This novel was an interesting read. The patients in the sanitarium are interesting to get to know as are the Kelloggs. ( )

A fun book, but could have been edited down to a more manageable size. Interesting portrait of a wacky health craze when cereal was invented. Very involving towards the end when everything comes together. ( )

moderately enjoyable. a fairly interesting portrayal of the sometimes batty lengths americans will go to in pursuit of health. just confirms my tendency to think we just need to do the thing that guy who wrote 'In Defense of Food' suggested: eat food, not too much, mostly plants. ( )

An outstanding novel. Boyle really outdid himself with this creative treatment of the Kellogg sanitarium and the breakfast food boom centered around Battle Creek Michigan in the early twentieth century.

The novel’s dark humor is its most striking aspect. The descriptions of the medical treatments, the enemas, the food at the sanitarium, the lectures by Kellogg, the odd characters who were drawn to the treatments, read like an odd mixture of Faulkner and Dickens. And it has plot! We follow the Will Lightbody and his wife Eleanor on the road to Wellville, along with an assortment of minor characters and subplots. Highly inventive and a great read. ( )

Enjoyable book about one of the originators of cold cereal, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his devoted and dotty followers at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. ( )