285. Siddhartha

Siddhartha
Herman Hesse
1922
Around 150 pages

This is perhaps the most puzzling of my high school reading assignments. At least The Catcher in the Rye and Romeo and Juliet deal with adolescent angst. This book deals with a different kind of angst that I'm not sure the average teenager relates to. But they also made us read Antigone, so I guess accessibility wasn't on the top of their list.

The story takes place in the ancient kingdom of Kapilavastu. Siddhartha begins a quest for spiritual illumination. He fasts, meditates, dispenses with all of his worldly possessions, and meets the Enlightened One. Although Siddhartha's friend Govinda is eager to join the Buddha's order, Siddhartha takes umbrage with the Buddha's philosophy, which doesn't account for the individuality of a person. He decides to carry on his journey for self discovery alone. 

I preferred Hesse's earlier work, Rosshalde, which I suppose doesn't deal with as large of questions. But I think that's okay, sometimes when a book tries to take on too much, it ends up being a mess (e.g. Cloud Atlas). I'm not saying this was a cluster, but his other novel was definitely easier to read.

I agree with Siddhartha that the path to meaning or truth needs to be traveled alone. But I didn't really enjoy him much as a character. He's not entirely human, or at least, he doesn't want to be. Still, Hesse is a good writer and it's a short novel.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

The word Siddhartha is made up of two Sanskrit words: "Siddha" (achieved) and "artha" (what was searched for).

Inspired the Nick Drake song "River Man."

Set during the time of the Gautama Buddha.

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