The Road to Wellville
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Authors: T.C. Boyle
The Road to Wellville
“Boyle thrives on our aspirational mania in all its forms…. With each new book it becomes harder to resist the confidence and exuberance of his style, the boldness of his reach.”
—
Los Angeles Times Book Review
“A fascinating slice of Americana,
The Road to Wellville
is a classic tale of dreams doomed and renewed, love lost and regained, as well as the evils of dyspepsia, the horrors of autointoxication, the nightmares of neuralgia and the the tribulations of the alimentary canal.”
—
The Dallas Morning News
“Boyle’s book has all the nifty plot twists of a spacious John Irving novel, and it is on fire with historical detail…. Boyle proves he still has the gloriously perverse knack of persuading you to laugh at the most disgusting moments.”
—
Vogue
“Rarely has so much suffering produced so much fun … Boyle creates his characters with great Dickensian glee.”
—
New York Newsday
“Funny, thoughtful, immaculately written … [Boyle] eviscerates the gullible pilgrims and conniving hucksters who rubbed shoulders in turn-of-the-century Battle Creek.”
—
Newsweek
“Boyle’s send-up of dietary fanaticism cleverly reminds us of the extremes to which Americans will go in pursuit of perfection.”
—
Glamour
“As in brilliant previous books like
East is East
and
World’s End
, Boyle brings to bear a dazzling writing style, erudition and sly humor in telling this strange tale of greed, power and kooky obsession.”
—
Detroit Monthly
“Boyle doesn’t miss a single hilarious shot…. [
The Road to Wellville
] establishes him at the top of his literary game…. Boyle has a genius for envisioning his scenes in such delicious detail and for presenting his characters with such subtle insight.”
—
Playboy
“Reading
The Road to Wellville
is like ducking gobs of mashed potatoes—there’s the exhilarating sound of language whizzing overhead.”
—
The Washington Post Book World
“Boyle is a brilliant imp, a trickster of the highest order…. In
The Road to Wellville
, his rich and mind-bendingly delightful language explodes with the early 20th century’s passion for invention, even as he subtly reveals the depth and tragicomedy of the failure of the American dream.”
—
St. Petersburg Times
“
The Road to Wellville
is an old-fashioned, generous book, rich in anecdote, plot, and character, rooted thoroughly in its time and place, even as it winks slyly at the modern reader.”
—
Chicago Tribune
“An extraordinarily good book … Boyle has told us something about the human condition.”
—
The Milwaukee Journal
“In T. C. Boyle’s meticulously crafted, wildly comic new novel, the American obsession of self-improvement through right-thinking and purification is brilliantly, engagingly,
irresistibly
savaged.”
—
The San Diego Union-Tribune
PENGUIN BOOKS
THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE
T. C. Boyle is the author of
The Inner Circle, Drop City
(a finalist for the National Book Award),
A Friend of the Earth, Riven Rock, The Tortilla Curtain, The Road to Wellville, East Is East, World’s End
(winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award),
Budding Prospects, Water Music
, and seven collections of stories. In 1999, he was the recipient of the PEN/ Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. His stories appear regularly in major American magazines, including
The New Yorker
, GQ,
Esquire
, and
Playboy.
He lives near Santa Barbara, California. T. C. Boyle’s Web site is
www.tcboyle.com
.
The
Road To
Wellville
T. Coraghessan Boyle
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin,
a division of Penguin Books USA Inc., 1993
Published in Penguin Books 1994
23 25 27 29 30 28 26 24
Copyright © T. Coraghessan Boyle, 1993
All rights reserved
A signed first edition of this book has been privately printed by
The Franklin Library.
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGUED THE HARDCOVER AS FOLLOWS:
Boyle, T. Coraghessan.
Road to Wellville: a novel/T. Coraghessan Boyle
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-101-64026-5
I. Title.
PS3552.O932R63 1992
813′.54—dc20 92-50731
Printed in the United States of America
Set in Goudy Old Style
Designed by Brian Mulligan
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Rosemary Post
1923–1981
Two texts were indispensable in inspiring and informing this novel—
Cornflake Crusade
, by Gerald Carson, and
The Nuts Among the Berries
, by Ronald M. Deutsch—and I am indebted to their authors. I would also like to thank Kevin McCarey, James Kaufman, Janet Griffin, Gordon Dale, and the staff of the Charles Willard Memorial Library in Battle Creek, Michigan, for their assistance.
3. Sears’ White Star Liquor Cure
4. Father to All, Father to None
6. The Biggest Little City in the U.S.A.
7. Organized Rest Without Ennui
1. Questions, Questions, Questions
4. Rigid Control and Other Matters
Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death.
—Sylvester Graham,
A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases
Chapter 1
