Literary Pick (***)

Siddhartha

-Herman Hesse

The novel by Hermann Hesse is basically about a young man (Siddhartha) who abandons his noble family home to lead an ascetic life, but he then meets the Buddha, and goes after a life of materialism, realizing 20 years later he is repulsed by his new lifestyle of lust (in which he conceives a son with a courtesan by the name of Kamala) and over-indulgence, he  once again abandons everything and goes in search of himself. He then meets with a ferryman Vesudeva, who guides and teaches him to listen to the river, which is meant to symbolize "the great song of a thousand voices consisting of one word:  OM-perfection." Only then does Siddhartha achieve true enlightenment. I give this book three stars for it's category, which is spirituality. I normally wouldn't read a book on this subject, but It's a classic and a short read so I decided to give it a try. I enjoyed how it was written and I learned a few things about Hindu religions and monks.