
But now I look at it from the perspective of the father, having a son of my own in his 20's. One interesting aspect listening to this now is that when I first read the book back in the day I was reading it from the perspective that I was a son and what impact did my own father have on the direction of my life. Reinforcing the thought that life is for the living, Siddhartha discusses that one shouldn't get too serious about the meaning of life, the challenge is to accept life as it is, with both the good and the bad, in the end it's all the same thing, a life. There is still life to be lived in the golden years. Now in my 60's and retired, Siddhartha still gives out a perspective on life. So now these forty years later I decided to give Hesse's books another go. Over the years thoughts of these Hesse books would come back to me remembering perceived pearls of wisdom. For many, back then, Hesse seemed to strike a cord for helping you make sense of life and where your own life was headed.


I first read Siddhartha and other Hesse books in my early 20's during the early 70's while a student at the University of Iowa as well as during a tour with the US Army.
