Publication
Penguin Books (1983), Edition: Reprint, Anniversary, 437 pages
Original publication date
1981
Collections
Subjects
Description
Mungo Park, based on a real-life African explorer, and Ned Rise, a scoundrel, pimp, thief, and cheat, travel about Africa and meet up with a varied assortment of characters--native and colonial, antic and dangerous.
User reviews
LibraryThing member baswood
Reading this is like a plunge into a sickly bath of filth and depravity. After a few chapters I wanted to go out for a walk in the fresh air; avoiding my local pig farm, thankful that I am living in the 21st century. London at the turn of 18th century seems little different from Central Africa when
The whole book is one long overblown, overripe extravaganza. Was it really like this in the period: 1794 -1806? Was Mungo Park such an idiot?. Of course it is a caricature, but caricatures are based on something and how much of that something is exaggerated by T C Boyle is probably the whole point of the book: it does however make for a lively entertainment. The novel at over 400 pages seems overlong, however in my opinion it is saved by a very exciting account of Mungo Park's final chase down the River Niger, juxtaposed with his wife Ailie's calm acceptance of a life without her husband. After all the wallowing in the filth of Africa and of London, Boyle manages to infuse a little realism in the final section of the novel.
Ned Rise like Mungo Park seems indestructible
"Neither dysentery nor ague has touched him, so inured is he to filth and deprivation, so hardened against the assault of microbes by a lifetime of wallowing in the shit, scum and slime of Londons's foulest and most putrid holes"
Boyle has by this point in the novel been at pains to describe in lurid detail all of that shit, scum and slime of London as well as the barbaric shit, scum and slime of central Africa and the best that can be said of his two main characters is that they survive all that is thrown at them. When we meet Mungo in Africa he is like a rag doll figure, he is continually battered and bruised, but staggers on to the next disaster, with an air of a man who is born to lead, but with hardly a thought in his head. Ned thinks he is a self-centred fool, but follows him nevertheless. At one point in the story Mungo has a moments reflection; wondering why he finds himself about to embark on a hazardous journey just before the start of the rainy season, but quickly dismisses it: after all why should he dwell on niggling little unpleasantnesses, when he is about to make a historic journey. A caricature then rather than a characterisation, Boyle does not waste much time getting inside the heads of his characters assuming that they are as greedy, lustful and self-centred as any other human beings.
The overpowering impression that the book leaves is of the muck, filth and stench that appears to be everywhere at the turn of the eighteenth century. The drunkenness, the perversion is told with so much gleeful detail that if the reader was accused of burying his nose in a book he might retort that he has had his nose rubbed into this book. I am all for an author adding realism to his writing and appreciate that Central Africa and the poorer districts of London were not noted for their cleanliness, but one can have too much of it.
T C Boyle has used Mungo Park's own written account of his first journey "Travel in the Interior of Africa" published in 1799 as a basis for his story and so the interested reader can follow on a map the actual journey he made and the references to the people he met. Mungo Park was imprisoned by a Moorish chief at Ludamar for four months and in his account he says that Fatima the corpulent wife of his captor came to look upon him favourably. Boyle fictionalises this to tell of a woman that is force fed to become more attractive to men reaching such a size that she needs two servants to help her move around. She takes Park as her lover who delights in exploring the large landscapes of her body and by her favours he is able to fashion his escape.
This was Boyle's first novel published in 1981and he has gone on to enjoy an extremely successful career. Water Music with its extravagant historical fiction was a forerunner to more successful books. I enjoyed his reworking of history, bringing it to life with plenty of over the top, lustful and imaginative stories even though it felt a bit too much of a good thing. It had been on my book shelf for over twenty years and I was not sorry I took it down to read. Good but not really healthy entertainment 3.5 stars.
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these events took place. There are two principle story lines: Mungo Park's explorations in Central Africa and Ned Rise's struggles to escape the poverty of a teeming London, there is no doubt that the two story threads will come together at some point. The story of Mungo Park is based on historical events; Mungo Park was a Scottish explorer seized with the idea of mapping the course of the River Niger while Ned Rise is a character invented by the author, both suffer horrible vicissitudes trying to survive their environments.The whole book is one long overblown, overripe extravaganza. Was it really like this in the period: 1794 -1806? Was Mungo Park such an idiot?. Of course it is a caricature, but caricatures are based on something and how much of that something is exaggerated by T C Boyle is probably the whole point of the book: it does however make for a lively entertainment. The novel at over 400 pages seems overlong, however in my opinion it is saved by a very exciting account of Mungo Park's final chase down the River Niger, juxtaposed with his wife Ailie's calm acceptance of a life without her husband. After all the wallowing in the filth of Africa and of London, Boyle manages to infuse a little realism in the final section of the novel.
Ned Rise like Mungo Park seems indestructible
"Neither dysentery nor ague has touched him, so inured is he to filth and deprivation, so hardened against the assault of microbes by a lifetime of wallowing in the shit, scum and slime of Londons's foulest and most putrid holes"
Boyle has by this point in the novel been at pains to describe in lurid detail all of that shit, scum and slime of London as well as the barbaric shit, scum and slime of central Africa and the best that can be said of his two main characters is that they survive all that is thrown at them. When we meet Mungo in Africa he is like a rag doll figure, he is continually battered and bruised, but staggers on to the next disaster, with an air of a man who is born to lead, but with hardly a thought in his head. Ned thinks he is a self-centred fool, but follows him nevertheless. At one point in the story Mungo has a moments reflection; wondering why he finds himself about to embark on a hazardous journey just before the start of the rainy season, but quickly dismisses it: after all why should he dwell on niggling little unpleasantnesses, when he is about to make a historic journey. A caricature then rather than a characterisation, Boyle does not waste much time getting inside the heads of his characters assuming that they are as greedy, lustful and self-centred as any other human beings.
The overpowering impression that the book leaves is of the muck, filth and stench that appears to be everywhere at the turn of the eighteenth century. The drunkenness, the perversion is told with so much gleeful detail that if the reader was accused of burying his nose in a book he might retort that he has had his nose rubbed into this book. I am all for an author adding realism to his writing and appreciate that Central Africa and the poorer districts of London were not noted for their cleanliness, but one can have too much of it.
T C Boyle has used Mungo Park's own written account of his first journey "Travel in the Interior of Africa" published in 1799 as a basis for his story and so the interested reader can follow on a map the actual journey he made and the references to the people he met. Mungo Park was imprisoned by a Moorish chief at Ludamar for four months and in his account he says that Fatima the corpulent wife of his captor came to look upon him favourably. Boyle fictionalises this to tell of a woman that is force fed to become more attractive to men reaching such a size that she needs two servants to help her move around. She takes Park as her lover who delights in exploring the large landscapes of her body and by her favours he is able to fashion his escape.
This was Boyle's first novel published in 1981and he has gone on to enjoy an extremely successful career. Water Music with its extravagant historical fiction was a forerunner to more successful books. I enjoyed his reworking of history, bringing it to life with plenty of over the top, lustful and imaginative stories even though it felt a bit too much of a good thing. It had been on my book shelf for over twenty years and I was not sorry I took it down to read. Good but not really healthy entertainment 3.5 stars.
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LibraryThing member Widsith
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
This two-dimensionality does cause problems with tone. There are some appalling stories in here, especially when it comes to the female characters. Poor Fanny Brunch goes from servitude to extended sadomasochistic rape and torture to drug addiction to losing a baby to…well, to a nasty end. If this is supposed to be social commentary then a roustabout comic style is the wrong way to do it: it just feels trivial and cruel. Similarly, the final third of the book builds to an unhappy climax for pretty much everyone. But because the characters have so little depth, it doesn't seem particularly moving or tragic. It just seems relentless, and actually kind of depressing.
There are various other problems with the execution, some subjective, others more serious. I didn't like the way Boyle explained so much of his historical context. There are long paragraphs bringing readers up to speed on things like what the Sahel is, or where the Niger River is located. If you already know this, such passages feel patronising, and if you don't then it deprives you of the pleasure of investigating the novel's sidelines, chasing down references. The structure of the book is also a bit awkward, describing as it does both of Park's two African expeditions, with a detailed interlude in Scotland in between. The problem is that by the time we go back to West Africa for the final section of the novel, it feels like going backwards: we've seen it all before.
Most crucially, though, I have no idea what this book is actually about. What's it all for? I mean some of the set-pieces are a lot of fun, and there are some enjoyable bits of dialogue, but – there's just nothing behind it. There are no unifying themes at all, just incidents.
Boyle is clearly a huge Thomas Pynchon fan, and the book I couldn't help comparing this to was Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, another postmodern adventure novel about an eighteenth-century British explorer. Water Music does not emerge well from the comparison. Pynchon picked out little-known sidelines from the period – Vaucanson's mechanical duck, the transit of Venus – and he let the reader do at least half the work. For all Boyle's energetic prose style, his targets are too obvious or too cliché. Ultimately, Pynchon writes novels-of-ideas; Boyle doesn't seem to have any ideas. Without them, his rich vocabulary is left rudderless, and he throws words like hyetologist and remugient around a bit clumsily.
OK I've probably gone too far now. This is by no means a bad novel, and I enjoyed reading it – it's just a bit frustrating because there is a much better book in there somewhere. This was TC Boyle's first, and I would definitely like to read some of his others and see how his style has matured. In this case I unfortunately felt a bit too much like Mungo Park myself – on an eventful journey, but without any clear idea of where I was going or why.
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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 cartoon version of a Hogarth painting, though with a modern willingness to dwell on the cheap sex and inhuman squalor of eighteenth-century city life.This two-dimensionality does cause problems with tone. There are some appalling stories in here, especially when it comes to the female characters. Poor Fanny Brunch goes from servitude to extended sadomasochistic rape and torture to drug addiction to losing a baby to…well, to a nasty end. If this is supposed to be social commentary then a roustabout comic style is the wrong way to do it: it just feels trivial and cruel. Similarly, the final third of the book builds to an unhappy climax for pretty much everyone. But because the characters have so little depth, it doesn't seem particularly moving or tragic. It just seems relentless, and actually kind of depressing.
There are various other problems with the execution, some subjective, others more serious. I didn't like the way Boyle explained so much of his historical context. There are long paragraphs bringing readers up to speed on things like what the Sahel is, or where the Niger River is located. If you already know this, such passages feel patronising, and if you don't then it deprives you of the pleasure of investigating the novel's sidelines, chasing down references. The structure of the book is also a bit awkward, describing as it does both of Park's two African expeditions, with a detailed interlude in Scotland in between. The problem is that by the time we go back to West Africa for the final section of the novel, it feels like going backwards: we've seen it all before.
Most crucially, though, I have no idea what this book is actually about. What's it all for? I mean some of the set-pieces are a lot of fun, and there are some enjoyable bits of dialogue, but – there's just nothing behind it. There are no unifying themes at all, just incidents.
Boyle is clearly a huge Thomas Pynchon fan, and the book I couldn't help comparing this to was Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, another postmodern adventure novel about an eighteenth-century British explorer. Water Music does not emerge well from the comparison. Pynchon picked out little-known sidelines from the period – Vaucanson's mechanical duck, the transit of Venus – and he let the reader do at least half the work. For all Boyle's energetic prose style, his targets are too obvious or too cliché. Ultimately, Pynchon writes novels-of-ideas; Boyle doesn't seem to have any ideas. Without them, his rich vocabulary is left rudderless, and he throws words like hyetologist and remugient around a bit clumsily.
OK I've probably gone too far now. This is by no means a bad novel, and I enjoyed reading it – it's just a bit frustrating because there is a much better book in there somewhere. This was TC Boyle's first, and I would definitely like to read some of his others and see how his style has matured. In this case I unfortunately felt a bit too much like Mungo Park myself – on an eventful journey, but without any clear idea of where I was going or why.
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LibraryThing member thorold
I've been having a bit of a fling with the eighties recently: coming back to Milan Kundera may have been a disappointment, but this early work by Boyle fully lived up to my memory of it. It's a lively, witty, original, and totally iconoclastic romp through the opening years of the nineteenth
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century, as unlike as it can be to the dull and routine writing of The Women. A young man's book, and a book that belongs to the postmodern spirit of the period in which it was written, full of clever little jokes and allusions that constantly undermine the narrative illusion. But still a pleasure to read, even thirty years later. Show Less
LibraryThing member pynchon82
T. C. Boyle hits a grand slam 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 whoremaster Ned Rise and Scottish explorer Mungo Park. Together, they attempt to traverse the Niger River into the heart of Africa.
Boyle's best work is often quite playful with historical figures and this novel is no exception. It's quite funny, exceptionally well-written, and impossible to put down.
Boyle's first novel, set in the late eighteenth century chronicles the partnership of British thief and whoremaster Ned Rise and Scottish explorer Mungo Park. Together, they attempt to traverse the Niger River into the heart of Africa.
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The mission is a failure and neither is ever seen or heard from again. This hilarious and bawdy novel explains, for the first time, what happened.Boyle's best work is often quite playful with historical figures and this novel is no exception. It's quite funny, exceptionally well-written, and impossible to put down.
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LibraryThing member J.v.d.A.
Great comic writing, though I did think the book went on for a little too long. Boyle has a lovley turn of phrase.
LibraryThing member Philotera
It's always interesting to read the first novel of a writer you adore. And I do adore TC Boyle. Which made it all the more interesting to not care that much for Water Music.
This historical epic deals (mostly) with the search for the origins of the Niger River in Africa, and the intersection of its
As always, I love Boyle for his bravura language, his daredevil risk-taking, and jeez, he knows a lot. However, I found I didn't trust him in this as a narrator, and the middle dragged for me, which in his later books it never does.
This historical epic deals (mostly) with the search for the origins of the Niger River in Africa, and the intersection of its
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charaters' lives, Mungo Park the young Scots explorer and Ned Rise, his London anti-hero. As always, I love Boyle for his bravura language, his daredevil risk-taking, and jeez, he knows a lot. However, I found I didn't trust him in this as a narrator, and the middle dragged for me, which in his later books it never does.
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LibraryThing member samfsmith
Another odd, but good, novel from Boyle. Historical fiction, it tells the story of a Scottish explorer attempting to "discover" the Congo River in Africa. Of course the explorer is oblivious to the fact that the river has already been discovered by thousands of black and Muslim Africans. Just part
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of the irony that Boyle loves so much, and which he is so good at. Show Less
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
Water Music is another book I’m having trouble with review-wise. Maybe I’m not the intended audience for it. Come to think of it, I don’t know who is. A blurb on the back styles it as “The funniest, bawdiest, most adventure-filled novel to come along since Tom Jones”. Having never read
Take the not-quite-likable cast of characters with Mungo Park taking the lead. Now, as protagonists go he’s pretty good. He gets a lot of screen time and during much of it he’s doing something pretty interesting. Not enviable, mind you, but at least interesting. The thing is, I didn’t really care all that much about him. During his most harrowing moments with Dassoud or in the grip of some awful disease or other (which I swear half of the book is devoted to describing. In great detail.) I didn’t really root for him. Somehow Boyle missed the mark in making me care. I think it was because Mungo himself didn’t really seem to care about anything except making a name for himself as an explorer. He isn’t much of one really. One of the Three Stooges might have made a better one. Probably Larry. When he’s not making a bad decision he’s doing something stupid, when he’s not doing something stupid he’s sick as a dog, when he’s not sick as a dog he’s being attacked or held prisoner and when he’s not doing any of those things he’s home with his family pining to go back and do it some more.
Interspersed with Mungo’s narrative is that of Ned Rise. A more wretched character I have yet to meet. Dickens didn’t go as far as Boyle did with Ned. Think of Fagin, Oliver or any of the other sorrier-than-sorry urchins-turned-criminal and then kick it up a few notches. Or down depending on how your mind works. But despite his callow sliminess and self-serving blindness, I liked Ned better than Mungo and so the ending suited me and probably suited Mungo, too.
The vignettes featuring Ailie and all she endures were nice breaks to the unrelenting action of the explorer bits. Just when things got too squalid, visceral and just plain gross we’re reprieved and sent back to Scotland to see what’s been left behind.
Not much as it turns out. Ailie is spends a lot of her time without Mungo pining for him and alternately being pissed that he left. When he is around she spends most of her time being pregnant. Such is life I guess.
None of that helped me figure out the intended audience for Water Music. Tropical disease specialists? Reincarnated 18th century explorers dying to reminisce? Jilted wives and lovers trying to understand their wayward men? Angry native guides looking to see how brainless the white man is? I don’t know, but I’ve never read anything quite like it and probably never will again.
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Tom Jones I can’t say if this is accurate or not, but I did read Moll Flanders and if you liked that, you’ll probably like this, too.Take the not-quite-likable cast of characters with Mungo Park taking the lead. Now, as protagonists go he’s pretty good. He gets a lot of screen time and during much of it he’s doing something pretty interesting. Not enviable, mind you, but at least interesting. The thing is, I didn’t really care all that much about him. During his most harrowing moments with Dassoud or in the grip of some awful disease or other (which I swear half of the book is devoted to describing. In great detail.) I didn’t really root for him. Somehow Boyle missed the mark in making me care. I think it was because Mungo himself didn’t really seem to care about anything except making a name for himself as an explorer. He isn’t much of one really. One of the Three Stooges might have made a better one. Probably Larry. When he’s not making a bad decision he’s doing something stupid, when he’s not doing something stupid he’s sick as a dog, when he’s not sick as a dog he’s being attacked or held prisoner and when he’s not doing any of those things he’s home with his family pining to go back and do it some more.
Interspersed with Mungo’s narrative is that of Ned Rise. A more wretched character I have yet to meet. Dickens didn’t go as far as Boyle did with Ned. Think of Fagin, Oliver or any of the other sorrier-than-sorry urchins-turned-criminal and then kick it up a few notches. Or down depending on how your mind works. But despite his callow sliminess and self-serving blindness, I liked Ned better than Mungo and so the ending suited me and probably suited Mungo, too.
The vignettes featuring Ailie and all she endures were nice breaks to the unrelenting action of the explorer bits. Just when things got too squalid, visceral and just plain gross we’re reprieved and sent back to Scotland to see what’s been left behind.
Not much as it turns out. Ailie is spends a lot of her time without Mungo pining for him and alternately being pissed that he left. When he is around she spends most of her time being pregnant. Such is life I guess.
None of that helped me figure out the intended audience for Water Music. Tropical disease specialists? Reincarnated 18th century explorers dying to reminisce? Jilted wives and lovers trying to understand their wayward men? Angry native guides looking to see how brainless the white man is? I don’t know, but I’ve never read anything quite like it and probably never will again.
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LibraryThing member fundevogel
Water Music reminds me of a lot of my past reading. The Threepenny Opera, with a Hint of The Story of O. But more than anything it reminds me of Candide. Or rather Candide if it were written by Hunter S. Thompson, or, as luck would have it T. Coraghessen Boyle.
Water Music follows two men. Mungo
Ned Rise is the cosmic opposite of Mungo. From the day he was born nothing good comes to Ned without with him clawing, scraping and hustling for it. Any good that does come his way is invariably just some cruel joke setting him up for greater loss. And so Ned is a criminal and a con man, not out of any degeneracy, but because his wits and footwork are the only thing keeping him ahead of a universe that seems bent on purging itself of him.
The book takes a circuitous route through the two men's lives with interludes about a few key people in their lives. The literary Mandingo guide tasked with babysitting the idiot explorer. The fiance that spurns the advance of one idiot in favor of the bigger absent idiot. Ned's beautiful doomed love. A homicidal Moor. A sadistic poet. The course is unpredictable except for the inevitability of calamity for Ned and impossibly lucky breaks for Mungo.
And so I am reminded of The Threepenny Opera, The Story of O and most of all Candide. In Water Music life is not fair. Undeserving people get all the breaks and lack the self-awareness to know their privilege or what it costs others. Others seem cosmically ordained to suffer no matter what they do. It's best not to hope for a happy ending, but it is ok to enjoy the ride. Because while Water Music reminds me of many other books, it is better than any of them. It's a bitter pill, but you take it with a spoonful of sugar.
Water Music follows two men. Mungo
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Park is the first. He is a perfect imbecile with a seemingly endless supply of fool's luck and guiltless oblivion to the tragedy that inevitably befalls those with the poor judgement to allow their fates to become enterwined with his. Unfortunately for eneryone Mungo has his heart set on exploration and glory and 'discovering' the Niger River in Africa.Ned Rise is the cosmic opposite of Mungo. From the day he was born nothing good comes to Ned without with him clawing, scraping and hustling for it. Any good that does come his way is invariably just some cruel joke setting him up for greater loss. And so Ned is a criminal and a con man, not out of any degeneracy, but because his wits and footwork are the only thing keeping him ahead of a universe that seems bent on purging itself of him.
The book takes a circuitous route through the two men's lives with interludes about a few key people in their lives. The literary Mandingo guide tasked with babysitting the idiot explorer. The fiance that spurns the advance of one idiot in favor of the bigger absent idiot. Ned's beautiful doomed love. A homicidal Moor. A sadistic poet. The course is unpredictable except for the inevitability of calamity for Ned and impossibly lucky breaks for Mungo.
And so I am reminded of The Threepenny Opera, The Story of O and most of all Candide. In Water Music life is not fair. Undeserving people get all the breaks and lack the self-awareness to know their privilege or what it costs others. Others seem cosmically ordained to suffer no matter what they do. It's best not to hope for a happy ending, but it is ok to enjoy the ride. Because while Water Music reminds me of many other books, it is better than any of them. It's a bitter pill, but you take it with a spoonful of sugar.
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Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0140065504 / 9780140065503
Physical description
437 p.; 5.1 inches
Pages
437