Take a photo of a barcode or cover
rika_readsanyway 's review for:
Steppenwolf
by Hermann Hesse
dark
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The philosophical ideas in Steppenwolf aren't groundbreaking. Hesse himself was influenced by both Carl Jung and Nietzsche, and it reflects their ideas heavily on his works. But Hermann Hesse's mesmerizing prose is something I couldn't look away from. There's something about his philosophical portrait of a middle aged brooding loner, endlessly punished by his own intellect, that felt familiar, almost as if some wise, weary 80-year-old grandma in me had been waiting for it. Steppenwolf is a cautionary tale about what happens when you retreat too far into pure intellectualism—and a plea for a society in which the sensitive, artistic, and questioning soul can exist without suffocating in alienation.
There're books that help you escape from this wretched reality and ease your pain of constant disappointments with life a little, but there're books that make you understand what kind of deep shits you're in and let you see the deeper truths of life. And Steppenwolf is the latter. Maybe it's because I see too much of myself in Harry Haller. (No shit, Sherlock. He's a depressed misanthrope🐒) Books like this can be therapeutic or destructive, depending on the reader. But for me, it's pure therapy. Because it doesn't just tell me about life; it validates my experience, letting me feel seen in my own darkness. I, too, should learn how to laugh.
There're books that help you escape from this wretched reality and ease your pain of constant disappointments with life a little, but there're books that make you understand what kind of deep shits you're in and let you see the deeper truths of life. And Steppenwolf is the latter. Maybe it's because I see too much of myself in Harry Haller. (No shit, Sherlock. He's a depressed misanthrope🐒) Books like this can be therapeutic or destructive, depending on the reader. But for me, it's pure therapy. Because it doesn't just tell me about life; it validates my experience, letting me feel seen in my own darkness. I, too, should learn how to laugh.
"Whoever wants to live and enjoy his life today must not be like you and me. Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours—"
""Most men will not swim before they are able to." Is that not witty? Naturally, they won't swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water. And naturally they wont think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what's more, he who makes thought his business, he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown"
"Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest."