In the Road to Wellville, Boyle has written a story that is more than interesting. The characters are all searching for the key to good health; a fountain of health if you will. This is something to which so many of us can relate, and for those who can't, you'll be able to once you've read this book. The writing is good, and the story is so bizarrely real that you'll actually want to (god forbid!) go to a library and research the history of cereal. This book is an excellent read and I recommend it to anyone.

Even if it doesn't have the key to physical health, I promise this book will improve your mental health! Exercise your mind and pick this one up!

The Road to Wellville is going on my list of absolute favourite books. This is one of the funniest novels I have ever read, and also one of the most educational. T. Coraghessan Boyle has perfected the art of understatement. One of my favourite parts is when Eleanor Lightbody is receiving her German therapeutic massage: "She sank beneath it, dreaming of those sylvan glades, of men and women alike gamboling through Bavarian meadows, as naked as God made them, and she felt herself moving, too, the gentlest friction of her hips against the leather padding, moving forward and downwards and ever so therapeutically into that firm sure touch." Trust me, when you get to that part of the book, all will make sense in a most delightful way!

This is a chronicle of the scatological misadventures of the spa/health set of the 1890s/1900s. Why do I say scatological? Well, John Kellogg (inventor of corn flakes and peanut butter) was obsessed with the alimentary canal. He believed a strict regimen of no fewer than five enemas per day was necessary for good health. His obsession with defecatory health permeates the novel and gives it its own unique...er...flavour.

But the novel is not a coprocentric treatise. It is a hilarious, rollicking journey through the life of a quack who didn't know he was a quack, and through the lives of those he effected.

I was first introduced to this tale through the critically-panned film version (which I personally enjoyed very much!). The book shares many common plot elements with the story, but, as is the usual case, is far superior to its film adaptation. It is also a very quick and easy read.

It's easy to disassociate myself from the ridiculous treatments included in this book (breathing in radium as a means of treating jaundice is a perfect example), but, I can't help but think T. Coraghessan Boyle may have meant this book to serve also as a cautionary tale. Sure, it's fun to laugh at those silly people of a hundred years ago, but similarly ridiculous and life-threatening "treatments" are being given out now under the guise of holistic healing.

This novel should be required reading for anyone who is close to someone who believes in "natural health" products. Americans seem particularly vulnerable to these gullible searches for 'perfect health'--whatever that is. Check your newspaper for the latest FDA recommendations and wipe that soy milk off your upper lip.

Times haven't changed much from the heyday of Mr. Kellogg and his weird science. The funny part is that folks are _still_running around touting everything from pond scum and surfactants as miracle cures. Decades after Kellogg's wacky "treatments" there are scads of people who spend thousands of dollars on algae and pressed bark and fungus tea as they wax rhapsodic about molecules and colon health. (Usually with all the depth and understanding of an eighth grader in Human Health class.) It's funny, yeah, and pathetic at the same time. Just one of the little underbellies of our modern society.

Boyle is an extraordinarily entertaining and literate writer, and his fiction is an absolute delight to read. My 65-year-old father (who mostly reads Westerns) gave me a book of Boyle's short stories for Christmas. "You've gotta read this," he said. "It's great." He had no idea I've been reading T.C. for years.

I think one of the reasons people like this guy so much is because they feel like they "discovered" him personally--for some reason, his name doesn't seem to be as household as some of the other big writers. It's not because he doesn't deserve it or because he hasn't written enough.

If you're unsure, get a book from the library first--his short stories are a good place to wet your whistle. And search Amazon for reviews on his other great books._The Road to Wellville_is a great riff on a squirrley part of American history that hasn't failed to teach us much. It's a hoot, and an absolute tonic for those of us who feel a bit disgusted at the thought of taking colostrum pills or whatever the fad is this week.

Most of these stories disappointed me. Uninspired retellings of trashy news headlines with undeveloped characters and REALLY bad endings. Depressing, but not in a good way. There are a few salvagable bits though. Termination Dust wasn't bad, but on the whole Boyle has delivered a load of flaccid pop culture.

Pass. Life's too short for these little miseries.

There is little doubt TC Boyle is among the finest American short story writers out there today. While Boyle has authored many notable and successful novels, his wonderfully unique and sardonic views of humanity seem to stay better afloat in the shorter form. As with his mammoth short story collection "TC Boyle Stories," these works are not for the conservative reader. In reading this latest collection, one needs no further evidence that Boyle is always thinking "outside the box." He gives readers a thrilling reading experience -- a true rarity in fiction these days!

From a boyfriend's sadistically botched attempt to help out his girlfriend in a triathlon competition to a pair of senior citizens meeting a pitch-black humorous end in their backyard -- it is unlikely you have ever read anything like this before. Having attended a Boyle reading/book signing for this work in October 2001, the author admitted that works like "Friendly Skies" (about passenger "air rage") and the title story (a look at two surly survivors after Ebola wipes out much of the world as we know it) take on an unintentionally eerie spin in a post-September 11th world.

For fans of the author, there is probably little need for any type of recommendation, but for the uninitiated "After The Plague and Other Stories" is certainly a worthwhile and entertaining introduction into the wild, and sometimes warped, world of TC Boyle.

I have always been a big Boyle fan, and most of these stories have already appeared in the New Yorker, but I have to say: in my opinion this is his best collection. The stories are shocking, contemporary, playful, funny and tragic -- typical Boyle at his finest. From the weirdness of 'The Black and White Sisters,' a twisted and sexy story about eccentric twins who will only surround themselves, in food, clothes, and company, with the colors black & white, which is surreal and funny and sad and has metaphorical echoes of old TV and grim newspapers, to 'She Wasn't Soft,' or 'Termination Dust,' both of which are creepy, heartbreaking suspense stories which focus as grim character pieces, Boyle had me hooked from page one. If you like unforgettable characters, strong plot and contemporary issues, this is a must read. Plus it's funny. Five Stars! Bravo!

If I were the author of The Road To Wellville, I don't think I'd print that on my books. I think I'd just coast on having a wonderful name like "Coraghessan" to throw around. In any case, 56-0 was sort of heartbreaking, and Top of the Food Chain barreled down a road I'd always wondered about, and Big Game I really liked, for being about Hemingway a little, and Filthy With Things scared the living daylights out of me, reminding me more than a little of the Stephen King story Quitters, Inc.

The story revolves around a young Japanese/American "half breed" who flees from Japan to find himself in America. He's hoping to find acceptance in the great melting pot of America. Unfortunately he lands in redneck Georgia and is met with contempt and racism from the minute he washes ashore.
It's all down hill from there for Hiro in his attempts to make it to the city of brotherly love.
This book was given to me by a friend with assurances that I would love it. How wrong he was.

I found the writing to be tedious and over done. Much of the time I spent reading I was thinking "who cares?". While the characters were well developed much of the book was spent on details that didn't seem to matter to the story.
I would have just stopped reading it about 1/2 way through if I didn't have a hang up on not finishing a book I start. My recommendations on this book are to spend your money elsewhere.

East Is East had been billed to me as one of the finer books by one of the finer writers in America today. I have a great weakness for stories about writers, and as this book featured a writers' colony as its center stage, I chose it over some of T.C. Boyle's better known novels and collections of short stories.

At it's heart, this story proposes the anti-American dream as reality. A young man, Hiro Tanaka, jumps ship off a Japanese steamer and swims ashore on an island off the coast of Georgia. Instead of discovering a land where people reach out to embrace him, he discovers a land where he is a wanted fugitive and the only people who reach out to help are really trying to help themselves. As a "half-breed" born of a Japanese mother and an American father, Hiro had always seen America as the City of Brotherly Love where no one would care what kind of blood he had flowing through his veins. But in very little time he learns that America can be as vicious and unwelcoming as its inhabitants, and that the American Dream is nothing short of a sham.

At times, Boyle is so wrapped up in setting off literary fireworks that he seems to get sidetracked from his plot; however, the fireworks can be amazing at times, so it's hard to hold this against him. His characterizations are wonderful, and the story hardly ever loses its pace. I wouldn't call this the greatest contemporary American novel I've come across, but it's a damn good one.

This novel is a great read. Boyle explores the rugged coast of rednecks and ruffiants through the virgin eyes of a young Japanese seaman (Hiro Tanaka). What Hiro develops are what he hopes to get rid of, learnes prejudices. After encounters with all kinds of wacky people the social commentary is clear, the lack of education leads to these feelings of hate. But dont get me wrong, this is all done with extraordiany story telling techniques, and with wonderful humor. It is fun to read and you will enjoy it

If you think TC Boyle often goes too far over top, but still want to read something by him, I suggest this book. It's the most gritty, (truly) of his work so far. The characters engage in interesting activities,but their silly conversations often stop the story cold. Worth the time and money, however.

A wonderful, quick read. T.C. Boyle's style reflects that of the whimsical, descriptive and casual ways of Hunter S. Thompson, yet with a unique flavor of its own. The characters are very well-developed; written as an imperfect, yet sympathetic (and, no matter how much one may want to deny it, EMpathetic) bunch. The story is extremely engaging, the action consistant, the humor non-stop. It is, perhaps, the best contemporary fiction I have read in ages. I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone looking for a little pick-me-up at the end of a stressful day.

"How would you like to make half a million dollars, tax free?" From this point on the story is fantastic, one summer of growing ganja and all the troubles and paranoia that go with it. A must read for anyone that loves a book that they cant put down. Cops, Drugs, Suspence and Isolation in a small cabin for the summer trying to make some money.

This is a nice book with good stories, but I surely won't read it again. It lacks the "depth" that makes you come back to a book you read years before.

wow, this book will basically just blow your mind. it's so upseting and weird in Boyle's tradmark darkly comic way (think Coen Brothers wooing Flannery O'Conner) and yet -- hotdamn -- on the sentence level, this prose is just out of sight. Beautifully written and laugh-out-loud funny, too? It's the perfect cross of high and low culture, like the Simpsons or the Coen Bros, if you're a smart, engaged reader, there really is something on every level of funny and weird, but the focous doesn't eclipse tender or meaningful . . . no, instead this collection really does match the wickedness of the smart-..., knowing hipster with the empathetic tug of "literary fiction." The perfect kind of thing to turn people on to short stories, this collection ends each time with a knockout punch.

...I don't have time to write much here, but the average customer rating is WAY too low for this great book of short stories. In fact, I'm here right now buying it for a friend. T.C. Boyle has such a unique perspective on the world, and I read this book 3 years ago and I still remember many of the stories like I just read them yesterday. Particularly "Sorry Fugu," the unforgettable opening story about a chef and his critic coming together through food. I'll also never forget the story about the adopted kid obsessed with bees. That one will freak you out. Ok, well sorry for not being eloquent here but this is a great book...

T.C.Boyle wants to warn us about the damage we are doing to our planet. He tells the story of a former "eco-terrorist" & goes back & forth between the 80's/90's and the year 2025. The characters are not particularly likeable. There's an amusing Michael Jackson-like character who appears occasionally. It was hard, at times, to empathize or connect with the passion of the main character & his daughter. But, the story was compelling enough to keep turning the page. I wanted to hear T.C.Boyle's vision of the consequences of our abuse of the planet. That's the compelling piece and, if he's even remotely correct, it's frightening. The book is too complex and pedantic at times to be interesting to a teenager but it would be helpful to have younger people read the book now that environmental issues often take a backseat to other news items. We should all appreciate the author's warning & take a look at our own behaviors.

For those concerned over global warming, ozone depletion, mass extinction, endocrine disruption, worldwide pandemics, and on and on, this saga of imminent ecocatastrophe will prove irresistible but hardly comforting. No, the vision of the not-so-distant future presented here by T. Coraghessan Boyle is dark, indeed, and yet it seems plausible enough in its broad outlines to ring true (though surely its trajectory of future events is compressed a bit).

Employing novelistic techniques reminscent of Kurt Vonnegut (in fact, the overall tone and philosophy resemble Vonnegut) Boyle jumps back and forth through time in telling the story of Tyrone O'Shaughnessey Tierwater, eco-warrior extraordinaire. Along with his wife Andrea and ultimately his daughter Sierra, Tierwater fights to save the Earth through "direct action," i.e., "monkeywrenching" acts of sabotage against lumber companies, electrical utilities, and other promulgators of environmental destruction. In weaving his tale, Boyle focuses much of his narrative upon the justifications and consequences of such acts of property destruction, including the all-important issue of whether, in fact, they accomplish the goals that motivate them.

Some readers might despair of Boyle's self-evidently cynical view of humanity and its prospects. May I offer, however, that cynicism and idealism are usually two sides of the same attitudinal coin. Boyle wrote the story, I suspect, at least in part out of hope that his portrayal of an apocalyptic future might motivate some people to work to prevent this eventuality from occurring.

Overall, I found the book impressively well written, thought-provoking, and a terrific read. The one nagging point that bothered me, however, was Boyle's apparent unwillingness to explore critically his assertion that in order to be a friend of the earth one must be "an enemy of the people." Certainly many environmentalists sooner or later exhibit a bitterly misanthropic world-view, but anyone who has followed the ongoing protests against the World Trade Organization should see that many militants maintain that the global corporate forces that pillage the earth's ecosystems are the same ones that oppress millions of human beings currently sentenced to impoverished, marginal lives. The enemy is not necessarily "people," but a governing set of political economic structures that render short-term corporate profitability the highest priority in all global investment decisions, and hence almost all corresponding political decisions. I'm not one to force a political perspective upon Boyle, but he might have at least included more debate among his characters regarding this very important philosophical point.

In closing, I will compliment Boyle on his overall accurate presentation of geographical and scientific facts. However, as a geographer, I must correct one error he commits, which is to place the "state prison at Calpatria" [sic] in the "Mohave Desert," when actually, Calipatria is located in the Salton basin, part of the Colorado Desert.

T.C. Boyle has seen the apocalypse, it's hour come 'round at last. But it's human nature to ignore bad news, says Boyle, and that's why it's easy to sit wedged inside our modular homes and forget about the fact that global warming is marching on, the population is growing like a tumor, and the end, my friend, could be closer than we think. A Friend of the Earth is set in the year 2025 as the earth belches its last gasps and there's nothing left for dinner but catfish and sake. The tale is narrated by the reformed eco-terrorist and aging Baby Boomer Tyrone O'Shaughnessy Tierwater, who's spending his last days tending to a bedraggled menagerie of now-rare animals (hyenas, lions, and the like) owned by pop icon Maclovio Pulchris. But then his ex-wife Andrea appears on the scene. She wants to write a book about Ty's daughter, the legendary tree-sitting Sierra. (She'd also like a little love.) Soon, a flood strands Boyle's cast of characters (both human and animal) in Pulchris's mansion. From this vantage point the tale unfolds, and here the reader is launched into Ty's story, told through chapters that alternate between 2025 and the '80s and '90s, his first wife's accidental death, his beginnings as a renegade member of Earth Forever!, his run from the law, and so forth. The humor is wry, the outlook hilariously dire, and the personalities brilliantly constructed. A Friend of the Earth takes a daring look at humanity's hubris and our grim global future. Only a champion storyteller like T.C. Boyle could slap us silly and make us laugh all at the same time.