Welcome to Page 10 of I Read That Book! On each Page, I’ll tell you a little about a book I read, often in a fun and informal manner, with the hope that you also may become interested enough to read it – or perhaps read it again if you’ve already enjoyed it once. The books I’ll be featuring come from a variety of genres at differing stages of my life, so whether you prefer history, literature, science fiction, or horror, there’s a good chance you’ll get some interesting ideas for your personal “To Be Read” list. Thank you for joining me on this journey as we flip through the pages of some of my favorite books. But before you start reading below, I invite you to grab a cup of your favorite beverage (coffee for me!) and find a comfortable place to sit, then turn to Page 10.
HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
Publication Date: February 23, 1959
I read HENDERSON THE RAIN KING while attending Ohio State in the mid-Eighties. After four years, I’d changed my major and found myself taking a 20th Century American Literature course, and this was required reading. Though I was familiar with many of the other books and authors we read for that class, Saul Bellow was new to me.
Like everything in life, there’s a story behind changing my major, and to keep it short, I’ll just mention that I took a fiction writing course while I was a Buckeye, and I fell completely in love with the sample short stories we had to read. I’d always been a bit of a reader, but through the process of closely examining the stories we, as students, wrote for the class, and being exposed to great literature via the sample stories, everything changed for me. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to teach high school English.
Yet Saul Bellow and HENDERSON THE RAIN KING – complete strangers – had to be dealt with first. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with this book. Probably a couple of chapters was all it took, but this was long ago, and I don’t recall the details. What I do remember is that this is the novel that confirmed in my mind that I’d made the right decision about changing my major. The African adventures that Henderson experiences opened new ways of viewing life to my impressionable young mind and taught me the value of literature and why it is so important in shaping critical thinking skills.
The back of the book (it’s old, dirty, and worn…I bought it used and the condition obviously hasn’t improved over the years) gives you a nice description of the plot, and I’ve provided a snapshot of it in case you’re curious to learn more.
Would I enjoy this story just as much today, nearly 40 years after I read it? I really don’t know. Is it madness to even speculate on this? Speaking of which, Henderson touches a bit on madness:
Of course, in an age of madness, to expect to be untouched by madness is a form of madness. But the pursuit of sanity can be a form of madness, too.
The quote above is far from my favorite in HENDERSON THE RAIN KING, but it gives you a small taste of some of the wackiness you come across while reading it. What lines do I like best, you ask? Since you’ve been so polite up to this point, I’m more than happy to share them with you.
Laps and laps I galloped around the shining and riveted body of the plane, behind the fuel trucks. Dark faces were looking from within. The great, beautiful propellers were still, all four of them. I guess I felt it was my turn now to move, and so went running—leaping, leaping, pounding, and tingling over the pure white lining of the grey Arctic silence.
Several decades later, and with many more of his books on my shelves, the lines above are compelling evidence (to me, at least – if you haven’t read it, you have no context for the words) that the late Saul Bellow was one of America’s most gifted writers.
And don’t forget to join us here again when I flip to the next Page!
Note: The first 32 pages of I Read This Book! originally appeared on Substack.
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