I enjoyed the book for all the reasons it’s a well known path-of-wisdom book. I was a bit concerned about why a German man chose to write his philosophical ideas about such a different culture/setting/religion, but read up on Hesse’s familial and personal connections to India. I did find it a bit disheartening that the only female character Siddhartha attempts to see himself in is the courtesan, though she is given her own story arch.

The end treatise was just getting a bit too wishy-washy for me, when Siddhartha finally comes to: It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world. And there we have it.