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8th out of 99 books
—
8 voters
Water Music
T.C. Boyle's riotous first novel, now in a new edition for its 25th anniversary
Twenty five years ago, T.C. Boyle published his first novel, Water Music, a funny, bawdy, extremely entertaining novel of imaginative and stylistic fancy that announced to the world Boyle's tremendous gifts as a storyteller. Set in the late eighteenth century, Water Music follows the wild adve...more
Twenty five years ago, T.C. Boyle published his first novel, Water Music, a funny, bawdy, extremely entertaining novel of imaginative and stylistic fancy that announced to the world Boyle's tremendous gifts as a storyteller. Set in the late eighteenth century, Water Music follows the wild adve...more
Paperback, 25th Anniversary Edition, 437 pages
Published
2006
by Penguin Books
(first published 1981)
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Feb 29, 2012
sn
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical,
fiction,
biographical,
expedition,
bawdy,
18th-century,
century,
satire,
niger,
africa,
london
Mungo Park, a Scottish lad, sets out on a voyage to Africa to be the first white man (hon-kee in the local tongue) to clap eyes on the river Niger. Adventure ensues.[return][return]I inevitably have to draw comparisons here to Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and not just because I finished it two weeks ago. Set in pretty much the same era (18th century) around jolly olde London and other, more exotic locations, they had many similarities: the scientifically inclined blundering straight man, the...more
Originally published on my blog here in September 2002.
The Georgian England portrayed in Hogarth's etchings is the inspiration for Boyle's lusty historical novel. Its spiritual home, where its best passages are set, is the gin soaked city of London, its alleys and gutters, whores and thieves. That is also the origin of one of Water Music's main characters, con man, vagabond, grave robber and would-be gentleman Ned Rise. His struggles against a capricious fate - every time he begins to make money...more
The Georgian England portrayed in Hogarth's etchings is the inspiration for Boyle's lusty historical novel. Its spiritual home, where its best passages are set, is the gin soaked city of London, its alleys and gutters, whores and thieves. That is also the origin of one of Water Music's main characters, con man, vagabond, grave robber and would-be gentleman Ned Rise. His struggles against a capricious fate - every time he begins to make money...more
Oct 30, 2012
Isidor
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
19th-century,
novels-other
Es scheint, dem Autor lag sehr daran, seine Leser unter keinen Umständen zu langweilen, und ich finde, es ist ihm gelungen: Nach einer halben Seite ist man im Geschehen drin, und danach geht es in flottem Tempo durch unzählige Abenteuer und oft überraschende Wendungen, dem einen durch die Wildnis Westafrikas und einem anderen durch den Unterwelt-Dschungel Londons. Auch in diesem Roman ist einiges an Wissen eingeflochten, doch hier fühlte es sich nie nach Lehrbuch an wie sonst nicht selten in his...more
Another one from Boyle that was immensely enjoyable - funny, witty, bawdy, and sometimes shocking. Great writer! This book was Boyle's first novel. It's basically the story of Mungo Park, the Scottish explorer who was the first European to see the Niger River in Africa. During the first 3/4 of the novel, the story switches from Mungo's adventures to the story of Ned Rise a thief, scoundrel, and all-round con man in the filthy streets of late 18th century London. Although I did really enjoy Mungo...more
I really enjoyed this book. A roller-coaster of hilarity, pathos, and despondency (a combination as odd as it is wonderful). The first book I thought of when reading this was "Heart of Darkness" which, I believe, makes sense what with the exploration of the "dark continent" and the Congo. That, however, is the only real connection. Boyle throws his characters into the worst of situations and then, after a glimmer of hope, makes it even more terrible. You end up aching for any of them to come out...more
Boyle's first novel is a staggeringly ambitious effort that spans the African continent and the seedy underside of late 18th century London, with brief detours to bucolic Ireland. Water is a metaphor for bodily functions and booze, as the perils of this time period are brought wondrously and poetically to life, Boyle only later mixing it with the substance of life to make a feculent statement about death and disease. The themes are wide ranging and at times a bit diffuse, and Boyle would later u...more
An ambitious but messy novel, which for me was more of a heroic failure than a triumphant success. I like the idea a lot: a fictionalised account of Mungo Park's travels to find the source of the Niger River, interspersed with the story of an invented London rogue called Ned Rise. The general approach is a sort of knockabout picaresque style, a comic novel of adventures, but unfortunately this does leave the whole thing feeling rather caricaturish. The London scenes in particular are like a cart...more
Mungo Park, der große Afrikareisende, der unbedingt den Verlauf des Nigers erkunden wollte, ist die Hauptperson in diesem historischen Abenteuerroman. Daneben sind Ned Rise, ein schlitzohriger Überlebenskünstler aus London, der immer wieder aufs Neue um seine Existenz kämpft und Ailie, die künftige Frau Mungo Parks, die beiden anderen Protagonisten in diesem Buch. Erzählt werden immer wieder abwechselnd aller drei Leben, beginnend zum Zeitpunkt der ersten Afrikareise Parks.
Boyle hält sich an das...more
Boyle hält sich an das...more
T. Coraghessan Boyle is a tremendous teller of vivid tales. I prefer his short fiction, which is perhaps why this is my favorite among his novels. It was originally developed as a series of short stories featuring the Mungo Park character in Paris Review, then reworked, adding the Dickensian character of Ned Rise, whose life provides the counterpoint.
Alternating between the two as their lives rise, fall and ultimately converge, the novel rushes along. It's hilarious and serious, sad and wry. It...more
Alternating between the two as their lives rise, fall and ultimately converge, the novel rushes along. It's hilarious and serious, sad and wry. It...more
TC Boyle shows his versatality in this satire of a historical novel, in which fate ultimately brings the 2 protagonists - explorer Mungo Park, and street urchin Ned Rise, together in a momentous expedition into the dark heart of Africa. An enjoyable romp from the squalor of London's streets pre-sewerage days, to the hot, humid, pestilential tropics - both places portrayed as harsh and unforgiving in their own ways. Nasty, brutish and short lives seem to be the order of the day at the turn of the...more
A literary but compelling book from T.C. Boyle. It's his first novel, but worth reading. I'm enjoying it a lot, but then again, Boyle is one of my favorites. I've enjoyed his use of humor and historical settings in the past.
Now that I'm done with the book, I'd have to say that it was a tragic comedy. It reminded me of Steinbeck in terms of the tragic nature of the characters and what happens to them. It was a great book and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys literary books. I had to have my...more
Now that I'm done with the book, I'd have to say that it was a tragic comedy. It reminded me of Steinbeck in terms of the tragic nature of the characters and what happens to them. It was a great book and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys literary books. I had to have my...more
This is the second book by T.C. Boyle that I have read. I think it will undoubtedly be the last. Even more than "Drop City", this book was something of a struggle for me from the beginning. Although I can't find a reason to criticize Mr. Boyle's writing, and although his story telling was strong enough to make me want to finish the book, I had serious difficulty actually caring about what happened to any of the characters. The book seemed to be at least twice as long as it is, and probably took...more
TC Boyle is a good writer, he has a stack of accolades to prove it and I loved _A Friend of the Earth_ but this one was a bit of a chore to finish. It had some great moments but the whole was just too long and felt generally pointless. I love historical fiction (Flashman rules) but his snarky cute modernisms (he describes the Mandingo word for white man as "honkee")really detracted from the georgian setting. It was much more a collection of vingettes in search of a novel that never quite found o...more
This book was definitely entertaining during its first half. During the first Niger exploration, i found myself enthralled in the characters and whatever happened to them. However, the second trip to the Niger, i just couldn't care less. Although i have to give credit to TC Boyle for being an extremely talented writer with amazing details and humor (even if Water Music is the only book of his that i read), i found this story just too long for what it was worth in the end. I'm just glad it's over...more
This novel was so funny, so outrageous, a narrative gem full of characters so comical and wild it bordered on delirium and so graphic in its descriptions that it gave a vivid glimpse of life in London, Scotland and the Bight of Benin in Africa in 1800 such that I could almost smell the stank and feel the filth on my skin. I found it absolutely delicious to read. So glad I stumbled onto it at a used book fair. I should note that it's oddly enough no lightweight beach read and requires a concentra...more
By the time this novel was released, T. C. Boyle had already proven himself to be a master of the short story. Obviously, his first novel was highly-anticipated, and if it had been a clunker, it might have destoryed an otherwise promising career. Fortunately for him (and for anyone lucky enough to read this novel), Boyle hits a grand slam out of the park on his first step up to the plate.
Boyle's first novel, set in the late eighteenth century, chronicles the partnership of British thief and whor...more
Boyle's first novel, set in the late eighteenth century, chronicles the partnership of British thief and whor...more
Sadly, I felt very indifferent about the hero Mungo, who I perceived to be very unsympathetic, more of an annoying anti-hero, than anything I would ever care to read about. The book surely had its entertaining episodes, but characters and story made me fall asleep more than once. I thought it a weak story from an otherwise brilliant author.
"The year was 1795. George III was dabbing the walls of Windsor Castle with his own spittle, the Notables were botching things in France, Goya was deaf, De Quincey a depraved pre-adolescent. George Bryan 'Beau' Brummell was smoothing down his first starched collar, Young Ludwig van Beethoven, beetle-browed and twenty-four, was wowing them in Vienna with his Piano Concerto no. 2, and Ned Rise was drinking Strip-Me-Naked with Nan Punt and Sally Sebum at the Pig & Pox Tavern in Maiden Lane."
You...more
You...more
The first novel of the always funny and insanely observant T. Coraghessan Boyle, Water Music is an historical and satirical examination of two sadly misguided, yet somehow majestic and even glorious tragic heroes—conman Ned Rise and the great adventurer Mungo Park. Taking place largely in Imperial British West Africa, the novel’s lavish language and plot are as twisted as its main characters who come together in the late-1770s/early-1800s in a quest to find fame and fortune—and the source of the...more
TC Boyle knocks it out of the park again. I am baffled as to where he comes up with this stuff. So funny, strange, and somehow serious too. The story of England in the late 1700's (what a dump it must have been), centered around the absurd effort one man makes to explore Africa. Long but worth it.
Another from one of my favorite authors. While this novel is less cohesive than some of his other works--the stories are a little disjointed, especially that of Ned Rise--I found the ending a bit more satisfying. There isn't any of his usual ambiguity without resolution--well, there's less of it anyways. This novel is especially humorous in its telling, even though the subject matter is one of his darker tales. The parallel stories follows a London thief and con man who's trying to make a decent...more
I have always loved T C Boyle before. I found world's end and tortilla curtain as among my favorites. This was like fingernails on the chalkboard. Too contrived, too cute. It reminded me of other books from the era like Tom Robbins. I probably would have liked this book 25 years ago
This book has shaped my life in so many important and unique ways. Truly a masterpiece of 21st century literary fiction. Not sure, perhaps aside from World's End and Drop City, that Boyle has since hit the benchmark set with this book. Historical fiction at its best.
Like Indiana Jones on speed! I rattles from one crisis to the next before settling into a more reflective tone and eventually winding down to an excellent but heartbreaking conclusion. Often Dickensian in tone, often very funny, alway a great read.
Seriously, one of my favorite books ever. I have probably bought 20 copies of this to give away and read it at least 5 times. Hilarious, sad, bawdy...historical fiction taking great license. Ned Rise is a great character. Bring your dictionary.
This book should've been 200 pages shorter. Way too long and not engaging enough. The characters and story-lines are funny and Boyle is an excellent writer, but he wasn't able to keep the attention over such a long period w/ this theme.
This is a beautifully written book, but not in a way that is distracting from the interesting and imaginative plot. It's the kind of writing that you barely even notice (a good thing, to my mind). The characters, though not exactly real, were full - reading it is right in between a myth and a Virginia Woolf novel, which is basically perfect. It's funny where it means to be with suspense in all the right places. In fact, the only reason I can't give it five stars is pretty stupid: there's an almo...more
How to describe this? Laugh-out-loud funny at times, full of fascinating history, memorable characters, and a really warped sense of adventure. Two men go exploring in the heart of 18th century Africa with some dire results!
I read this a long time ago. It's better when you're younger. I'm not saying it's a kid book, but it didn't stand the test time from adolescent to adulthood.
It's not an adolescent book, BTW.
It's not an adolescent book, BTW.
Recommended by a friend when I moved to Mali in 2003, read it in 2004, and loved it! Just thought of it again today, after reading a TC Boyle story in the New Yorker earlier this year ...
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T. Coraghessan Boyle (also known as T.C. Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S. novelist and short story writer. Since the late 1970s, he has published eleven novels and more than 60 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York. He is married with three children. Boyle has been a Distinguis...more
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May 08, 2013 09:05pm