"The World of Facts is Real, All Right, And Not to be Altered. The Physical is All There, and it Belongs to Science. But Then There is the Noumenal Department, and There We Create and Create and Create."

No lies, I kind of hated Henderson the Rain King. Actually, I didn't hate the book per se, as much as I despised the character of Gene Henderson. And while I can acknowledge that to evoke that kind of response in a reader usually means that the author is doing something right, that doesn't make my reading of the book any more enjoyable. 

He's all ego. Selfish, but self-aware of his selfishness. And while he tries to rectify this and makes (rather excessive) actions to no longer be this person, he continually falls back to being that man. He is oafish, petulant, foolish, and what I found to be incredibly annoying. If I knew this person in real life, I would run far away.

Henderson is a wealthy pig farmer and decorated war vet who is unhappy with his life. He yells at his wife, scares his children, then feels bad about it and tries to make amends (ummm...textbook abuser much??). He gets to the point where he can no longer fight the voices in his head yelling I want, I want, I want, when apparently what he wants is a different life and to seek "truth." So in his rich, narcissistic, white man way, he goes to Africa and journeys into the remotest unknown villages. 

He encounters a tribe that he is certain he can save, because you know, he's a white man savior who knows better than these poor souls, right? But he only manages to bungle things up and destroy their water cistern and make things even worse for them. He flees to the next village where he becomes a close confidant of the learned chief. Large portions of the book are these two men sharing their intellectual conversations and the chief using Henderson. He manipulates him to move a statue that the tribe believes will bring them rain (hence he becomes the rain king) and to help capture a lion who the chief believes is his father. After all is said and done, Henderson returns home and it sure doesn't seem like he has found the truth of life that he so desperately sought. He sure still seems like an obnoxious prick.

I mean, I get it. I get all of the symbolism and philosophical discussions about life and death, etc etc etc. But wrapped up around a despicable character made all of that kind of difficult to even care about. Not a huge fan of this one. Skip it is my vote.

Next up is Away by Jane Urquhart. Happy reading! 

186 to go.