Rating: 
Summary: HENDERSON AND THE MAN SLAVE
Review: What a paradox of a book. Saul Bellow is a Southern American writer who writes a novel which sweeps across the continent of Africa with a main black character who remains a man-servant throughout. A strong-willed white rich American and an African tribesman who carries his water and is somewhat mystical, may be a mysterious tribe's answer to their religious belief in a 'rain king'. In travelling to Africa to create a black right hand man during civil rights era 1950s, Bellow may have written a bigoted book of epic proportions. The story, which veers little farther than what you get when you have an aboriginal African tribe expecting a 'rain king', becomes riveting in a one-dimensional action-like way and the last handfull of pages are masterful strokes of writing which hopefully depict the weakness of racism.
Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant and endearing work by a literary master
Review: For those who want to get into the work of Saul Bellow, this is perhaps one of his most accessible novels. It's about a rich and eccentric man who travels to Africa and encounters a tribal chief who own lions. The tribal chief is brilliant and teaches Henderson some valuable lessons. The encounters with the lion were real and vivid and moving. Henderson is vintage Bellow and is relatively easy to read: it has less of a scholarly bent than several of Bellow's other novels like Ravelstein, Herzog and Humboldt's Gift, all of which take the reader into a very high intellectual plane. This novel is existential: it's Bellow not so much him versus the intellectual premises of ancient scholars but is rather Bellow versus the raw power of the forces of life itself. I admire greatly this literary work which displays all of Bellow's virtuosity with the power that the reality of his experience brings into this story. I highly recommend this novel for anyone wanting to gain access into Bellow without having first to take a course in the philosophy of ancient scholars. This is Bellow at his most accessible and most powerful. I strongly encourage you to savor this great and highly original novel.
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Summary: What Makes Life Meaningful?
Review: Gene Henderson, a 50-something millionaire living in 1950s America, decides to take a trip to Africa to try to quiet the voice inside him that keeps saying, "I want, I want." Since Henderson already has everything material he could want, he can't find any way to satisfy that voice, and as he has already tried several other things prior to his African trip, he doesn't hold out much hope. But it becomes a very strange trip - for only in a very strange place could he find what he actually needs.I can't read Bellow's mind, of course, but as I read his book, Henderson represents America - huge, crude, often well-meaning but sometimes causing unintentional destruction. Bellow's imaginary Africa would then be the entire developing world - or even the whole world outside America. It's hard to like Henderson at first; even his own first-person narration casts him in a bad light despite his high opinion of himself. As his attempts to help the people in the first tribe he meets end in catastrophe, he definitely seems to represent the American ignorance and arrogance that led to so many disastrous overseas projects in the 1950s and 1960s. Subdued by his first failure, Henderson allows himself to learn from the second tribe, and although he ultimately barely escapes with his life, he comes away with the inner peace he had sought, with a new wisdom, and with a determination to become a healer. The message seems pretty obvious - a call for a wiser America dedicating itself to higher goals. An alternative way to read it makes Henderson representative of anyone who no longer has to work for a living and who searches for something to give life meaning. This should resonate with any young dot com millionaire as much as with any healthy retired person. In that interpretation, Henderson learns that just because you don't have to work doesn't mean that you shouldn't work and that to be ennobling, work must be helpful to someone else - not all activity suffices - and not meant to glorify yourself either. Either way, the book reads smoothly and moves along briskly. Read it long enough to get past your initial dislike of Henderson, and it will reward your efforts.
Rating:
Summary: What Makes Life Meaningful?
Review: Gene Henderson, a 50-something millionaire living in 1950s America, decides to take a trip to Africa to try to quiet the voice inside him that keeps saying "I want, I want." Since Henderson already has everything material he could want, he can't find any way to satisfy that voice, and he has already tried several other things prior to his African trip. I'm not sure what Bellow intended, but as I read it, Henderson represents America - huge, crude, often well-meaning but causing destruction nevertheless. Bellow's imaginary Africa would then be the entire developing world - or even the whole world outside America. It's hard to like Henderson at first; even his own first-person narration casts him in a bad light. As his attempts to help the people in the first tribe he meets end in catastrophe, he seems to represent the American ignorance and arrogance that led to so many disastrous overseas projects in the 1950s and 1960s. Subdued by his first failure, Henderson allows himself to learn from the second tribe, and although he ultimately barely escapes with his life, he comes away with the inner peace he had sought, with a new wisdom, and with a determination to become a healer. The message seems pretty obvious. An alternative way to read it makes Henderson representative of anyone who no longer has to work for a living and who searches for something to give life meaning. This should resonate with any young dot com millionaire as much as with any healthy retired person. Either way, the book reads smoothly and moves along briskly. Read it long enough to get past your initial dislike of Henderson, and it will reward your efforts.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect example of how life should be led
Review: HENDERSON THE RAIN KING holds a special place in my heart: It is the first novel that was assigned to me in an English class that I didn't think was boring as hell. Not to put down English, it's a valuable course, but sometimes you can't help but wish for a book that's not only 'important', but also 'fun to read'. HENDERSON follows the titular character through a few months of his life, as he decides to drop everything to travel through Africa. That sums up the plot, but it doesn't do justice to either Saul Bellow's prose, or the character of Henderson himself. Henderson is an original, a huge mountain of a man who is so full of himself, and yet so full of zeal for life, that you can't help but admire him. Henderson does not go at things half-heartedly. He goes full-bore through life, often leaving innocent bystanders in his wake. The thing is, Henderson is SO overblown, SO pompous, SO egotistical, that you cannot believe, by the end, that you actually like the guy. This is where Bellow's talent really shines through. He has taken an individual who would tire you out within two minutes in real life, and has somehow made him endearing. It is a terrific feat of writing, on par with John Kennedy Toole's hero Ignatius Reilly in A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. Although to be fair, Henderson is not nearly as unlikeable (in theory) as Ignatius is. HENDERSON is not a saint. Thank God. He'd never let good sense stand in the way of a good time. But he's not an idiot. He does care for others, in his way (unlike Ignatius). He's destructive, but intensely well-meaning. He's one of the most remarkable characters in modern literary fiction, keeping company with Ignatius, Garp, and Quoyle. Those true readers out there know who these guys are.
Rating:
Summary: bizarre and ironically touching
Review: Henderson is a "noble" by birth in that he's rich, but he lives like a pig and with pigs and going to africa brings out his virtues in the most ugly ways to exalt him to the highest pinnacle of his abilities. The experience which wakes his sleeping soul, allows him to return to the west a new man with new ambitions. In the meantime, the book can be quite silly, but Henderson is an interesting character, something like a Gulliver or Oddysseus (more like Leopold Bloom, though). He's adventurous to a strong pain. Bellow is a great writer at times his prose just turns the most silly situations into interesting points of reflection. I like the way the book is not about symbolism or metaphor unless it is overt and almost mocking. Occasionally the book gets tedious. Although I liked the book, I don't know where it got it's classic status. It doesn't seem to be anything groundbreaking, just a humourous, well-written novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Dense Prose Telling A Relatively Simple Story
Review: Last year during all the millennium hoopla, the editorial board of the Modern Library released their list of the Top 100 English-language novels of the 20th century. Mainly because I had nothing else to do, I decided to familiarize myself with all the books on the list that I had not read or attempted to read. Henderson The Rain King checked in at #21. Now I certainly know Saul Bellow by his reputation, but I can't say that I am all that familiar with his other work. He's always been a bit too wordy for me to really get into his stories. Since this was the only one of his novels to crack the top 100, I thought maybe there was some additional merit to this one that I was not aware of and so I picked up a copy. I'm not suggesting by any means that it is a bad thing to be overly descriptive. In fact, one of the great things about this book is that we come to know Henderson as an extremely real person by the various acts he performs and by the first-person narration. He is a living, breathing person by the time the main thrust of the story begins, but unfortunately we've already expended so much of ourselves investing in this character that when the introduction is over, we're left with 75% of the book remaining and nowhere left to really go. Bellow tries to compensate for this by weaving an exotic tale about Africa and the people who inhabit some of the more unspoiled regions of it, but the story turns on what is basically a midlife crisis and I thought, so what? Maybe I'm too young to fully appreciate that aspect of the story, and Bellow does come up with an interesting ways for his character to deal with the onset of age, but I couldn't help thinking about how this would be much better served if it was clearer exactly what Henderson is after. Don't get me wrong, there are innumerable passages about his search for...something. But since he isn't sure what it is, neither are we. There's a general idea, but nothing specific. The story does wind up with some intriguing plot devices that hold the imagination, but really nothing so earth-moving that it causes us to take stock of ourselves. I almost got the sense that this was supposed to be a kind of snipe at the Hemingway tough guy image by having a main character who is, by all accounts and actions, a tough guy who shows an introspective side. The ending just sort of happens, in that the narrative comes to its conclusion without resolving a key part of the story. I won't give it away, but suffice it to say that the whole impetus for the plot's big leap forward doesn't get any time in terms of how Henderson responds to his pre-crisis world. On the plus side, there are some great lyrical passages and there's no doubt that Bellow has a command of the language that few have. If you can avoid being intimidated by his reputation, I think you have a decent chance of enjoying this book.
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Summary: Unparalleled character development
Review: First off, if you are impatient with books don't count on being able to endure the first 100 pages of this book. The book moves at a tortoise pace, but this technique that Bellow utilizes is not in vain. Eugene Henderson is a very complex protagonist and if the book moved too swiftly it would become difficult to portray Eugene in his entirety. The bottom line is if you want to read a book that does a great job of character development and complexity, this is the book for you. If you are looking for a fast paced, action filled book this is probably not the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Please read it only if you value introspection
Review: Henderson is a wonderful book by a wonderful writer. Like any great book it needs an INTELLIGENT reader. While it is quite boisterous it also requires one to think while reading it. Anyone who did not like this book should be reading tom Clancy (nothing wrong in that).
Rating:
Summary: boring, yet interesting
Review: this book had a lot of unneccesary garbage to it, that made it long and drawn out. However, it was thought provoking, and very intense. (if it can be intense and drawn out at the same time) It is true that dialogue is so simple it is unbelievable. But word usage and sentance structure were also simple. I think Bellow did this on purpose to draw attention to the big picture, instead of eloquently written individual thoughts. I recomend it if you have time to be patient with it.
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