The Road to Wellville
by T. Coraghessan Boyle

Penguin (New York): 1993. Trade paperback: xii, 476 pages. ISBN-10: 0-14-016718-8 Suggested retail price: $12.95 (US) Tags: cereal; enemas; health resorts; Historical; made into movie; Mainstream Tactical strength: [7/10]

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Boyle presents the life of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg -- inventor of peanut butter and the corn flake -- at the height of his career and as the director of a famous sanitarium for biological living. Kellogg was a devout vegetarian and believed in cleansing the bowels through enemas. Boyle shows both the basis for our modern ideas and compulsions about health as well as criticizing the dietary fads and ideas from both time periods.

The writing is always lively, and I was kept wondering what would happen next. Boyle's main point seems to be that everyone needs to try extremes before deciding on how they will live. Some will stay with the extremes (Kellogg) and others will be led by a balance between the extremes (the Lightbody's).

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