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Original Essays | November 5, 2009

John Buntin: IMG Notes from the (Bibliographic) Underground



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Other titles in the Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series series:

  1. Dreams of Sleep
  2. Run With the Horsemen
  3. Stones for Ibarra
  4. The Little Disturbances of Man
  5. The Women of Brewster Place

Water Music: A Novel

by T. C. Boyle

Water Music: A Novel Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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 adventures of Ned Rise, thief and whoremaster, and Mungo Park, a Scottish explorer, through London's seamy gutters and Scotland's scenic highlands — to their grand meeting in the heart of darkest Africa. There they join forces and wend their hilarious way to the source of the Niger.

Review:

"Ribald, hilarious, exotic — an engrossing flight of the literary imagination." Los Angeles Times

Review:

"Water Music does for fiction what Raiders of the Lost Ark did for film....Boyle is an adept plotter, a crazed humorist, and a fierce describer." The Boston Globe

Review:

"Water Music, while self-consciously honoring certain codes and manners of the past, goes out of its way to keep us aware that we are reading a work of our own times." New York Times

Review:

"High comic fiction....Boyle is a writer of considerable talent. He pulls off his most implausible inventions with wit, a perfect sense of timing, and his considerable linguistic gifts." The Washington Post

Synopsis:

Funny, bawdy, full of T. C. Boyle's inimitable flights of imaginative and stylistic fancy, Water Music follows the wild adventures of Ned Rise, thief and whoremaster, and Mungo Park, explorer, through London's seamy gutters and Scotland's scenic Highlands — to their grand meeting in the heart of darkest Africa. There they join forces and wend their hilarious way to the source of the Niger.

Synopsis:

Thief and whoremaster Ned Rise and explorer Mungo Park join forces in the dark heart of deepest Africa to find the source of the Niger River.

About the Author

James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English at the University of Southern California, is a widely recognized authority on Victorian literature and culture.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
cybonan, November 14, 2006 (view all comments by cybonan)
The story is far-out, to a level only T.C Boyle can reach. The setting is rich with detail and the characters are both deplorable and lovable...by far my favorite book from one of the best authors of our time.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780140065503
Author:
T. C. Boyle
Publisher:
Penguin Books
Author:
Boyle, T. Coraghessan
Author:
Boyle, T. C.
Author:
Kincaid, James R.
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Discovery and exploration
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Explorers
Subject:
Historical fiction
Subject:
Africa, West
Subject:
Discoveries in geography
Subject:
Biographical fiction
Subject:
Explorers -- Africa, West -- Fiction.
Subject:
Literary
Copyright:
Edition Number:
Reprint ed.
Series:
Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series
Publication Date:
July 1983
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
437
Dimensions:
7.75x5.05x.87 in. .68 lbs.

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