I am uncertain what it is that failed to inspire me in this book that was written so clearly with the intent to inspire. The glass bead game itself, while an interesting thought experiment in meta-knowledge, fails to be convincing precisely because it can only inadequately be described. So much of the novel's premise relies on it being possible to evolve to this transcendent state of understanding in which cross-boundary knowledge can be manipulated to achieve something close to wisdom, that Hesse's understandable inability to outline the form this would take seriously damages the novel structure. It is difficult to engage with the Knecht's struggle and eventual rejection of this misconstrued, ivory tower Utopia. Several other things irritated me in the form of the novel; claiming to be a biographic reconstruction from notes and other found material, it retreats too often to the voice of an omnipresent narrator - encroaching private spaces and thoughts that a pretend biographer would have no access to. All this would be fine if the book was more balanced in its structure but if Hesse's ultimate aim was to make a case for the futility of the purely academic realms in which the glass bead game was constructed, Knecht's disengagement with it is given very short shrift and it leaves you with the sense that Hesse got tired with his story and did not really have the energy to complete it as it should have. Knecht's 'collected writings and poems' added to the end of the book are cute but add little to the profundity to which this book aspires. (less)