Water Music by T. Coraghessan Boyle

First published: 1981

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Picaresque

Time of plot: 1795-1806

Locale: Africa, England, Scotland, and Germany

Principal characters

• Mungo Park, a Scottish explorer and author
• Ned Rise, a con man
• Johnson (Katunga Oyo), Mungo’s friend and adviser in Africa
• Ailie Anderson Park, Mungo’s wife
• Alexander “Zander” Anderson, her brother
• Georgie Gleg, Ailie’s persistent suitor
• Fanny Brunch, Ned’s beloved
• Billy Boyles, Ned’s accomplice
• Ali, a Moorish potentate
• Dassoud, Ali’s henchman
• Sarah Colquhoun, Ned’s mother
• Edward Pin, her lover
• Prentiss Barrenboyne, Ned’s benefactor
• Nelson Smirke, Ned’s relentless enemy
• Sir Reginald Durfeys, Johnson’s former owner
• Sir Joseph Banks, director of the African Association
• Lord Twit, member of the African Association and Ned’s enemy
• Adonais Brooks, Fanny’s admirer
• Karfa Taura, an African who helps Mungo
• D. W. Delp, a surgeon
• The Baroness, Mungo’s lover
• Thomas Park, Mungo’s eldest son

The Story:

In 1795, Scottish explorer Mungo Park is sent to western Africa to find the Niger River, which no European has ever seen. Mungo is the fourth adventurer dispatched by the African Association for Promoting Exploration, a group of wealthy Englishmen intent upon expanding knowledge of uncharted regions. His task is made difficult by geography, climate, and the frequent hostility of the Africans. Captured by the Moorish potentate Ali, Mungo is about to be blinded by Dassoud, Ali’s henchman, when he is saved by Johnson, his guide and interpreter. Born Katunga Oyo, Johnson is a former South Carolina slave who became the London valet to Sir Reginald Durfeys and learned to love the world of English writers such as John Milton and Alexander Pope. After killing a gentleman in a duel, Johnson was transported back to Africa, where he escaped and joined up with Mungo.

Back in London, Ned Rise, a lowborn Londoner, survives by his wits, and Ailie Anderson, Mungo’s longtime fiancé, waits for Mungo to return from Africa. Ned earns money in a tavern by staging a show featuring a black servant having sex with two prostitutes. Ailie, the daughter of a physician in Selkirk, Scotland, longs for Mungo’s return and must resist the attentions of Georgie Gleg, her father’s assistant.

Ned is the illegitimate son of Sarah Colquhoun, an alcoholic. As a youth, he was tortured by Edward Pin, Sarah’s lover, who cut off the boy’s fingertips to make him a better street beggar. After Pin was killed, Ned lived on the streets. At twelve, he was taken in by Prentiss Barrenboyne, a wealthy bachelor who taught him to play the clarinet. Ned lived with Barrenboyne for seven years, until his benefactor was killed in a duel with Johnson. A life of living by his wits has led to the sex show. When police raid it, Ned plunges into the icy Thames River, the first of two times he will be assumed to be dead.

Rescued from the river by two fishermen, Ned begins selling what he passes off as authentic Russian caviar. He must assume disguises to hide from those arrested in or socially embarrassed by the sex-show raid. Ned especially wants to avoid Smirke, the landlord of the tavern, who would kill him without hesitation. When he is recognized by Billy Boyles, he enlists his old friend in the caviar scam.

In Africa, Johnson and Mungo are taken on a journey into the desert. They escape and make their way to Segu, which sits on the west bank of the Niger. Because the African Association, directed by Sir Joseph Banks, knows Africa only from sixteenth century maps, Mungo’s discovery of the river will change the European perception of the continent. During his London days, Johnson told several members of the association about Africa, but they have no faith in the words of their racial “inferior.” Even Mungo cannot shake his view of Johnson as a savage because his guide rejects the Bible.

Back in Scotland, Gleg gives Ailie a microscope, stimulating her enthusiasm for making scientific sketches of minutia. Mungo grows weary of exploring and of Africa. When Johnson is apparently eaten by a crocodile, Mungo continues his journey alone. His supporters are beginning to believe that the explorer will not return, and Ailie agrees to marry Gleg if she has not heard from Mungo in a year.

Ned meets and falls in love with Fanny Brunch, Sir Joseph’s parlormaid. The two plan to elope to the Hague, but his enemies track him down and beat him. In the melee, Lord Twit is killed, and Ned is blamed for murder.

Mungo is captured by Dassoud’s men but escapes, only to be overcome by fever. He is taken in by Karfa Taura, who admires his literacy. Mungo then joins some slave traders and becomes surgeon on a slave ship to South Carolina before making his way back to England. Ailie walks out on Gleg on the day of their wedding; she learns later that Mungo has returned but resents his decision to stay in London to write Travel in the Interior Districts of Africa (1799). Humiliated, Gleg leaves Selkirk. Mungo becomes caught up in his own celebrity and is seduced by the baroness. When he finally returns to Selkirk, Ailie demands he court her again from the beginning, and they soon marry.

With Ned imprisoned and awaiting execution, Fanny despairs for her future and agrees to become the mistress of the lustful Adonais Brooks in exchange for the aristocrat’s assistance to Ned. Nevertheless, Ned is hanged, only to regain consciousness while his body is about to be dissected during a medical lecture. He and Boyles become body snatchers so that the surgeon, Delp, will keep quiet about Ned’s miraculous survival. When one of their thefts is discovered, a reward is offered for the capture of the grave robbers. Ned leaves for Hertford, hoping to find word of Fanny, who has been taken to Germany by Brooks. In Germany, Fanny discovers that she is pregnant with Ned’s child and escapes. Later, in London, her son is snatched, and she commits suicide by jumping off Blackfriars Bridge.

Now the father of three, Mungo settles in Peebles, Scotland, as a physician but finds the work tedious and longs for more adventures. Ned meets his son in Hertford, but he does not know the boy’s identity. Ned is convicted of trespassing and sentenced to twenty years at hard labor. He and Boyles volunteer to join Mungo’s next expedition in exchange for pardons. The famous explorer leaves Scotland and Ailie, who is pregnant with their fourth child, without telling her his destination. She decides they are finished when she learns that Mungo and Zander, her beloved brother, have abandoned her. Gleg returns after an absence of seven years.

In Africa, Ned considers Mungo foolish but brave and tries to ingratiate himself to the explorer. He is appalled to see his enemy Smirke among the explorer’s men. Mungo is unable to recruit many Africans because they perceive him as a bad risk. Other inhabitants are even less friendly: They kill Boyles. Ned decides he must somehow take charge of the expedition, or all its members will be doomed.

Mungo stumbles into Johnson’s village and finds his old friend alive. Calling himself Isaaco, Johnson refuses to acknowledge his identity. He is disheartened to see that Mungo has not learned from his past mistakes. Smirke attacks Ned, who overpowers his adversary and sells him to cannibals. The men contract fevers, and Zander dies.

Ailie becomes bored waiting for her life to resume and soon starts acting like a widow. She goes boating with Gleg, who seduces her. The Loch Ness monster appears, and she takes its manifestation as a signal of her waywardness.

Mungo builds a boat to sail down the Niger, but Johnson refuses to go. While launching his boat, Mungo narrowly escapes shots fired by the relentless Dassoud. On the river, Mungo finds himself constantly surrounded by hostile peoples. Each time, he escapes his aggressors only after losing men and supplies. Ned admires Mungo for having a purpose in his life and decides not to go back to England. Dassoud catches up with Mungo and fires at him again just as the boat crashes into the rocks of the Niger. Only Ned survives. Ailie establishes a shrine to the fallen hero and refuses to respond to Gleg’s proposal. Years later, Thomas, the son of Mungo who is most like his father, disappears into Africa and is never heard from again.

Bibliography

Boyle, T. Coraghessan. “An Interview with T. Coraghessan Boyle.” Interview by Elizabeth Adams. Chicago Review 37, nos. 2/3 (Summer, 1991): 51-63. The author briefly discusses the influence of nineteenth century British fiction on his work.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “T. Coraghessan Boyle: The Art of Fiction CLXI.” Interview by George Plimpton and Elizabeth Adams. Paris Review 42 (Summer, 2000): 100-126. Boyle discusses the impact of reading more than one hundred nineteenth century novels before writing Water Music and how Dickens inspired him to be a popular entertainer through his fiction.

Gleason, William Paul. Understanding T. C. Boyle. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2009. Excellent overview of Water Music. Discusses its factual sources and literary inspirations

Howe, Nicholas. “Looking for a River: Or, Travelers in Africa.” Research in African Literatures 32, no. 3 (Autumn, 2001): 229-241. Places Park’s writings in the context of other writing about African exploration. Discusses Boyle’s depiction of Park as a geographical missionary.

Law, Danielle. “Caught in the Current: Plotting History in Water Music.” Inbetween 5, no. 1 (March, 1995): 41-50. Examines Boyle’s use of historical fact in his fiction.