[When] I say that Steppenwolf functions as a "bible" I mean that it seems to serve as THE book for certain people, as the one book that says it all, that grabs you and will not let you go, to the point of physical as well as mental commitment. (p. 440)

A book that is to produce martyrs or converts among its readers need not show the balance of a genuine "classic," need not fulfill the highest aesthetic standards of harmony and bearing and sublimity…. Common to a "bible," however, is a despairing attitude toward the very possibility of interpersonal relationships. The overriding issue in a "bible" is not basically aesthetic, ethical, or social in nature, but religious. It is a question of faith, and what, if anything, one can have faith in. (pp. 440-41)

The novel Steppenwolf is for the most part treated as a memoir left behind...