"Demian" by Herman Hesse II Book Review

"I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself."

If I had to find and pick one sentence from this book that sums up and describes what it is about, this would definitely be it. This book is the particularly distasteful path of Sinclair - the protagonist - until he manages to acquire self-knowledge, to find himself, and reach his destiny. It is the journey of a young boy, from childhood up until adulthood, who's trying to find his fate, his identity and purpose in the world.

I have to confess that I found this book disappointing and I had to press myself to get on with it. I found it boring, depressing, and tedious. The pacing was annoyingly slow; very few things were happening - even though the book takes place in the course of several years - and the thoughts and themes were repeated and recycled. The main character couldn't capture my interest, I couldn't like him, feel for him, or even care for him throughout the whole story.

The book does give some food for thought, as it contains plenty of philosophical quests, questions, and thoughts about life, morality, and religion. Even though this is something I usually love and appreciate in books, I didn't like it in this one. Sinclair's quests reach a concerning level of obsession and irrationality that I found really hard to follow. I also couldn't cope with his constant childhood and adolescent angst, exaggeration, and melodrama.

In most cases, Demian was the only voice of logic and I liked reading about him much more than Sinclair. Demian's scenes, his interactions, and discussions with the main characters were one of the few positive things I found and these scenes were probably my favorites. Even though, I have to admit that I found his idolization by the main character especially annoying.

Overall, the book has some interesting parts, but it didn't satisfy me as much as I was expecting. The last chapter did show some potential at first for at least an interesting ending in the story, but once more it proved to be disappointing. The ending was rushed and abrupt and instead of taking an interesting turn - as it could have - it was indifferent and somewhat awkward.

I wanted to rate this book with 1 star, but it would be very unfair for the writing which was good. So, because I appreciated the writing, I decided to give this book 2/5 stars.

Thanks for reading!