Preview of Water Music Summary:

The main action of Water Music is Mungo Park's search for the source of the Niger River. In developing this simple plot line, Boyle makes so many references to so many other authors that Park's search for the source of the Niger becomes a metaphor for Boyle's search for the essence of literature.

Neither Park nor Boyle completes his respective quest; but as Ned Rise plays a clarinet along the Niger after Park's...