⇒ Libro Henderson the Rain King Classic 20thCentury Penguin Saul Bellow 9780140189421 Books

Henderson the Rain King Classic 20thCentury Penguin Saul Bellow 9780140189421 Books

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Henderson the Rain King Classic 20thCentury Penguin Saul Bellow 9780140189421 Books

'I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.' - A. Einstein

Henderson The Rain King certainly provides food for thought. Eugene Henderson's macho character was modeled after another famous E. H. This E. H. was a boozer, went to Africa and carried his macho weight around like a club as does Eugene Henderson, and at times, wanted to blow his brains out. As many people of the day went off to Africa - however, notes Henderson, 'man goes into the external world, and all he can do with it is to shoot it?' Eugene just wants to set the record straight, with himself, because he's grown too fat and feels disgusted, with everything.

It's not that Eugene doesn't have everything, because he does. He's inherited a lot of money from his father's estate, he has a wonderful old family home where he raises pigs. He has a wife (second) and lots of children who he rarely bats an eye to. He also strives to play the violin, the same one his father played. He is also the only surviving sibling out of three and feels his father hated him because he was all that was left. Henderson is a blustering, miserable, drunken sod who yells and carries on - owing to the craving that he is constantly in want.

Eugene Henderson decides finally that he has to go to Africa or die in bed. Those are his options. Africa is a wake up call as travel is to live and experience things that one is not accustomed to. He of coarse blunders his way around and is always searching for a foothold. He wants answers and he wants someone to see him for who and what he truly is. And he wants his life to have meaning and purpose. The second African tribe he settles in with (after botching the visit to the first tribe), he makes a good friend in King Dahfu. The king is also in transition trying to abolish some of the old, superstitous ways of his tribe as he is educated and does not rely on superstition alone as the tribe tends to-however, he walks a very fine line.

I found this book to be full of little gems such as the allusion to Walt Whitman (Enough to merely be! Enough to breathe!) -

"Being. Others were taken up with becoming. Being people have all the breaks. Becoming people are very unlucky, always in a tizzy. The Becoming people are always having to make explanations or offer justifications to the Being people. While Being people provoke these explanations...Enough, enough. Time to have become. Time to be. Burst the spirit's sleep..." I like this sort of thing.

Eugene's character grows, he tries to get passed becoming and he realizes the importance of things he took for granted and he also comes to terms with the past and with his own imperfections as a human being. This is a funny book at times, but it wasn't hilarious to me because I realized that much of Eugene's blunders come from his good intentions and from pain itself, but of coarse much of it all is self inflicted and comes from an over inflated ego. At times, Eugene reminded me of Ignatius Reilly with his blowhard, blustery ways of blundering. But throughout the book, I liked him. He does have a good sense of humor.

I really enjoyed this book, might not be for all, but if you enjoy a work that speaks for the ages, this is one. Saul Bellow seeks to answer the spirit's call and awaken the soul in the midst of mediocrity, boredom, and uncertainty in an age of material possesions and he does a fine job of it throughout his entire oeuvre. Any one of his books can turn into a soul searching adventure and he does have a magical, rhythmic way with words.


Tags : Henderson the Rain King (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) [Saul Bellow] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A middle-age American millionaire goes to Africa in search of a more meaningful life and receives the adoration of an African tribe that believes he has a gift for rainmaking.,Saul Bellow,Henderson the Rain King (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin),Penguin Classics,0140189424,Classics,Africa;Fiction.,Americans;Africa;Fiction.,Humorous stories.,Africa,Americans,Bellow, Saul - Prose & Criticism,Classic fiction,Fiction,Fiction Classics,Fiction Literary,Humorous stories,Literary,Literature - Classics Criticism,Literature: Classics,Modern fiction,Fables

Henderson the Rain King Classic 20thCentury Penguin Saul Bellow 9780140189421 Books Reviews

If you are looking to have some fun reading the work of a Nobel Laureate, look no further. The book is wacky,wild and wonderfully written. Henderson is a John Wayne big man, a brave soldier, an accidental heir to a fortune, an inept husband, father and pig farmer and a bit of a schnook. But he is also a brave adventurer and most importantly a searcher. He is seeking something that will lift him out of the banality of his life and his feelings of fecklessness. He decides that a trip to deepest Africa is just the thing. Once he goes, it's Indiana Jones meets Alice meets Heart of (not so) Darkness. There is plenty to think about here, as you would expect, and there is plenty to smile about too. An interested reader needs nothing else.
So I was annoyed and didn't really like the protagonist which is how I think you're supposed to feel. I've traveled a lot and come across this type of character before - Bellow describes him perfectly. It's that guy who talks without thinking, who is sentimental and dumb and foolish (not book dumb but life dumb), and you're just so annoyed if you're on the same bus with him going across a country. Which was why I wanted to quit reading the book because the character annoyed me so much (and that is testimony in and of itself of a good book), but I persevered and am glad I did. The questions the protagonists raises and the way Bellow slowly reveals without directly stating anything is amazing. Ravelstein was quiet and Henderson is so loud it's quite hard to hear anything else, but if you listen closely you hear the real meaning and get what Bellow is trying to tell you and Henderson, if only you'd and Henderson stop shouting so loudly asking for an answer and an explanation and keep quiet long enough to hear it.
I've read the negative reviews on here, and I can't really wrap my mind around them. This book is intensely quotable, intimately relatable, and - at points - hilarious. Henderson (narrator / main character) is both hyper-aware of himself and utterly oblivious to the connection between his actions and their results. He seems a creature of the now as much as anything. He seems to come to, at 50+ years of age, to realize that he is a stranger to life, stranger to himself, asleep in his spirit, and it becomes monumentally important to him to "burst the spirit's sleep" before he submits to decay and death.

This book does not have our modern sensibilities vis a vis race, colonialism, classism, etc. Saul Bellow was a creature of his time, too. So, for the modern reader it is likely to grate and gnaw at those sensibilities. But still, if you read it, you may also find an apt exploration of the forces that drive us through life, of how we confront aging and death, how we create ourselves in real time based on the models we have around us, how we come to face the cumulative ledger of our decisions years after we've made them. I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone who has lived a certain amount of life - who has confronted loss, confronted death, confronted disappointment. You may find some mirror here.
'I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.' - A. Einstein

Henderson The Rain King certainly provides food for thought. Eugene Henderson's macho character was modeled after another famous E. H. This E. H. was a boozer, went to Africa and carried his macho weight around like a club as does Eugene Henderson, and at times, wanted to blow his brains out. As many people of the day went off to Africa - however, notes Henderson, 'man goes into the external world, and all he can do with it is to shoot it?' Eugene just wants to set the record straight, with himself, because he's grown too fat and feels disgusted, with everything.

It's not that Eugene doesn't have everything, because he does. He's inherited a lot of money from his father's estate, he has a wonderful old family home where he raises pigs. He has a wife (second) and lots of children who he rarely bats an eye to. He also strives to play the violin, the same one his father played. He is also the only surviving sibling out of three and feels his father hated him because he was all that was left. Henderson is a blustering, miserable, drunken sod who yells and carries on - owing to the craving that he is constantly in want.

Eugene Henderson decides finally that he has to go to Africa or die in bed. Those are his options. Africa is a wake up call as travel is to live and experience things that one is not accustomed to. He of coarse blunders his way around and is always searching for a foothold. He wants answers and he wants someone to see him for who and what he truly is. And he wants his life to have meaning and purpose. The second African tribe he settles in with (after botching the visit to the first tribe), he makes a good friend in King Dahfu. The king is also in transition trying to abolish some of the old, superstitous ways of his tribe as he is educated and does not rely on superstition alone as the tribe tends to-however, he walks a very fine line.

I found this book to be full of little gems such as the allusion to Walt Whitman (Enough to merely be! Enough to breathe!) -

"Being. Others were taken up with becoming. Being people have all the breaks. Becoming people are very unlucky, always in a tizzy. The Becoming people are always having to make explanations or offer justifications to the Being people. While Being people provoke these explanations...Enough, enough. Time to have become. Time to be. Burst the spirit's sleep..." I like this sort of thing.

Eugene's character grows, he tries to get passed becoming and he realizes the importance of things he took for granted and he also comes to terms with the past and with his own imperfections as a human being. This is a funny book at times, but it wasn't hilarious to me because I realized that much of Eugene's blunders come from his good intentions and from pain itself, but of coarse much of it all is self inflicted and comes from an over inflated ego. At times, Eugene reminded me of Ignatius Reilly with his blowhard, blustery ways of blundering. But throughout the book, I liked him. He does have a good sense of humor.

I really enjoyed this book, might not be for all, but if you enjoy a work that speaks for the ages, this is one. Saul Bellow seeks to answer the spirit's call and awaken the soul in the midst of mediocrity, boredom, and uncertainty in an age of material possesions and he does a fine job of it throughout his entire oeuvre. Any one of his books can turn into a soul searching adventure and he does have a magical, rhythmic way with words.