Steppenwolf
By Hermann Hesse
Rating 4/5
Genre: Spirituality, Fiction, Suspense, Horror, Classics, 2021-read,
This is the kind of book that you either understand fully or understand nothing at all. It has very esoteric themes of identity - core issues that lie within a soul rendering it despondent and unhappy, what steps a person takes to get over these and if there really is a way for a spiritually evolved soul - which wants nothing to do with the material world - to find peace and content in it again.
Harry Haller is a strange tenant. He appears at a well kept, homely house and rents a upper floor apartment. He appears very shabby himself,reads a lot, drinks a lot and seems to be spending his time slothfully according his neighbour,the narrator of the story. Harry appears to love order in the house because he lacks it in his life, to be perpetually on the move, gloomy and lost beyond description. One day he disappears just as suddenly as he had appeared leaving behind a journal for the narrator. It holds an account of his life story in brief and how he comes to being on the point of suicide after losing interest in everything in life. Nothing makes sense or catches his desire but he is also afraid of taking his own life. He is stuck in time and space suffering from a great deal of self torment. He theorizes to himself that his soul is made up of two distinct elements - one of it is predominantly human and wants to enjoy life and worldly things around while the other is a beast - a Steppenwolf - that jeers and mocks at all things normal and likes to shun itself into isolation. Within himself, they are often at war and each alternate in its influence over his mind. As he was desperate to seek a solution to his situation, he comes across a young woman Hermine - full of life and answers to his problems. She introduces to him the world of dance, enjoyment and physical pleasure which keeps him happy and occupied for as long as it lasts. He sinks back into depression once she/those things is gone/removed. He is then introduced to a Magic Theatre which promises to solve his problem permanently and Hermine herself takes him there. What is this theater? What's the solution? Is there a solution an evolved soul can find to survive in this lackluster world?
Siddartha by Herman Hesse was a terrific novel and this book doesn't fall short of my expectations. But the solution to the problem of soul stagnation - learn to laugh at life and it's hurdles because afterlife is endless and infinite where nothing matters - didn't seem right to me. Atleast it might not be universal - purely from my point of view. It's a great perspective from an astute writer Herman Hesse. Highly recommend. 🌞👌
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