Rating: 
Summary: I want..I want..I want an explanation.
Review: This book is both profoundly meaningful and intensely funny - a rare combination in literature. The character of Henderson is big, loud, jovial, and full of passion. He performs a constant high-wire act, tiptoeing between extremely loveable and just plain annoying, and always manages to fall in the direction of the former. He is educated and experienced in life, but at the same time ignorant and naïve in many ways as well. He is a lover of adventure and challenge and yet has managed to coast through most of his life until he comes face to face with his African adventure. It is the dueling forces at work inside him that make him such a fascinating character.Saul Bellow creates a highly entertaining, though also highly stereotypical, African world as the setting for Henderson's life awakening. At times I felt guilty for laughing at the way he characterizes the African tribes, with their silly superstitions and bizarre traditions. In a way it seemed a bit racist, but in the end I concluded that Bellow was simply exaggerating the Western stereotypes of black Africa, so really he was poking fun at us, not at them. I found the dialog between Henderson and King Dahfu superbly written. The educated, intellectual voice of Dahfu gradually became more and more natural, but was a constant reminder of the preconceived notions that most white people have about other races. So what was this book about? I think it was about the human urge to explore both the far edges of the earth and the far edges of the human spirit. Henderson seeks adventure, but he also seeks to find something within himself, something that he knows is there but that he can't find at home. He challenges himself, and through this challenge he grows as a person. And it is because of this growth that he is able to return to where he began, and truly appreciate that place. I think there is also a strong message about the commonalities that exist between all humans, regardless of where they come from. Henderson travels thousands of miles to places where white men have never gone before, and yet he finds there a king to whom he can relate quite easily. Though this is a highly fictionalized account, there is a good bit of truth to the underlying message.
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