Update: I reread this masterpiece. And it's better than I remembered it. Goldmund represents the way of the artist. There's so many times where he leaves or does something counterproductive, but that's his nature. He wouldn't be an artist, he couldn't create without those experiences. When poets or rock-stars waste their talent and lives on counterproductive things, it's the way of Goldmund. He, like many artists, dies without realizing his dream, without perfecting his art. On the positive side, he is blessed Narcissus who helps him see his true nature. Otherwise he'd be a repressed genius, forced into to a life that is not his.

One way to look at Narcissus and Goldmund is not two two separate entities, but two parts of a whole. Whether it is the characters, feelings v. reason, art v science, mind v matter, images v thoughts, intuition v logic, flesh v spirit, east v west, life v death.

Just like the cloister represents the arts, it is at odds with the authoritarian state. Commoners hold it in awe without understanding.

What is remarkable is that the novel doesn’t just make those points intellectually, but emotionally as well. As the reader you feel the artistic process: the aimless wayfaring, intense and anxious work, the satisfaction of completion and the following emptiness. The last 15 pages debunks the notion that art can eternalize the transitory, even a great work will pass and the artist feels it first. That art can unify apparent opposites is one of the realizations of the Goldmund and the reader.

There are some great scenes and it is remarkable how the male characters form Goldmund by contrast and how each female forms him by adding to his being and vision. However nothing brings change to the forefront like life – nature, spring, birth, creation - and death – murder, plague, imprisonment, ailment.

There are hints of Siddhartha and Steppenwolf here, but this is much more complete and unified then either of those two. Like Siddhartha this is a wonderful read and mediation on life. Must be a fine translation. That their is a higher purpose to the hedonism is more apparent here then in Steppenwolf.

A possible area for improvement would be to spend more time on Narcissus’ life and struggles – that would balance the work, but maybe that’s like the earth mother statue that is left in the imagination only.