'Steppenwolf'

Steppenwolf is a book within a book about man, Harry Haller, who forever battles internally these urges of the carnal (the wolf) and that of the man.

At a place where he wants to end his life, Haller meets Hermine, who instructs him on the life of a bohemian, dancing, laughing, drinking, doing drugs and listening to jazz. It's at this point that Haller finds healing and growth. Where he's able to almost ignore the "wolf" living inside of him.

Haller learns to laugh and take himself (and art) less seriously. His anger toward a silly painting of Goethe and classical music take backseats to jazz and making love to young, beautiful women.

Hermann Hesse contends it was the most misunderstood of his books. It was his 10th novel. He said the attention paid to the struggle of wolf and man overshadows the healing and transcendation of the Haller character.

Also, it's full of Eastern and Buddhist philosophy, Hesse being a big proponent.

The book is defined during the latter half when Haller enters into the Magic Theatre and reality is turned on its head. Here, Haller lives his fantasties and lives out the phantasmal. By the 1960s, the counterculturists had adopted the novel due to its philosophical nature, dependence on Eastern culture, drug use and dallying with the layers of the mind.