[Hesse] is deeply loved by those among the American young who are questing.

His simplest, clearest, most innocent tale of seeking and finding is Siddhartha….

Hesse is no black humorist. Black humorists' holy wanderers find nothing but junk and lies and idiocy wherever they go…. Not so with the wanderers of Hesse; they always find something satisfying—holiness, wisdom, hope. (p. 108)

[An] easy explanation of American youth's love for Hesse is this: He is clear and direct and well translated, and he offers hope and romance, which the young play hell finding anywhere else these days….

But there are darker, deeper explanations to be found—and the clue that they exist is that the most important Hesse book to the American young, by their own account, is the wholly Germanic, hopelessly dated jumble called Steppenwolf. (pp. 109-10)

Steppenwolf was the most profound book about homesickness ever written. (p...