Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

In July we will be reading Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse for our Family & Self category - who's in?

I’m all in for Steppenwolf!

This one is also set aside for me at the Library, so, yes, I'm in

I have started this recently so will finish soon I hope.

I am a bit choc-a in July, but will try to fit this one in perhaps later in the month

I have read this ages ago so will try to find a copy...

I got a Kindle edition for $.99, so I will try to participate.

I read this when I was a teenager (pre university, so almost *cough* forty years ago *cough*).

I'm in for this read one I've cleared a couple in the backlog. I'm hoping to understand it more at my now-advanced age

So I have started this. Beautiful language, but complex and long sentences. Story is slow to start. I'll do my best to finish it this week

Duality is a big theme in the book and I would like to discuss that when we get going.

I should be able to start this week. As with Phil, I read this book (and lots of other Hesse novels) back in my adolescence so I don't really recall much about it other than the fact that I liked it a lot back then.

I've finished Steppenwolf! It was very slow going, 30 pages per day, give or take a page. Beautiful and understandable language (I read a Dutch translation). The story wasn't my cup of tea, too surrealistic, but an interesting read, nonetheless

Just starting this now. I'm going to get my motor running and head out on the highway.

Lookin’ for adventure… might be the wrong book 😜

I found that I was glad that I read it in my adolescence; it was the right time for me. As an older person, the book was less exciting, probably because I am not as interested in the spiritual/philosophical/psychological issues it poses. That said, I do still admire Hesse's ability to address serious philosophical issues in his novels.

Finished this finally. It's definitely an easier read than Zeno's Conscience, which has been put aside for a rest of indeterminate length, but equally navel gazing. I'm thinking this is a book for teenagers who think they're deep. Here's my review - I gave a generous 3 stars, because it got more action going as it went along.


*****

Yeah, I have a downer at the moment of these books set in the head of middle-aged angst ridden western intellectuals thinking of how awful life is.

I last read this age 17 and thought it said profound things - nearly 40 years later and I'm less impressed and think this all smacks of self-indulgence.

Fortunately it's relatively short and gets more dramatic in the second half, both of which are virtues, but I feel that thinking this book says something deep about life is just a stage teenagers go through, like thinking The Doors are the best band in the world ever.

****

Oh, and do we think he really killed Hermine, or is that all fantasy?

When we are teenagers our life is open to the possibilities of alternative lifestyles and the decisions of who we are going to be are still waiting to be made. By mid-life those times may feel like they are all past and so it’s easier to minimize any musings about how to live as adolescent or even juvenile. The way that Hesse meditated on such explorations via an older man can make us rethink those limitations. Can’t we always be open to different possibilities no matter what age we are or what choices we already made? Can we harmonize the Wild and Human within our hearts? Is our nature only binary or more unlimited?

Upon reading it decades later from the first time, I found a depth to Steppenwolf than I remember. Back then, there was kind of the thrall of kink and bohemia and illicit sexuality that riveted my attention. This time the tension of the creative and the bourgeois, and what exactly those differences mean to an individual and across society came to the fore. The deep crisis of spirit in our protagonist gutted me this time around whereas I don’t really remember that at all from the first reading. It was a slower, thought-provoking and more enriching read for me this time around.

nice review, Cherisa B :)

A month late, but seredipitously, I just found the audio version narrated by Robocop himself:

https://www.audible.com/pd/Steppenwol...

I thought I had read this before, but some of it surely would have stuck in my mind- I think the introduction, from the viewpoint of the ladylady's son, and then Harry Haller's own introduction, and then the "pamphlet" on the Steppenwolf, was triply redundant, and I probably dismissed the book as boring at that time.

The surreal part also goes on way too long, imo.

Robocop does a good job reading, but the library cds skipped a little, and my mind wandered, so I will also read the e-book.

finished this recently and quite enjoyed it - finding it preferable to either Siddhartha or Glass Bead Game - quite Kafka-esque at times (which will always win me over!) and as it went along I even started to feel like I knew what Hesse was getting at :oO (but maybe not!)