Set in the 23rd century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).
Hesse's long philosophical novel takes the form of a biography that recounts the coming-of-age and spiritual crisis of the leader of a community devoted to a game combining music, mathematics, philosophy, meditation, and other disciplines. In a way, the pseudo-biographical form fits David Colacci's narration because he sounds like a nonfiction reader. He's an effective one, with a good voice, and fine pacing and expressiveness. But he's no actor, and when the novel is actually novelistic and he must provide voices and dialogue, they're unconvincing--he still sounds like a reader of nonfiction. One misses a certain music that a good actor might have brought to enliven this already-dry book. Still, Colacci is skilled and able, if not inspiring. W.M. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) was born in Germany and later became a citizen of Switzerland. As a Western man profoundly affected by the mysticism of Eastern thought, he wrote many novels, stories, and essays that bear a vital spiritual force that has captured the imagination and loyalty of many generations of readers. In 1946, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for The GlassBead Game.
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