Book Review - Steppenwolf

It’s time for a book review! This is a series that I’ve been wanting to start for a while, so here it finally is!

Rhett actually lent me his copy of Hermann Hesse’s classic - Steppenwolf. It was just around the time that I was trying to get excited about reading again, and it did not disappoint. So here is my little review and interpretation of its themes and messages.

I hated the novel. It took me far too long to finish it. I think Rhett was planning to move back to Sydney and needed the book back, so I forced myself through it with sheer willpower. I had this idea in my head that I had to start reading all of the “classics”, to discover what made them so timeless. But I’m so grateful that Rhett recommended Steppenwolf to me, and that I persevered through to the end of it. Because Hermann Hesse’s story truly surprised me in a profound way. It was probably the book that set me on a long path of reading every single iconic novel that I can get my hands on, and learning something from each of them. There are only a few books that have had such an impact on me, and I cannot wait to talk to you all about the others too. But right now let’s first get into Steppenwolf.

For a book written in the 1920s - many of its passages and use of language reads like something brand new from the local bookstore, that I could have found in some kind of a young adult, modern goth section. I don’t want that to sound like a diss, because it's truly remarkable, and Steppenwolf was undoubtedly ahead of its time. But I did hate that portion of the book (about eighty percent of it). The main character “Harry Haller” (who is surely based on Hermann Hesse himself) is a writer who lives a lonely life, in disdain of a bourgeois society. He lives within his own head, monologuing over his inner conflict and despair. He is like an angsty teenager, no one has ever been more depressed than him, and nothing could ever awaken within him any real lust for life. He feeds into his own detachment from society, only going out at night, looking for hypocrisies and judgements to make about his peers, as well as constantly criticising his own faults.

For some reason I just couldn’t really connect with Harry, or feel empathy for him. Maybe that was the point? To see him as this pathetic, Steppenwolf; half man, and half lone wolf/slave to his desires in the form of drinking and detachment. I don’t really know to be honest. But of course there is something to relate to within that part of the story, at least for most people. I think a lot of us have experienced some sort of a period of self-doubt or at least situational depression. I think in the Steppenwolf novel we are presented with quite an extreme version of that somewhat relatable scenario, whether it is an honest take by the author or a mixture of exaggeration. Although I admired the kind of gothic aesthetics of these sections of the book, and the relatability of some of the dark thoughts, I cannot lie that I found it frustrating and cumbersome to read in many parts. Again; that may have been the exact purpose, to frustrate the reader with Harry’s internal criticisms and doomer mindset, in a similar way that it also frustrates himself.

Eventually the story picks up pace and develops, we are introduced to a new character “Hermine” who attempts to bring Harry out of his shell and to teach him how to enjoy life. Harry is of course hesitant to adopt this notion, and it takes some intrigue, as well as persistence before he is dancing with Hermine in those very same, extravagant, upper class ballrooms, with the people and the lifestyles that he so criticised and judged before.

I have to add here that there are some strange parts of the novel that may or may not be problematic in the modern day. I'm not quite certain myself, but it is unfortunately a common occurrence in a lot of these classics. Basically Hermine seems to be depicted to me as an intersex character and maybe a sex worker, who is perhaps then fetishised by Harry. Like I said at the start - books like this which involve quite a spiritual and existential theme are very open to interpretation for a large part, and this is especially the case with Steppenwolf. As Hermann has said himself - the book is largely misunderstood. So everything that I am saying here are simply my interpretations and thoughts/feelings about the novel and its impact on me as a reader.

So here with Hermine is where the seeds of change start. Harry, thanks to Hermine’s allure and help, slowly opens up to a new world of experiences and perception. This leads us to the great conclusion of the novel, which is the ultimate sequence of a spiritual and psychedelic experience. Presumably I think that Harry takes some kind of a substance (maybe acid) with Hermine and another friend: “Pablo” the saxophonist, talented musician and lover of modern music (Harry hates modern tunes and only listens to classics). This is done and portrayed really subtly though, and it felt as if I was experiencing some kind of hallucination - rather than reading about someone else going through it. This largely went unregistered by me, but throughout the book Harry is reading his own book “Treatise on the Steppenwolf”, a book that was given to him by a person in the night who was holding an advertisement for a magic theatre. So in those final moments he himself finds that magic theatre finally and (spoiler alert) seems to die.

I don’t want to give away a lot about this part of the book because it is the best part, and really deserves a read, by the way I am also interested to read “Siddhartha” - another novel by Hermann Hesse which seems to delve deeply into spiritual themes which I imagine is his ultimate strength in writing. But what I think these final sequences of the novel could be interpreted as is potentially a drunken and drug fueled night by Harry, alone in his room, during which he invented the characters of Hermine and Pablo, who joined him on this trippy journey, opening him up to enjoy parts of life which were previously criticised. They lead him through doors and rooms, not unlike Dante’s guides in “The Divine Comedy”, deeper into the layers of his own subconscious - having him discover the inevitability of his suicide, and ultimately be met with it.