The Road to Wellville

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Title The Road to Wellville
The Road to Wellville (US cover)
US edition cover
Author T. C. Boyle
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Viking Press
Released 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 fictionalized account of John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes.

The title comes from an actual booklet called The Road to Wellville written by C. W. Post, a former worker at the sanatorium who later broke with Kellogg 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. It was directed by Alan Parker and starred Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, John Cusack, Michael Lerner, Dana Carvey (as George Kellogg), and Lara Flynn Boyle. It was filmed in New Paltz, NY at the Mohonk.

Contents

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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 sanatorium. Hoping to improve his marriage, Will goes along but is constantly filled with doubts about Kellogg's health methods. 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 sanatorium and of his growing irritation with his adopted son, George.

Spoilers end here.

  • Quote: "Health, the open-sesame to the sucker's wallet" - Michael Lerner's character, Bender, in the film.

The Road to Wellville by T. C. Boyle


The Works of T. C. Boyle
Novels: Water Music | Budding Prospects | World's End | East Is East | The Road to Wellville | The Tortilla Curtain | Riven Rock | A Friend of the Earth | Drop City | The Inner Circle | Talk Talk
Short Stories: Descent of Man | Greasy Lake | If the River Was Whiskey | Without a Hero | T.C. Boyle Stories | After the Plague | Tooth and Claw
Young Adult: The Human Fly
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.