Henderson the Rain King (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) | Saul Bellow

Henderson the Rain King (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) | Saul Bellow | The self exploration of a miserable man

books:

1954 World Series ... Igloo Pink Ribbon ... 1900 Hullabaloo Soundtrack Henderson the Rain...

	Henderson the Rain King (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) Saul Bellow Penguin Classics, 1996 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 75 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Bellow's glorious, spirited story of an eccentric American millionaire who finds a home of sorts in deepest Africa.

The Story of a Modern Sensibility Wounded by the World

Through parody and satire, Henderson the Rain King (1959) offers Bellow's most trenchant and comic analysis of literary modernism.

The title character is a direct parody of literary giant Ernest Hemingway, a narcissistic stoic who is introspective, solipsistic, bumbling and egocentric. Despite wealth, physical prowess and social standing, Henderson feels restless and unfulfilled. He is Bellow's answer to a generation of modern writers who reacted with exaggerated disappointment to the failures of Romantic phenomenology.

After alienating his wife, children and friends, and literally shouting his housekeeper to death, Henderson uses his wealth to finance a spiritual pilgrimage through remote Africa. His guide, Romilayu, leads him to the village of the Arnewi, where he befriends the leaders of the village. When he learns that the cistern from which the Arnewi draw their drinking water is plagued by frogs, he attempts to save their precious water supply. But his enthusiastic scheme ends in disaster.

Henderson and Romilayu then travel to the village of the Wariri, where an impulsive feat of strength unwittingly deifies Henderson as the Rain King. His troubles, however, are far from over, and even his new friend, the Wariri chief, King Dahfu, may not be able to protect him from the tribal elders who are convinced that a lion is the reincarnation of the late king, Dahfu's father.

Henderson's trek through the wilds of Africa is a journey to the heart of American spiritual darkness. It's a commentary on the utter failure of nihilistic existentialism to teach anything humanizing about the nature and meaning of death. Nevertheless, beneath all the mockery and intellectual sifting, develops the story of a modern sensibility wounded by the world, yet ultimately rehabilitated by a restored sense of mystery.

Henderson the Rain King ranks #21 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Novels and is said to have been Bellow's favorite amongst his own works.

In 1976, Bellow became the seventh American to receive a Noble Prize in literature.

for more information click here

The self exploration of a miserable man

I picked this book up from my local library after spotting it on Modern Library's list of the 100 greatest novels, and because of all the critical praise regarding it, I expected a story with obvious weight and drama; something like Huck Finn or Slaughterhouse Five. In my experience the books generally agreed upon as "great American novels" ride on serious moralistic and social themes, wearing a certain message clearly on their respective sleeves. However, when i cracked open Henderson, nothing about it immediately stood out to me. I put it down and in fact neglected long enough that I had to return it without truly getting into the story.

Some five months later I found myself looking for something to read again, with nothing specific in mind. So on a whim I checked Henderson out again, feeling that I hadn't given it a fair shot. This time i read it in its entirety, and was honestly blown away. Unlike other novels with the same level of notoriety, the moral themes are highly ambiguous, mostly centering around the eccentric mind of Eugene Henderson. He is a complicated man with no apparent control over his own desires. You may see elements of yourself in Eugene, and if not, you will certainly recognize the attributes of others in him. I know personally that in certain ways I resonated strongly with his character.

This is what i loved about Henderson the Rain King. Everything about it was real, down to earth, believable... it is not a stream of pointless philosophical babbling, but rather a collection of subtle insights woven into the absolutely hilarious adventures that tie it all together. It is an exploration of real life through the eyes of a very real, very complicated man. One of the most cathartic and pleasing novels I've read in a long time, Henderson the Rain King deserves every ounce of praise it gets.

for more information click here

Why didn't I have to read this in high school?

I wish I had read it in college. I wish I had heard of it high school.

Put simply, this is one of the best stories I have ever read.

A Philosophical Roar

"I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar." ~Winston Churchill

Henderson the Rain King is the story of Henderson, a middle-aged man, who despite his wealth is unsatisfied with his life. He feels unfulfilled and continues to hear a voice in his head that says, "I want, I want, I want." In his quest for meaning he travels to remote African villages for spiritual and emotional enlightenment.

Henderson is a pretty unlikeable character at first as he is is selfish and uncaring. He has a lot of faults as Bellow lets us into his personal thoughts. He becomes more and more likable as the book progresses. He has a real desire to help people; the problem is he is like a bull in a china shop and is in such a rush to help he tends to make things worse. Along the way Henderson unknowingly does something that makes him the Rain King in one remote village. He becomes fast friends with the native king and they spend hours discussing philosophy and the meaning of life. The king spends hours with him and a tame lion teaching him how to become like a lion and to cast off his former self.

This book was ranked #21 on Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Novels. It was written in 1959 and is considered by many a modern-day classic. I enjoyed many aspects of the book, especially the story and the excellent writing; however, I had a difficult time with the pages upon pages of philosophical reflections. It got pretty mind numbing to me. That's a possible reflection on my somewhat short-attention span but I found myself falling to sleep over and over in the middle of these ongoing ramblings. It took me a long time to read but I think it worthy of a recommendation if only for the powerful and imaginative writing.

for more information click here

He's up! He's down! He's in your face! He needs a loving dad!

The wealthy Eugene Henderson carries immense emotional pain, which makes him a difficult and childish man. To cope with this pain, Henderson flees his life in Connecticut and travels to Africa, where he hopes to experience a new emotional dynamic, liberating him from his craziness and torment. In Africa, Henderson associates with two remote tribes, each headed by a chief who Henderson finds wise and charismatic. From each, Henderson receives fatherly validation; each views him as a person with pain but also remarkable vitality. Meanwhile, Henderson finds in their tribal rituals and ceremonies a turbulent energy and purpose that resonates with his own emotional world. By inhabiting this tribal world and coping with its challenges, Henderson gradually addresses his own problems and gets better. Surely, HENDERSON THE RAIN KING is among the strangest novels about emotional growth that I have ever read.

My favorite Saul Bellow novels feature slightly passive mid-life males that inhabit difficult family situations but have wry views of their plights. Moses Herzog, Charlie Citrine, and even Tommy Wilhelm all exhibit a self-aware detachment, which enables them to make funny observations about their bad judgment and how it has wrecked their lives. Eugene Henderson, in contrast, is without humor. Instead, he usually sounds like a ranting child with no insight. Further, he invests men in authority with brilliance that they actually never demonstrate in the story. Loud, complaining, grabbing, lurching... this Eugene Henderson is not an easy character to enjoy. Oddly but highly ambitious, Henderson is also Bellow's contribution to bipolar literature, where he joins other characters, such as the unnamed protagonist in Hunger: A Novel or Arturo Bandini in Ask the Dust (P.S.), who are as aggravating as they are interesting.

HENDERSON THE RAIN KING is ranked 21st on the Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Novels of the twentieth century. Better than Herzog (Penguin Classics) or Seize the Day (Penguin Classics)? Go figure.

for more information click here