purchased for release/trade

Mailed to amynsperry in OK on 5-4-04

I love Hesse and am thrilled to add this to my slowly growing Hesse collection.

It's funny that in the author's note at the beginning of the book, he says pretty much what I thought about his book Siddhartha ... that people who have not come to such places in their lives as he had when he wrote this book will not grasp the entirety of the underlying meaning of the book. Evidently the magical age is 50, so I'll have to keep the book around to read after I've lived twice as long.

I've always loved Hermann Hesse. His writings make so much more sense realizing that he was a Cancer. Steppenwolf is the quincentential study of the inner life of a Cancer. It gives insight into the inner irrational struggles of their minds between the things they dislike about themselves (wolf) and the things they like about themselves (man). It's learning to enjoy every moment of life and realizing that the sum total of his life has significance and worth that brings the Steppenwolf out of his darkness.