Appearing on any television talk show to discuss a complex book that the interviewer hasn't read presents a unique set of challenges for an author. Add to that a severe limitation on time and you have the ingredients for a confusing fiasco.

For those of you who saw my appearance on The View, that ABC TV network morning show hosted by Barbara Walters, Rosie O'Donnell, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Joy Behar, you may already understand what I'm talking about.

A producer for the show had informed me that I would be interviewed for up to 10 minutes, which seemed like a sufficient amount of time to at least summarize a few of the major themes from The Hundred Year Lie.

Unfortunately for me, Dr. Phil and his wife were the guests immediately preceding me and that segment went longer than planned, which reduced my interview time from 10 down to just four minutes.

"Don't forget," one of the show's producers reminded me as I walked onto the stage. "Dumb everything down and try not to use any statistics."

While sitting at a table with the four co-hosts during a commercial break, Barbara Walters, looking agitated, turned to me and said, "I have some problems with your book. I can't imagine why you would warn us that chemicals in tap water are harmful and then tell people they should be concerned about chemicals in the plastics of bottled water. What are people supposed to do?"

It was clear that she hadn't read my book. Before I could give her my reasoning, Rosie O'Donnell spoke up to say that she had almost died of an infection because of the irresponsible overprescribing of antibiotics that had created 'Superbugs' resistent to antibiotics. "I'm going to ask you to talk about that," she told me.

Before I could respond, Joy to my left and Elisabeth to my right were telling me about their own concerns based on having read summaries of my book. That's when I sensed I would be fooling myself if I thought this shortened segment format might be conducive to anything other than a confusingly superficial treatment of the book.

Sure enough, once the segment began, what I feared would happen did right after I gave my two sentence opening: "We are all guinea pigs in a vast chemical experiment that is modern civilization. And there is no instruction manual."

Suddenly, it was as if a verbal shooting war had erupted. Questions and comments and disagreements were flying from all sides. I could hardly develop a complete sentence, much less express a complete thought.

My response to Barbara's water question (use water filters) only seemed to sharpen her antagonism. She accused me of scaremongering and before I could adequately respond, the segment was over.

There were two unexpected upsides to the program for me. I got to spend 15 minutes or so discussing the book with singer/songwriter Lionel Richie before his appearance. Richie was quite enthusiastic about my book, saying it fit his longheld suspicion that "the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry are now one in the same!"

The other upside was that all several hundred women who made up the studio audience got a free copy of The Hundred Year Lie, courtesy of my publisher, Penguin/Dutton.