Quote:
Originally Posted by Ransom
I gave up on Hesse after he butchered both Hinduism and Buddhism in Siddhartha.
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To be fair,
Siddhartha is Hesse's most accessible and least substantive work (at least of the half dozen I've read). It gets recommended in New Age circles because it has that shallow, meaning-y aura that characterizes the movement, and it gets recommended in general because it's quite short.
Steppenwolf suffers somewhat from a similar excessive conviction of its own depth and importance, but also mirrors aspects of your pet narrative about Western literature and civilization. It won't give you the 'secret Jesus code' erection of C.S. Lewis, but should at least tickle your Grand Narrative receptors.
I find both the above books worthwhile despite their shortcomings, but regardless,
Magister Ludi (aka
The Glass Bead Game) and
Narcissus and Goldmund are much more mature and developed, even mocking the kind of self-importance that informed Hesse's earlier works.
Then again, you may just want to read
Don Quixote six or seven times until it starts to make an impression.