There are few writers who have chronicled with such honest clarity and such bold honesty the development of the soul through the stages of life. Peter Kamintsend (1904), Damian (1919), Siddhartha (1922), The Steppenwolf (1927), Narcissus and Goldmund (1930), and The Journey to the East (1932) are different versions of a spiritual autobiography, and different depictions of the path of Joan. Each new step refines the image of all previous steps, and each experience opens new worlds of exploration in a continuous effort to communicate the vision.
Hermann Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, was closely connected to the Indian world. He was influenced by Eastern philosophies. When he was once asked about the most important influences in his life, he said that they were “the Christian and never nationalistic spirit of my parents’ house,” “reading Chinese masterpieces,” and “the personality of the historian Jacob Burckhardt.”
This novel will surprise you a little.
After you finish reading it, you will not be able to tell it.
The writer is from Cameroon, and the event is simple. It takes place in the apartheid society controlled by the whites: The village residents wake up to news from the military ruler stating that the “great leader of the whites” will come from Paris to award old Mika a medal. In appreciation for his efforts and sacrifices, he is the one who lost his two sons who fought with the French army, and donated his land to the new church. Like the residents of his village, Mika feels great as a result of this appreciation, but he soon realizes that he is not strong, but rather a weak, oppressed old man in a weak, oppressed society. A battle in which he is defeated without his opponent appearing in the ring.
The old man and the people of his village are trying to cling to what remains in the memory about themselves, their customs, their methods of expression, their reactions, and their struggle for justice, but they realize on a daily basis: ((The whites have left nothing for us)).
Ferdinand Oyono does not interfere, as if he is sitting among them, doing what they do, so you do not know his direct position on what is going on, and he also drags you to sit with them and participate with them. It does not only aim to introduce you to the problem that people are experiencing, but also to the creative expression methods of these people.
