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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
Interesting tale of a man in search of himself. Worth a read if you have the time.
http://nhw.livejournal.com/695345.html[return][return]My Penguin edition described the book as "a comic novel...a hilarious, often ribald story". I confess I missed the joke; there didn't seem to me a single laugh-out-loud moment in this first-person narrative of an American who attempts to go native in Africa. Plenty of food for thought on the human condition; Henderson's moral decay is contrasted with his physical vigour, and his unfiltered deliberations on the meaning of life in general, and his own in particular, added up to a much more convincing portrait than, say, the central character in The Red Badge of Courage. I enjoyed the book. But I remain worried, not for the first time, that I have failed to grasp American humour.
slow-paced
If Walter White was rich and didn't have cancer and therefore had no need to cook meth, he might have gone to Africa and become The Rain King.
I liked Herzog a lot more, but this has flashes of brilliance that make it worth reading.
Uma seca descomunal e deprimente. Li as primeiras páginas e larguei imediatamente. Uma perda de tempo
It was somehow difficult to get into this book, as I am no longer used to read the portuguese translations as this one.
Nonetheless the book was very good. Henderson is none of us and all of us at the same time. The ineer voice saying "I want, I want" is somehting that I felt and heard quite often, and compels us to a continuous dissatisfaction. Quite an interesting view of the human race.
Recommended to all of those who like good literature and difficult main charachters.
Nonetheless the book was very good. Henderson is none of us and all of us at the same time. The ineer voice saying "I want, I want" is somehting that I felt and heard quite often, and compels us to a continuous dissatisfaction. Quite an interesting view of the human race.
Recommended to all of those who like good literature and difficult main charachters.
I'm not sure if I'd give this 5 stars had I not read a string of books recently that were disappointing in various ways, but Henderson interested me in a way that most of the other protagonists I've read recently haven't. Besides that, he made me laugh.
There are parts that are completely stupid and parts that are thought-provoking and parts that are behaving like a lion. There are also parts which are the best examples of their type that I've read in print, such as Henderson's prayer: "And I prayed and prayed, 'Oh you ... Something,' I said, 'you Something, because of whom there is not Nothing. Help me to do Thy will. Take off my stupid sins. Untrammel me. Heavenly Father, open up my dumb heart and for Christ's sake preserve me from unreal things. Oh, Thou who tookest me from pigs, let me not be killed over lions. And forgive my crimes and nonsense at let me return to Lily and the kids.'" (page 253).
Because, seriously, religious or not, open up my dumb heart and for Christ's sake preserve me from unreal things is pretty much life.
There are parts that are completely stupid and parts that are thought-provoking and parts that are behaving like a lion. There are also parts which are the best examples of their type that I've read in print, such as Henderson's prayer: "And I prayed and prayed, 'Oh you ... Something,' I said, 'you Something, because of whom there is not Nothing. Help me to do Thy will. Take off my stupid sins. Untrammel me. Heavenly Father, open up my dumb heart and for Christ's sake preserve me from unreal things. Oh, Thou who tookest me from pigs, let me not be killed over lions. And forgive my crimes and nonsense at let me return to Lily and the kids.'" (page 253).
Because, seriously, religious or not, open up my dumb heart and for Christ's sake preserve me from unreal things is pretty much life.
In my Contemporary Novel's class, almost all the books we read dealt with Africa in some way (this was the same with my Modern Novel class, which was taught by the same prof as this class -- dude really likes Africa I guess) but this book did so in a different and refreshing way. Instead of writing about the sufferings of Africa (which I don't want to demean in any way) he writes about like a very normal place, inhabited by very normal people that have (semi -- by our standards) normal problems. In that sense, this novel was probably the less "preachy" of all the others I've read of this class. Instead, we have a crazy character (Henderson) who can't seem to fit into normal society. Yeah, he's a huge jerk and really crazy, but he recognizes that he is so, and his observations, about himself and those around him, are hilarious. He still manages to be a likable kind of guy, despite the fact that he's raving mad.
The only quip I had with this book was the heavy-handed philosophical babble. Henderson is a little lost in life, and he likes to talk and wonder about this A LOT. Those bits I found myself skimming, or reading and then letting my mind wander so that I wasn't really absorbing what I was reading. Some people really like this sort of thing, but I honestly don't have the attention span for it, so it's really not really the fault of Bellows, though I think he could've lightened on it just a little bit.
All in all, a recommend from me, though it's definitely not a book for everybody. It's one that can be very boring and very tedious if you don't like stream-of-consciousness narration or endless musings on philosophy.
The only quip I had with this book was the heavy-handed philosophical babble. Henderson is a little lost in life, and he likes to talk and wonder about this A LOT. Those bits I found myself skimming, or reading and then letting my mind wander so that I wasn't really absorbing what I was reading. Some people really like this sort of thing, but I honestly don't have the attention span for it, so it's really not really the fault of Bellows, though I think he could've lightened on it just a little bit.
All in all, a recommend from me, though it's definitely not a book for everybody. It's one that can be very boring and very tedious if you don't like stream-of-consciousness narration or endless musings on philosophy.