Type of bind: Audio Cassette
EAN num: 9785553283513
ISBN number: 5553283515
Label: Books On Tape
Manufacturer: Books On Tape
Quantity: 14
Printing Date: 1993-12
Publishing house: Books On Tape
Studio: Books On Tape
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Product Description:
A snobbish wife and her henpecked husband travel to Dr. Kellogg's spa in turn-of-the-century Battle Creek, where the youth-crazed affluent succumb to quackery. By the author of East is East. Reprint. 50,000 very first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.
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You will never eat Corn Flakes the same way anymore.
I had no idea that something so simple as a cereal box had such an interesting story. I loved this book, because it describes an era of American history that many people don't even know. It recalls a time when medicine was truly a miraculous science, and cures, not remedies, were something attainable through rigorous regimes, diets or just plain therapy.
Through a cast of hilarious characters, T. Coraghessan Boyle describes some of the therapies that contributed to the sucess of the Sanatorium with unique humour and plenty of curious details. Green Ms. Muntz undergoes Radon Therapy, Mr. Praetz takes sinusoidal baths, Mrs. Lightbody, who suffers from neurasthenia, brings her husband Will, to the "Temple of Health" to recover from his chronic dyspepsia. There are laughing exercises, mandatory sunbaths, and of course, the all necessary enemas, administered by no other than Nurse Bloethal. (Let's not forget Dr. Spitzvogel and his manipulations of the womb!)
I wonder how Mr. Kellogg would feel now in the 21st century, when there are no cures for anything anymore, and people with ailments are forced to take medications for life. I wonder how would he feel when a medical breakthrough is announced in meek words as "may alleviate such condition" or "may help avoid certain cancers," or "results will vary," or worse: having the FDA recalling medications so frequently (the same medications patients take for life to stay healthy).
In resume, great book, you will have a good laugh about the whole story, hilarious, gullible characters, and a curious insight of something truly American.
P.S. Don't read this book without a dictionary. This book will expand your vocabulary!
5 "enematic" stars
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John Harvey Kellogg, founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and developer of the corn flake, is committed to improving the health and well-being of his devoted disciples by promoting a life free of meat, alcohol, tobacco, and sex. In 1907, people flock to the San for lengthy stays to cleanse their bodies of impurities and improve their lives. Will Lightbody has stomach problems, and, encouraged by his wife Eleanor, a Kellogg believer, he agrees to accompany her for several months with Dr. Kellogg.
On the train they meet Charlie Ossining, a young man who wants to set up a rival company to Kellogg's to make corn flakes and to take advantage of the growing health industry. Charlie, who has a sleazy partner, is raising money for the manufacture of Perfo breakfast food, and when he and his partner team up with George Kellogg, one of John Kellogg's many adopted sons, the endeavor to capitalize on John Kellogg's pioneering work becomes personal.
Charlie and the Lightbodys go their separate ways in Battle Creek and then reconnect throughout the novel, as Boyle shows Dr. Kellogg's excesses in the name of health--husbands and wives separated to prevent sex, grasses used for food, and regular enemas administered to rid the body of impurities. At the same time, he shows how easy it may be for fly-by-night operators, like Charlie and his partners, to capitalize on the natural desire of people to lead healthier lives. Will Lightbody, enrolled at the clinic, remains skeptical about the doctor's methods and frequently rebels against the most egregious practices, and through him Doyle is able to show the arguments made for and against particular health practices and the willingness of ordinary people to be duped.
The satire here is broad and universal, but Doyle is far more interested in telling a good story than in mounting an attack. When some of the "disciples," especially Eleanor Lightbody, begin to experiment with techniques of "manipulation therapy, " advocated by a rival of Kellogg, the humour enters the realm of the absurd, and when George Kellogg confronts his estranged father, it reaches its peak. Great fun to read and filled with amusing comments on our preoccupation with health, Boyle reminds us that the health industry can ultimately provide "the 'open sesame' to the sucker's purse." n Mary Whipple
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I didn't find this funny, satirical or humourous in any way. Poor drivel and a waste of time and brain matter.
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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 yesterday 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.
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The Road to Wellville takes the reader to Battle Creek Michigan at the beginning of the 20th century, a place and time where the modern health food and breakfast food industries were born. Two men arrive on a train and we follow their experiences in Battle Creek. Will Lightbody arrives with his wife Eleanor to go to the famous Sanitorium run by John Harvey Kellogg seeking a cure to his digestive problems. Charlie Ossining wants to make it rich quick in the breakfast cereal industry started by Dr. Kellogg's brother William and his competitor C. W. Post.
Although the novel is written in the third person, the reader sees the story evolve through the perspective of these two men. Other characters suffer from this approach, especially the women like Eleanor Lightbody, whom Will and Charlie never seem to understand.
The novel differs from the movie, which remains true to the plot and characterization, in that the novel portrays the inner longings and motivations of these two men, while the movie stresses the visual aspects of what they see and do. This makes the movie both funnier and a bit more removed than the novel.
The historicity of the book is well developed. Most of the people, places and events can be confirmed from the record. This is a great book to read if one is interested in healthy living and wants to know the background of today's health movement.
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