The Road to Wellville
2 journalers for this copy...
(different cover)
T.C. Boyle says:
The Road to Wellville was published by Viking in 1993, and until the advent of The Tortilla Curtain, was my most widely-read book. It reflects my fascination with (and comic trepanning of) the health food movement in the early part of the nineteenth century. The book is focused around an actual historical figure, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of the cornflake and founder of the renowned spa, The Battle Creek Sanitarium. A host of invented characters share the stage with Dr. Kellogg, including the Lightbodys (Will and Eleanor--she is a true "Battle Freak" and he has lost his powers of digestion to steak, booze and the Sears White Star Liquor Cure) and Charlie Ossining, a comically naive entrepreneur, eager to cash in on the breakfast food craze. Indeed, breakfast foods, as they were then called, were a source of entrepreneurial frenzy in the way of the Internet stocks of today. Life at the San was pretty bleak, by my way of thinking. Here, for example, is what you might get for breakfast at this sterling spa and resort for the health-minded: Nut Lisbon Steak, Protose Patties, Nuttolene & Jelly, Corn Pulp, Sliced Banana with Beaten Meltose, Granuto, Graham Grits and much more. And you could wash it all down with Kumyss, Kaffir Tea, Sanitas Koko and the like.
T.C. Boyle says:
The Road to Wellville was published by Viking in 1993, and until the advent of The Tortilla Curtain, was my most widely-read book. It reflects my fascination with (and comic trepanning of) the health food movement in the early part of the nineteenth century. The book is focused around an actual historical figure, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of the cornflake and founder of the renowned spa, The Battle Creek Sanitarium. A host of invented characters share the stage with Dr. Kellogg, including the Lightbodys (Will and Eleanor--she is a true "Battle Freak" and he has lost his powers of digestion to steak, booze and the Sears White Star Liquor Cure) and Charlie Ossining, a comically naive entrepreneur, eager to cash in on the breakfast food craze. Indeed, breakfast foods, as they were then called, were a source of entrepreneurial frenzy in the way of the Internet stocks of today. Life at the San was pretty bleak, by my way of thinking. Here, for example, is what you might get for breakfast at this sterling spa and resort for the health-minded: Nut Lisbon Steak, Protose Patties, Nuttolene & Jelly, Corn Pulp, Sliced Banana with Beaten Meltose, Granuto, Graham Grits and much more. And you could wash it all down with Kumyss, Kaffir Tea, Sanitas Koko and the like.
took a while to get going but was ultimately a worthwhile read. I'm not sure what liberties the author took with the character of John Harvey Kellogg, but if the real man was anything like the one portrayed in this book he was a right nutter (in more ways than one)
released to the COT Bookcrossing Zone
this book has been taken from (and subsequently returned to) the COT Bookcrossing Zone.
I'm now reclaiming it for release elsewhere...
I'm now reclaiming it for release elsewhere...
selected by dolphin-au from VBB Oz
Journal Entry 6 by dolphin-au from Lake Macquarie, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, August 9, 2009
As a self-professed health nut I am looking forward to read this, probably irreverent, book. Thanks freelunch.
I quite enjoyed this book. I am myself active in the alternative health field, and know all too well how many go to extreme lengths in trying to achieve optimum 'health'. There is still no shortage f nutters in the field. The problem though is that there is a kernel of truth in many things these people (including Kellogg) believe. Jsut because they take it to extremes doesn't mean that everything they believe is rubbish.
The book was great fun to read. Thanks freelunch for introducing me to this author. i will certainly read more of his other works.
The book was great fun to read. Thanks freelunch for introducing me to this author. i will certainly read more of his other works.
