Henderson the Rain King
A vast, rich, twice-married American pig farmer, tormented by a voice in him that says only I want, I want, flies to Africa to find out what it wants. Among one people he tries to clear frogs from a cistern with homemade explosive; among the next he lifts a wooden goddess nobody else can move and is made rain king by a philosopher-monarch who keeps a lioness under the palace. Bellow's one book set outside the cities he knew, and the one he said he liked best.
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Attributes
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Plot structure
Hero's Journey (Campbell)
Emotional arc (story shape)
Quest object (Greimas)
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Culture / tradition
Closest analogues
- 49% · 14 shared
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- 38% · 12 shared