Water Music

If I was going to be stranded on a desert island and could only take one book with me, 'Water Music' would be a very strong contender. Easily one of the best novels I have ever read, my father gave me his copy after he failed to get into it when I was a teenager. I failed to get into it as well, and the book languished on my shelves unread until we were rationalizing our book collection and something told me to give it one last go. I ended up reading that copy to death and bought a replacement, which is also in very sorry condition by now. I am absolutely delighted that it is now available for Kindle, and unhesitatingly bought it again.Any description of a book this delightfully packed with characters, chaos and complication must necessarily do no more than skim the surface of what makes it what it is. At turns outrageous and lyrical, bawdy and tragic, 'Water Music' is a picaresque romp, focusing on the trials and tribulations of the explorer Mungo Park, his long-suffering fiancee Ailie Anderson, and con artist and ne'er-do-well Ned Rise. As Park searches for the River Niger and Rise fights to keep his head above water, the two men find their way through the high-society salons and low haunts of Georgian London, the crofts of the Scottish borderlands and the wilds of West Africa, where their paths eventually cross. They are accompanied on their way by a cast of thousands including transported convicts, slave traders, opium-eaters, grave-robbers, and the young Beau Brummell. Jane Austen it ain't. If this sounds at all like your kind of thing, dive in and be richly rewarded.

This book ( written by an American , I think ) , is magnificent ... Intricate , and powerful... a book to really get drawn into... you actually feel how these characters felt... in their dispair , and in their eventual fate.... I cant explain how good this really is..... it loads you up with a sort of gloomy resignation to the situation that you , the reader, feel that the characters in the book ; must feel..... One of the only books that I have been able to read , then just start over again , streight away !JUST BUY IT.... you wont be dissapointed ( I hope ! )

Absolutely brilliant book read it years ago while in the army bought back some great memories

Superbly written adventure. I drank in every word. So evocative of the period and the terrible privations of life in London and Africa, particularly for the poor and under classes. A great satire on the class system and racial prejudice.

This is the fifth book I had the pleasure of reading from this great novelist and once again I wasn't disappointed. This is T.C.Boyle at his best, irreverent, crazy, witty, funny. Don't be afraid to discover the dirty alleys of the late 18th century London or to adventure along the Niger until your breath is taken away. A book difficult to lay down once you have read the first two pages.

Fantastic read.

on time good condition

It is powerful, often uncomfortable.