This is a collection of short autobiographical pieces that Hesse wrote over the course of his long life. In fact they are more like fragments, discontinuous and in some places covering the same ground, but from different angles. The introduction makes it clear that Hesse wrote his own life into all of his stories, using elaborate aliases, shifting scenes and generally mixing up the whole business of story-telling and magic making in a (very) complex whole. I was curious to get to know Hesse better, and these stories certainly achieved that. But for a while it all seemed to plod. He was fascinating, but his stories about himself seemed dull, as if the effort of constraining himself to one reality (that of recollection) hampered him. But when he broke out, as he did frequently the stories had that magic, and the real treasure contained in this collection is his 'A Guest at the Spa'. The only other writer to describe so perfectly the life of the Spa (a very European thing) is Simenon in one of his Maigret stories. Worth reading for this story alone, and perhaps those others relating to his early years. Recommended. ( )