Books to Read Poster No 36

 

So this was one I'd never even heard of, Siddartha but Herman Hesse/

Hesse was quite a popular author when I was a student, and I had read Narziss and Goldmund and I'd heard of The Glass Bead Game, but that's about as far as it went. I didn't particularly enjoy Narziss and Goldmucnd when I read it, Hesse has a very particular style which is difficult to describe, but it's a strange mixture of transparency and the opaque. I suspect quite a lot of the effect gets lost in translation and certainly Siddartha probably suffers from that as it was described in German as a 'prose-poem, and that's not really how it reads in English. 

It's the story of a man's search for enlightenment and purpose, and takes place in a long ago and slightly mythical India with a background of mashed up Hiduism and Buddhism. The central character (Siddartha)  leaves his Brahmin family to seek the meaning of life and his search takes him to varying places and people;a band of begging ascetics, the entourage of the Buddha, a town where he becomes the lover of a skilled courtesan, makes a fortune as a merchant then beomes addicted to gambling, travels to a river to throw himself into it, changes his mind and finally finds peace living for many years as a ferryman 'listening to the river'.

What can I tell you? It's a slightly extended Bildungsroman and personally I found it neither original nor enlightening. There again, while I respect the serch for enlightenment and the meaning of life in everyone, I'm not the sort of person who can be convinced that either can be found in moments of unity with the great Om. I don't have the mindset that finds that acceptable. 

I'd sum it up as an early 20th century curiosity. Next up is an autobiography which will make a change, but it's rather long so I'm not expecting to be reporting on it any time soon.

And the blog will now go dark for a few days as, weather permitting we re off to Glasgow tomorrow until the weekend.