I read the book and had no idea what was going on a majority of the time. There were small portions that I thought were interesting, however, if I was told to, I could not give even a brief summary of the novel. The book includes references to writers that I've never read, such as Goethe, so I felt that I missed a lot when I read the novel. I also found the book hard to read originally but could relate to it. [SPOILER] I had no idea what was happening when he went to a party and the women turned to men. I didn't know what was meant by including a hermaphrodite in the novel.

Just for the sake of it, my attempt at a summary: A reclusive intellectual comes to regret his solitary state as he opens up to wild parties.

I read the novel 5 months ago. Now I feel that I should read it again, although I'm unsure. I'm considering reading Hesse's other works (Siddharta), however, I presume that the other works will probably contain similar levels of "absurd" difficult-to-interpret actions. What think you?

Edit: Listening to the sad song "winter is blue" gave me an instant inspiration to reread/read Hermann Hesse.