Substance: Almost non-existent. A man on a mysterious journey with a secret League fails to recognize that a popular servant of his group is actually the President (more like the High King). Possibly a Christian allegory, but just as easily Pagan.
Style: Sophomoric philosophical rambling with a supposed core of wisdom, but basically a boring monologue of pretentious simplicity. Akin to the sort of New Age mysticism of the Seventies. CSM blurb says it "resembles Kafka", which is true. ( )

"Comes to understand that it was he who failed the Journey rather than the Journey which failed him" ( )

1177. The Journey to the East, by Hermann Hesse (3 Aug 1972) This is a turgid German work which bored me spitless, even tho I found other Hesse works moving and enjoyable. Reminded me of the second part of Goethe's Faust, which was also a chore to get read, tho I did finish it 23 Jan 1952. ( )

I was intrigued reading other member reviews of Journey to the East, and that the average rating is 3-1/2.

Like all of Hesse's novels, HH is reflecting on his interaction with religious philosophies, his experiences within different dogmas, and how this interaction and experience creates and re-creates his world. Journey is no different, however I think that a reader needs to have knowledge of HH's other writings and perhaps a little bit about the man himself to find meaning in Journey.

It doesn't hurt to also have some self-directed philosophical or dogmatic questing or questioning.

So I must preface my review with this information: my partner is a theological philosopher, well-versed in world religions and philosophies, and spending most of his reflection time (inadvertently) educating me on different religious principles. I, on the other hand, could be less interested. I feel that spirituality is a personal question and a personal endeavour, one that does not require the input or direction of others, but rather is not separate from my individual identity or daily values and practices. In fact, when someone presses me with any "god question" I generally say "this is not a question for me; it does not interest me. I know my belief system and that is enough."

Journey was a harsh lesson in egoism for me. HH discovers for himself that just because he does not feel connected to the spiritual group that he ascribed to as a younger man does not mean that the group does not exist. In fact, the group has more cohesiveness and more meaning without him, if anything it is stronger. In the face of this knowledge, he truly finds his Journey completed..."I regarded myself as the chronicler...but it was weak and foolish of me to believe that the League could not exist if I was not a part of it."

The lesson here, for me particularly, is that for one to think that a religious philosophy or belief system is not important cimply because I do not believe in it or care to discuss it does not make it less important or believable for the thousands of others who build their lives around it. This is not my universe to guide or "chronicle," rather it is my duty to share this space with others and recognize the wisdom of everyone rather than judge my own wisdom to be the end-all.

A difficult lesson, true, as it requires of me that I take note of my own egotistical tendencies, my own "shadow side," and facing something about me that is not exactly what I wish it to be.

Therefore I give this novel a high rating, because I learned a strong and poignant lesson from it, as I have from many of HH's novels. However I would suggest this novel to those who are themselves interested in spirituality, or perhaps entrenched in their own Journey to the East. ( )

Hesse's most difficult novel. Worth rereading on occasion. ( )