The Road to Wellville (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: T. Coraghessan Boyle
- First Published: 1993
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1907-1908
- Setting: Battle Creek, Michigan, and Peterskill, New York
- Principal Characters: John Harvey Kellogg, Will Lightbody, Eleanor Lightbody, Charlie Ossining
- Genres: Long fiction, Satire
- Subjects: Love or romance, Midwest, Revenge, Life, biological, Comedy, Resorts or spas, Natural foods
- Locales: Battle Creek, MI, Peterskill, NY
The year is 1907: the age of political reform, muckraking journalism, and physical culture. The once sickly, now robust Teddy Roosevelt is in the White House, talking softly but carrying a big stick, and Americans are on “the road to Wellville,” which is not a place but a condition, a state of mind, as well as the title of a pamphlet inserted into every jar of the coffee substitute patented by C. W. Post, “the man who brought Postum, Grape-Nuts and meretricious advertising to the world.” Dr. John Harvey Kellogg presides over T. Coraghessan Boyle’s latest three-ring circus of...
[The entire page is 2045 words long]
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