Elegance of the Hedgehog
As seen:
By Muriel Barbery, and and, Alison Anderson
avg rating
2 reviews
Rene is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building. She maintains a carefully constructed persona as someone uncultivated but reliable, in keeping with what she feels a concierge should be. But beneath this facade lies the real Rene: passionate about culture and the arts and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Down in her lodge, apart from weekly visits by her one friend Manuela, Rene lives with only her cat for company. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future laid out for her and decides to end her life on her thirteenth birthday. But unknown to them both, the sudden death of one of their privileged neighbours will dramatically alter their lives forever. By turns moving and hilarious, this unusual novel became the top-selling book in France in 2007.
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Something of a cult best seller immensely popular world wide ( translated in to 35 languages). Has been called a life transforming read and a life affirming book by various commentators and critics. Some of us were discouraged by the over lengthy, dense, obscure and at times pretentious philosophising in the first half of the book in particular but those of us who persevered were rewarded with what we unanimously felt was a great book and one we felt glad to have read. Made us think but also laugh out loud. How people can hide their true nature and how people can change.
Whilst some of the allusions and references were involved I really enjoyed it although it took a while to get into.
Pace and purpose picks up once Ozu moves into the apartment block. The ending? Inevitable?
Although it was at times involved the chapters were short and pacy and Paloma’s in particular, based on her diary entries and observations on her family and neighbours, were astute and the better philosophically speaking than Madame Renee’s trite, Reader’s Digest style analyses perhaps as a result of her being self taught, internal and as an autodidact. Paloma essentially a Buddhist. The alternating short chapters with differing type faces gave it a pace.
A book about nature, beauty, the soul, love, literature, art, film, music and philosophy.
Philosophy part of the curriculum in so many European countries - briefly taught here in our primary schools. Different schools of philosophy - French metaphysical, German structuralist etc
It was witty and laugh out loud but also profound and meaningful. A good translation.
Loved the comment on France - notable for soft cheese and 18th century language, whilst England famous for puddings, rugby, lawns, Habeas Corpus and the hat!!
A critique of class ridden French society
I kept writing down quotes from it and really enjoyed reading something so French
Found myself researching many of the references - quotes from Anna Karenina, Music ( Opera, Mozart) lyrics ( Eminem, Dido and Aeneas) , films - particularly Japanese Director Ozu and his films
Author is a philosophy lecturer and lives in Japan. Critical of the introspection of philosophy and the sterility of the academic, elitist approach to the subject rather than applying it to reality and life.
Loved the writing style - a real treat to read it
The film version? Mixed response from the 7 or so who had watched it. Some of us loved it - a great intro/taster for the book but others felt that an unlikely liaison became implausible , possibly due to the time constraints of compressing the book into a short film version.
Scores ranged from 7 to several 9s with a total of 86.5 so an average of 8.5
Very moving and well-observed account of a range of interesting and culturally different characters.
I thought the ending was a slight disappointment but this has some wonderful liones and some great momenys, especially the lingerie fight
