I liked that the flow and footnotes were enough that you could get the story without having to have a major foundation in Hinduism or Buddhism. I appreciated that and could just get the story with a minimum of page-flipping. I didn't get Siddhartha (the character) at first, and then when he became tested I got to know him far better and got more invested. He just seemed too perfect at first, too good to be true. Nice to know there were some obstacles we could cheer him through.