Siddartha needs no introduction. The short book is arguably one of the most iconic texts from the 20th century, and continues to enthrall millions today. The first time I read Siddartha, I mistakenly assumed it would be a historical account of "the" Buddha; basically, a poetic history lesson. I was sixteen then, and my literary sensibility was virtually nonexistent. Though still rudimentary, my receptivity the second time around revealed a Siddartha who dwells halfway between fact and fiction. Some of Hesse's words seem to stay true to the spiritual doctrines around which the book revolves, but much of Siddartha's journey is a fictional product of Hesse's philosophical imagination. What I most enjoyed about this timeless book is its honesty; its loyal portrayal of a man who oscillates between perdition and salvation, insight and confusion, misery and fulfillment. Siddartha's journey is not straightforward; it's crooked, bent, wavy. And it ends in acceptance—a radical embrace of the world for what it is and not what it should be; the world of paradoxes and contradictions, which is nonetheless a world of Beauty; a Perfect world.
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