frazzle 's review for:

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
3.25
adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Recommended by work friend Alice as her "favourite book ever". And a good opportunity to sample Hesse, who I've never read before. 

A bizarrist, existential, elliptical tale of a lonely man out of place and I'll at ease in his age. Imagining himself as a wolf of the steppes, the semi-autobiographical protagonist recounts his re-education in being a human, learning how to dance, laugh and take life less seriously.

There's something timeless about this book (and I can see why it was picked up as a cult classic in the 1960s).

I saw a lot of parallels to Bulgakov's zany plots and Thomas Mann's heavily theoretical fiction.