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A review by remjunior
Siddartha by Hermann Hesse
3.0
I may not have read this at the right time and appreciate that this kind of novel (albeit short novel) requires some more focus than maybe other literature.
That being said, it still felt like a compromise to what Buddhism truly is and this is coming from someone with a cursory knowledge of Buddhism. It's a little weird having a white German write a book about an Indian Buddhist in the early 1900s at the height (or collapse depending on where you were) of British Colonialism. It feels a little....superficial.
There are some golden nuggets of wisdom here though, especially the idea that we "do" and believe a lot of things because that is the path life has taken us done, but how can you truly believe something if you have not lived it?
Interesting book, but definitely not my favorite in terms of philosophy.
That being said, it still felt like a compromise to what Buddhism truly is and this is coming from someone with a cursory knowledge of Buddhism. It's a little weird having a white German write a book about an Indian Buddhist in the early 1900s at the height (or collapse depending on where you were) of British Colonialism. It feels a little....superficial.
There are some golden nuggets of wisdom here though, especially the idea that we "do" and believe a lot of things because that is the path life has taken us done, but how can you truly believe something if you have not lived it?
Interesting book, but definitely not my favorite in terms of philosophy.