The Road to Wellville by T.C. Boyle
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Book Reviews of The Road to Wellville
Book Review: Very entertaining, but no match for "The Tortilla Curtain"
Summary: 4 Stars
Though nowhere near as profound as Boyle's magnum opus, The Tortilla Curtain, The Road to Wellville is an extremely entertaining novel with an unclear message.As best I can tell, the book is an indictment of orthodoxy and charlatanism, perhaps equating the 2 to the pitfalls of religious dogma.
Book Review: Spoiled my appetite...but I kept on chewing.
Summary: 3 Stars
Not a word out of place----Boyle is a master at creating the experience. With all its visual, gustatory, olfactory and auditory imagery, the repulsion is unrelenting. Gobs of phlegm, bulbous oysters, milkslime, sprouts mush...he had to be a real artist to keep the all thoughts of anything remotely savory, crunchy, yummy, tart-sweet, rich & satisfying, delicately spiced at bay. The San, which has surely been described with some justification in other literature as palatial & inviting, hits the reader as cold, vast, sterile, empty. Odors are acrid, antiseptic, not fragrant. And the enema reigns supreme. Pretty disgusting. So why am I laughing?I'm listening to the tapes on my daily commute, and get out of my car with a knot in my stomach every time. I should listen to it while I eat--would probably lose a lot of weight.
What's more, the characters are uniformly dumb if not dumber. It's hard to identify with any of them, and you keep hoping for Charlie O.to discover a great oats recipe and shape it into little "o's", for poor George's drive to up-yours his adoptive father sobers him once and for all for a successful fight, that Eleanor figures out what on earth that doctor is doing sooner, and that Will gets a job. For heaven's sake, don't these people have work to do?
At the same time it's frighteningly familiar territory--you like what's not good for you, you try to do the right thing and get kicked for it, you put a good face on things and someone calls your bluff, you just know that you'll be found out as less than you make yourself out to be, and you believe somebody and get taken for a ride.....so I guess you do identify. I'm two tapes from the end and live in hope that something turns out OK for someone.
Book Review: Historically Incorrect
Summary: 3 Stars
First off, the author as well as other reviewer mention that Kellogg is the inventor of peanut butter. This is incorrect. Its actually George Washington Carver that invented peanut butter as well as over 200 uses for the peanut. Kellogg did not invent peanut butter, but may have advocated its use as a protien substitute instead of eating meat or any type of animal flesh.As for my review. I found Boyle's take on the post-victorian era health fad to be entertaining. I was facinated by the ignorance of health issues back in 1907 as well as the plethora of "snake oil" salesmen, Kellogg included, who tried to petal some of the most ridiculous cures for the most common malaise. All symptoms of aches and pains were diagnosed by Kellogg as "autointoxication of this" or "autointoxication of that" This and that being eating of meat or drinking of alcohol. Its a marvel that so many people were eager to put their lives in the hands of people who were in no way, shape, or form trained in the medical profession. A scary journey into the birth of the health and nutrition era.
Book Review: Wellville & Kellog
Summary: 3 Stars
This is an historical novel about John Kellog, Battle Creek, Michigan, and the wacky health institute he ran there. Kellog comes across as a martinette advocating risky diets and enemas to patients. Boyle can be pretty funny at times as he skewers Kellog and his shinanigans, and, of course, the arm of his satire reaches right up to today and the health fad industry, much of which is just as nutty as anything Kellog was advocating. Besides this novel, other books by Boyle I've read are RIVEN ROCK and WORLD'S END, and I've found that of the three this is the only one that actually tells a story. I did not care for the other two much at all.Book Review: Book review
Summary: 3 Stars
Interesting book, well written, good author. Points out how far some will go to follow the latest "medical" wisdom. Hilarious is some spots, poignantly sad in others.