Rating: 
Summary: stunning
Review: this book totally rocks. funny AND intellectual? you bet. it can't be beat.
Rating:
Summary: stunning
Review: this book totally rocks. funny AND intellectual? you bet. it can't be beat.
Rating: 
Summary: Strong Start, Strained Ending
Review: This is a difficult book to classify, because it contains at least two distinct parts, and I do not here refer to the paralleled stories of Ned Rise and Mungo Park. The first part of the book is deliciously humorous and great fun; I'm not sure whether Boyle's mood changed or he ran out of steam for the second part. Though it contains some witticisms, the tone of the second part is completely dissimilar to that of the first. The comedy which made the first part so uproariously fun is completely absent, replaced by something resembling satire or tragedy, but lacking the wit to pull either off. The first part of this book is worthy of 5 stars. The second, though it has its moments, barely manages a 2.
Rating:
Summary: Faulkner is no TCB...
Review: This is TCB's best book yet, a tough statement to make, given the consistent high quality of his work...easily some of the best writing currently being produced. His writing typically reads as fluidly as a prosaic poem, and the combination of his sonorous language and the edge-of-your-seat excitement of this book eclipses just about anything going. Imagine Citizen Kane meets Indiana Jones. TCB is often referred to as today's Faulkner. I've read Faulkner; I've studied Faulkner; I know Faulkner, and Faulkner is no TCB!
Rating:
Summary: Water Music
Review: This novel is still T. Coraghessan Boyle's triumph! Read it and be stunned..
Rating:
Summary: Boyle at His Best!
Review: Water Music is indeed Boyle at his absolute best, especially if you are a fan of what he does best: tell a great story. Indeed Boyle shows he stills deems important what so many contemporary authors (of every age) seem to loose sight of, which is the importance of the narritive itself. As in the later World's End, he takes us to a different century for this bi-continental adventure. He does so convincingly through the language and setting, but doesn't spend too much time establishing the validity of the time and place but rather lets it add color and dimension to the center-stage adventure. A Boyle trademark which is successful to very different degrees in his novels is his ability to create characters that are at once as real as can be and at the same time so necessarily fictional. This combination of character, adventure, and setting are enough for Boyle's wordarhea to take over and enrapture you from the opening pages. If you are a fan of Boyle, you will put this near or at the top of your list of favorites, and if you're not yet, you will be.
Rating:
Summary: Simply brilliant!
Review: When I'd finished reading Water Music I turned the book over and read it again. It is the only book I have ever read twice without a break in between. The narrative is like nectar - to be swished around the tastebuds and savoured page by delectable page.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books in modern literature....
Review: While all of T.C. Boyle's books are a joy to read, this is the best of the bunch. Intelligent, creative, funny, and compelling. I recommend this book to every serious reader I know..
Rating:
Summary: His Best Work!
Review: While I've enjoyed all of the Boyle novels I've read, this one is a real gem. Fans of T.C. Boyle know he loves to juxtapose the clash of cultures between characters from radically different backgrounds in most of his work, but nowhere does he do it better than in this work. This is how Dickens would have written had he been into psychodelic mushrooms. You'll have to put this book down several times just to bring your laughing under control. The dialog with the drunk who brags about hitting the pub owner on the pillory with six rotten turnips and a dead cat is worth the read alone and put me right on the floor in hysterics.
Rating:
Summary: His Best Work!
Review: While I've enjoyed all of the Boyle novels I've read, this one is a real gem. Fans of T.C. Boyle know he loves to juxtapose the clash of cultures between characters from radically different backgrounds in most of his work, but nowhere does he do it better than in this work. This is how Dickens would have written had he been into psychodelic mushrooms. You'll have to put this book down several times just to bring your laughing under control. The dialog with the drunk who brags about hitting the pub owner on the pillory with six rotten turnips and a dead cat is worth the read alone and put me right on the floor in hysterics.
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