A review by imyerhero
Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow

4.0

I can see why Bellow released a statement about not looking for symbolism in every book published right before he published this book. The combination of humor and philosophy would have worked the literary critics of his day if they tried to find symbolism in this book. Or maybe Bellow meant for them to. I guess, according to W, no one can decide if it’s his worst book or his best book. I personally, liked it. I couldn’t get into the other Bellow book I tried to read – “Herzog.” I did enjoy this one. The character of Henderson made me both laugh and cringe, but I could still relate to him. Everyone has to go through that spell in life where they need to find a meaning. I found it in Christ, but I can see how a man who doesn’t have that could be pushed to travel all the way to Africa in the hopes of finding someone who can tell him the meaning of life. I felt sorry for Dahfu, but I do love Africa and lions and most animals from that general region except for hyenas. (Blame that on Buffy). Both Dahfu and Henderson were such different creatures from each other that I loved seeing how they interacted. And I enjoyed how they weren’t a great many different characters. Normally, I feel like a book lacks depth, but this worked. It showed how deeply Henderson connected with Dahfu and it showed how alone he felt in the rest of the world. Maybe after this pleasant (although drawn out read) I can tackle “Herzog” again.