Steppenwolf
Author: Hermann Hesse
Started: January 31, 2003
Finished: February 18, 2003
I really don’t know what to say. It’s one of the most… odd… piece I’ve read so far, up there in the ranks of Kafka’s works. Nothing much really happens plot wise - it can probably be summarized as Harry Haller or: How I Learned to Stop Being Suicidal and Love the World. However, in telling this simple plot, Hesse seems to have done enough opium/cocaine/whatever to kill a small horse. 
Joking aside, I must tell you that it took me more than 2 weeks to get through the first 70 pages or so, and 3 hours to finish the book after that (last page is 218). Hesse uses some of the longest sentences that I’ve seen in my life (legal documents included!) and some sections, especially around the Treatise On the Steppenwolf, requires careful mulling and remulling to understand what Hesse’s trying to get through.
Harry Haller is a lonely man approaching 50s. However, what sets him apart is the fight between the Human and the Steppenwolf inside him. The two disparate beasts battle within him, driving him toward deep depression. A product of bourgeois life, Harry himself appreciates the comforts and the culture that bourgeois life provides. However, the wolf is always behind him, growling and mocking him at every step. Also, he is finding that the world is increasingly spinning out of control and out of his understanding. Driven to brink of suicide, he meets a woman named Hermine who shows Harry the pleasures of earthly life, carnal desires, and of disdainful Jazz music and dances. Through Hermine and Pablo’s help, he finally realizes that one must learn to look at life not only through critical and serious outlook, but also with a twinkle in the eye and peals of laughter.
One thing that hit me about this, was that the story is timeless. By timeless, I mean literally that. Hesse, although this was written during tumultuous time in Germany, keeps it very removed from the politics of the time (just as Harry the Steppenwolf is removed). It could’ve very easily been the 60s, 70s, or right now that Harry is living through. The focus in the human nature makes this a truly timeless story that will endure as long as we humans are around.