeaky clean. Kellogg swore by that stuff. He got himself one every morning.
For those who don't know what's it like to get an enema, it's like this:
http://images.google.co.id/imglanding...

That is not porn. This is porn:
http://images.google.co.id/imglanding...

On the streets of Battle Creek, things could get dirty and messy as well. Inspired by C.W. Post and Kellogg's success, people were coming to town to start their own breakfast food/cereal company. Right after you got off the train, they came at you, offering you to buy stocks to a company that would never exist. The real ones, they went bankrupt lickety-split.
One of the main stories in the book was Dr. Kellogg's enmity with one of his adopted sons, George. The Doc had about forty other adopted children, not one of them ever gave him a hard time. With George, it was 24/7. Real pain in Kellogg's ass, he was. He hated living with the Doc, eating those yucky health food. He didn't care about personal hygiene. At the age of 19, he lived in a factory ruin downtown and he only came to see his adopted father whenever he needed cash. Then George invested some money in a fledgling breakfast food company called Per-Fo -- it became Kellogg's Per-Fo but Per-Fo was no bowl of Special K. They couldn't even make the product.
Boyle never wrote in details why Dr. K failed with George. Both seemed to be polar opposites since day one. When he was a kid, George never put his coat on a peg and to make sure George put it there, Dr. K instructed him clearly and lucidly. D'you know what George did? He literally did nothing except walk from downstairs to his room and hang his coat on a peg. He did it for over week.
Maybe George was bad to the bone. A little sociopath. A hopeless case. Or maybe he was the one who needed love the most.
To me, yes, Dr. Kellogg cared a lot about his adopted children but I don't think he loved them unconditionally. The man was a cold fish. He liked them when they were obedient, subservient. When they made him look good. A man in his stature certainly didn't like it when his ego was being challenged by some punk, which George did day in and day out.

The Road To Wellville was not a furiously funny novel like the back cover described. There were some black humor here, some subtle, some were not; how to turn a wolf into a vegetarian, oysters are pee food, not sea food and freikoper kultur was just a fancy phrase for fingerbang.
To me it was a tragedy. About people who tried to have perfect lives. Charlie Ossining wanted to achieve the American Dream. Will and Eleanor Lightbody's marriage had never been the same ever since she lost the baby so she seeked solace in Battle Creek. George was the only one who didn't care about his life but he was adopted by a man who seemed to have a perfect life. Dr. K's idea of living was to live in a bland bubble and focused only to surgery, his patients and the San.
They wanted perfect lives. But they looked in places they knew they wouldn't get. Worse even, they were in denial.
Do these people even deserve a happy ending?

This was my first experience rading a novel by Boyle. He supplied interesting ideas, backed up by fine researches on Kellogg and the San and the breakfast food biz at Battle Creek in the early 1900. He's a sculptor of sentences, although not as high-falutin' as Chabon. No one is. Michael Chabon wrote sentences you can taste (and they taste like tiramisu).
My gripe with this book is there were too maany nothing happened between the big events so it felt like the book was too damn long.

[Ricarda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Langatmig, nervig und langweilig. Kein Vergleich mit Wassermusik…

[Rachel Drobnak]

Barely started…realized quickly I did not want to read a book about people’s digestive issues and an eugenicist 🙈🙈

[Ian Mapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

You have to admire TC Boyle, this is the forth book (after Drop City, Tortilla Curtain and Inner Circle) of his that i have read and they are all different, with different themes and time frames.

This is comedy gold and tells the story of the Kellog family, superbly played by Anthony Hopkins in the film adaptaion.

He runs a sanitarioum in 19th Century smallsville america with some bizarre treatments - mostly based around the bowell and the avoidance of meat, coffee and drink.

Three seperate strories run independantly and come together throughout the book.

Kellogg and his relationship with his wayward Son George - played out differently in the book and film.

A newlywed couple (the wonderfully named Lightbodies) who come for treatment. She is repressed sexually until she is treated for her hysteria through "Womb Manipulation" by a germanic doctor. He is a recovering alcoholic - whos previous treatments were hilariously told in the back story as first he was treated with Opium to cure his dependance on alchol and then whiskey to cure hid dependance on opium.

Finally, there is Charles Ossinger and the wonderful Bender. Charlie is a would be entrepenuer and bender is a larger than life confidence trickster - both wonderfully drawn. Charlie is keen to setup a breakfast food company, bender is keen to blow the raised capital in the wonderful sounding Red Onion Restaurant.

The three stories interlap - Will Lighbody quits the sanatorium after too much seaweed and a milk diet and observing one of kellogs inventions going wrong and electrocuting two patients and goes mad on raw hambruger, whiskey and beer in the Red Onion where he meets Charlie.

Charlie meets George and recruits him to their business venture to play on the kelogg name.

The story is consistently funny - with a message on societies obsession with help.

Its equally as good as the other TC Boyle books I have read and on a completely different subject matter and time frame. I believe he can turn his hand to any subject and produce wonderful books.

The film was a cracking adaptation as well.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

You expect a certain amount of snarkiness from Boyle, and Wellville doesn't dissapoint, but I found no glee in it, as I did in Drop City, or Budding Prospects, or even Water Music. I kept thinking what a marvelous writer he is, yet how unfortunate his choice of stories and characters are. I get it that Kellog's sanitarium and its regimens were for the turn of the century's health nuts, and that many of its practices were misguided and downright dangerous in some cases. I get that there were hucksters chasing the elusive dream of being the next great cereal maker. The characters Boyle created to exemplify these ideas just didn't engage me, and the changes they went through in the novel wherein they learned their lessons all seemed to come in the end in a hurried clump. There are plenty of other, better books (by Boyle and others) out there to read rather than wasting your time with this one.

[Marie Kelleher · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know, I've given T.C. Boyle a couple of tries now. In both cases (the other was Drop City, which I liked slightly better), I found myself vaguely interested and vaguely irritated, in equal measure. In both cases, he gives us a utopian experiment pulled down by the most banal of human flaws (which, I suppose, is the real tragedy: at our worst, we're not so much "evil" or even "bad" as we are distressingly petty and self-involved). In each, he draws his characters with some depth, but you can't really like any of them, or humanity in general. Don't get me wrong: I think he's a good writer; I just can't like his books.

On the other hand, this book made me want to learn more about turn-of-the-century health faddism, so for that intriguing central premise and research alone, I bumped my rating up from "It was okay" to "liked it."

[David DeValera · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Road to Wellville is a story of people in search of Organic Grace. Dr. Kellogg's followers believe they suffer from the visceral accumulation of toxic sludge brought on by years of improper diet. Since the rigors of eating were never mastered better than by the great Cleansed Colon himself, Dr. Kellogg, they follow his every command. They scour their colons, blast out their bowels, purge their way to purity--yet, despite the daily intrusions to their lower orifices', they still end up digging their own graves with their teeth.

Told with unrelenting satire, The Road to Wellville is the story of an original Health Nut and all his pampered followers. Provides great insights into the Fad that still drains wallets today.