Siddharta
My lover has a cat named Hermann. He's a Rex. Hermann Hesse... Hermann Rex... Yep.
Anyway, if the most adorable cat in the world is named after an author, I had to look him up. So my lover gave me one of his books, selling it to me as a "kind of Little Prince". Easy to read, philosophical, it ends with a smile.
The story is very simple, and the details are not very important. I will tell only this: it is a man who wants to find peace of mind, and he searches, searches, all his life. He goes through meditation, a lot, through total deprivation, then through material goods, wealth and pleasure of senses. To finally find his answers on a river that makes Om.
On the back cover, it says that this is one of Hermann Hesse's greatest novels. In my opinion, if this is true, it's a bit of a shame. It is very beautiful, exactly like The Little Prince, and it deserves attention, but I had read similar stories before. The writing resembles that of the Arabian Nights tales and spiritual quests abound in literature (I read Eat Pray Love not long ago and it was very similar in intent). I was expecting to discover something new.
But my boyfriend disagreed. He hadn't read much of anything like it, and he was much more impressed.
And I still devoured it. It was a sweet little treat. I love spiritual quests, as well as stories when they are well told. And at about 200 pages, why not?
Hermann Hesse
10,43 $
The Algebraist
