The Road to Wellville

infobox Book |
name = The Road to Wellville
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = US edition cover
author = T. C. Boyle
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Viking Press
release_date = May 1, 1993
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 496 p. (First edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0-670-84334-2 (First edition, hardback)
preceded_by = East is East
followed_by = Without a Hero

"The Road to Wellville" is a 1993 novel by American author T. Coraghessan Boyle. Set in Battle Creek, Michigan during the early days of breakfast cereals, the story includes a historical fictionalization of John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1994.

The title comes from an actual booklet called "The Road to Wellville" written by C. W. Post, a former patient at the sanitarium who was inspired by his diet there to found his own cereal business. Post used to give out his booklet in boxes of Grape-Nuts cereal. In the novel, Lightbody brings up this phrase and incurs Kellogg's wrath.

"The Road to Wellville" was adapted into a movie in 1994, directed by Alan Parker and starring Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, John Cusack, Michael Lerner, Dana Carvey (as George Kellogg), Lara Flynn Boyle, John Neville, Colm Meaney, Camryn Manheim, and Monica Parker.

Plot

The book tells three basic stories which take place between November of 1907 and late May of 1908. The first story is about Will and Eleanor Lightbody. Eleanor, a fan of Dr. Kellogg, drags Will to Kellogg's sanitarium. Hoping to improve his marriage, Will goes along but is constantly filled with doubts about Kellogg's health methods. The methods include outlandish physical violations of the patients in lieu of direct sexual stimulation, for Kellogg insists sex drains the body of life. The story suggests that Kellogg suffers from some neurosis engendered by his own sexual dysfunction, resulting in a lifelong struggle to deprive others of their sexuality. The second story is about Charlie Ossining, a man who gets into a cereal business scheme with a man named Bender. The third story is about Dr. Kellogg himself — how he runs the sanitarium and of his growing irritation with George, one of many adopted children.

Book information

"The Road to Wellville" by T. C. Boyle
*Hardcover - ISBN 0-670-84334-2 (first edition) published by Viking Press
*Paperback - ISBN 0-14-016718-8 published by Penguin Books

External links

* [http://www.tcboyle.com T.C. Boyle official web site]