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Bezig met laden... Goodbye Jumbo...Hello Cruel Worlddoor Louie Anderson
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 Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.  TimBazzett | Mar 3, 2015 |  geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
"The year is 1907, and the boom town of Battle Creek, Michigan, is attracting a formidable array of visitors - the rich, the preposterously rich, and the merely famous, from California, Chicago, New York, and even Europe. What draws them to this place? And what inspires them to trade in their steaks and oysters, their martinis and champagne, for a diet of bran and yogurt and a regimen of five enemas per day? Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of course, inventor of the corn flake, peanut butter, and the coffee substitutes that have ruined so many a bright morning, the man whose dietary wisdom is at your disposal in this comic masterpiece by T. Coraghessan Boyle." "The Road to Wellville overflows with a Dickensian cast of characters - all in search of the magic pill to prolong their lives, or the profit to be had from manufacturing it. The hapless hero of this pursuit is Will Lightbody, a man with an undiagnosed stomach ailment whose only sin is loving his wife too much. For Eleanor Lightbody, despite her upper-crust credentials, her capability and beauty, is a health nut of the first stripe, and when she travels to Dr. Kellogg's "Temple of Health" to live out the vegetarian ethos with a vengeance, so too does poor Will." "Boyle's amazing novel offers much more than a cure for pernicious maladies - it will make you howl with delighted recognition as you discover the root and basis for the catechism of today's food police. It will also give you a look at the boom industry that made the little burg of Battle Creek known around the world, and introduce you to the hustlers and confidence men who came to town to profit from the public's credulity. And it will give you adventure along with a good dollop of comic instruction in the mysteries of the prescriptive diet and the evils of sex (Dr. Kellogg believed in abstaining - for life)."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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 Google Books — Bezig met laden...GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: (2.8)
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I picked up this book at a thrift store a year or more ago. I read it today as I was in between 'real' books. Turns out Anderson's story of his life-long struggles with his weight, self-esteem, and a dysfunctional family - an alcoholic abusive father, a nurturing but enabling mother, and ten siblings - is pretty damn real itself.
It's a slight book as memoirs go, and a quick read; but it does contain some pretty important truths about fat people (Anderson uses the 'f' word freely, so I will too), how they got the way they are and how much they often tend to hate themselves. Anderson is trying to work out his own self-hate and transform it into self-love, all the while still struggling with the recent loss of his mother and unresolved issues with his late father. (I have not read his first book, DEAR DAD.)
Here's a sample of how he tries to explain that 'fat and lazy' don't necessarily go together.
"So there's the fallacy. Fat people aren't lazy. It takes immense practice and energy to plan our day, to eat without anyone seeing us, to pretend we aren't hungry, to sneak and cheat without being caught. The truth is, it takes a lot of work to get your weight up to three hundred and fifty pounds and then keep it there."
So yeah, he's a comedian and he's still joking, but yet he's not. He then says: "It also requires a large threshold for pain."
Because while this is a book that appears to be light reading, it's really not. It's a story of a life filled with pain and yearning to be normal, to be loved. By the book's end, Anderson seems to have reached some kind of peace with himself and his family. I wonder if it lasted. The book was published over twenty years ago, but it's still a pretty relevant read, particularly, I suspect for people who, like Louie, are obese and in pain. It seems ironic that so many talented comics and comedians - people like the late Robin Williams - have such a dark, pain-filled interior life. I remember being surprised at how serious Steve Martin's memoir, BORN STANDING UP, turned out to be. Anderson's is too, but it seemed just a bit too pat, or maybe just too short, to pack as strong a punch as it might have. But I'll recommend it. (