The Elegance of the Hedgehog

I feel like a lot of the assumptions that the writer/the two narrators think you have about like, class don't apply in the same way in the U.S. In that way, the two voices in this book come off as kind of irritating.

Also, the two narrators are set in two different typefaces: Helvetica and Garamond. Just sayin'. Some people may find that obnoxious.

I scanned over the little reviews on the inside pages of the book and got the impression that I was supposed to really connect with the two narrators and just be amazed by this book. I was amazed – that so many people enjoyed it. I found the narrators ridiculously stupid, particularly Renee. She's supposed to be brilliant, but pretends to be an idiot because... apparently a concierge is supposed to be an idiot and heaven forbid she fail to fulfill a stereotype that I'm not really sure exists. Paloma I found less irritating, but I can make a lot of concessions for a 12-year-old. The first part read like a philosophical wank-fest and the second part [which I admittedly only skimmed:] read like a bad Harlequin romance. On a more pleasant note, I like the cover design. Kudos to whoever did that.

It took me awhile to get into this book. The main character, Renee Michel, is not particularly endearing at first, much like how she is with the other characters in the book. There is a lot of philosophy discussion as well. But as Renee starts to open up to her new neighbor Kakuro and solemn Paloma, I started to like and appreciate her as well. I also really enjoyed the intermittent “profound thoughts” of Paloma; there were so many I wanted to stop and write down.

Lots of layers to this book beyond the simple plot of two social misfits – one a 54 year old French concierge in an upper-class apartment building, the other the precocious 12 year old daughter of one of the families in the building – discovering each other for the first time and finding themselves kindred souls.

Renee, the concierge, has gone to incredible lengths to hide her true intelligence and gifts in order to fit into the world around her. Paloma, the young girl, is the ‘black sheep' in her Paris bourgeois family, extremely intelligent and witty, yet also a master of the art of self-preservation behind the mask of oddness and mediocrity.

The plot shifts from Renee's humorous, witty, satirical descriptions of the families in the building and the social dynamics playing out between them, to Paloma's journal entries on her plans to end her life on her 13th birthday because the futility of the social drama she sees played out around her seems too much to bear. Her journal is her attempt to record her profound thoughts and find a reason the world isn't as hopeless as it seems.

I was captivated by Renee's dissection of the social “theater” she sees every day, her explanations and philosophical arguments applied to art, literature, and the world. Paloma's journal hits the mark, too. Her journal entries can be both hilarious and sad at the same time. I found myself re-reading whole passages of this book because the insights were so accurate, yet put in a fresh, succinct perspective. Both characters have rational, philosophical views and I was often struck by their deep understanding of ideas and life.

I also categorized this book as armchair-travel because the description of French life and culture is so prevalent. I felt like I was visiting a real part of Paris, yet having my questions about the culture answered along the way. The language and voice of the book flows in such a beautiful way that it makes me wish I could read this book in the original French language.

This book reads like a fable, and I know I will be re-reading it to see what else I might uncover.

I'm not sure what to think of this book. On the one hand, I recognize that much of the writing is inspired, if not brilliant. I admire its explorations of class and philosophy and art and language. On the other hand, its two narrators are among the most annoying in all of literature, one for her self-righteous snobbery (toward the upper classes she knows are inferior to her) and the other for her intolerable precociousness. They both grow on you, but not if you throw the book across the room first.

My full review is here: Review of The Elegance of the Hedgehog

I waited and waited to obtain this book. Then, when I did receive it, I waited and waited to read it. And, finally, when I did read it, I read it very, very slowly.

Conclusion: I liked it very much. Not a disappointment. Not a book overhyped. Thoughtful. Full of wonderful, very human characters.

The plot centers on two people: a middle-aged concierge, brilliant but determined to hide her intelligence from her world, and a clever twelve-year-old, who has decided she will commit suicide and burn up her apartment building before her next birthday. Both are deeply lonely people, estranged from almost everyone in their lives. Then a new tenant moves into the apartment building and everything changes.

Lovely story.

First of all, I know a lot of people said this book was pretentious. And indeed it has two very pretentious narrators. But I think it is overall the story of the two narrators outgrowing their pretensions and sincerely embracing life and art. I savored the style of this book and really fell in love with these two pretentious characters.

I don't know why this novel is so poorly rated on Goodreads. This is my favourite book- truly a celebration of literature, time, life and the love of little things. Had me sobbing by the end of it. Perhaps the plot is not spectacular, but the writing is truly beautiful and worth a read if you like reading about characters who are beautifully and imperfectly human.

Renee the concierge and Paloma the 12 year girl are both in hiding. Renee adheres to the stereotype of the invisible, frumpy working class servicing the rich tenants at Rue de Grenelle. Paloma is easily dismissed as a privileged daughter of one of these moneyed boarders, but who has decided she will end her life on her 13th birthday. They are both ravenous autodidacts working out their own personal philosophies. Renee offers up chapters on phenomenology, grammatical crimes and Tolstoy. As such the first half of the book starts out like an all too clever first year philosophy major writing fiction. I wouldn't call it immediately accessible.

It's not until a new tenant arrives in the building, the mysterious Mr. Kakuro Ozu that it becomes a story. One of friendship and love. Shaking off intellectual pretensions for conventional feelings. The second half is beautifully done, a bit of a gut-punch, and kept from being overly maudlin and melodramatic by the tone established in the first half.

Some books I enjoy tearing apart, this isn't one of those. Mainly because I imagine anyone who likes this book is probably quite sweet and I don't want to take it away from them.

But there were quite a few issues: paper thin characters who are far too similar, random name dropping (and unbelievably smug) philosophical rants which no one will remember a few pages later because of how disconnected it all is, a rather old-school Japanese culture fetish and, probably the most understated but egregious in my books, a concerning portrayal of the uncultured poor as unfeeling unthinking mules who are as much animal as human.

This book basically says “any farmers who don't want to move to the city and become cultured are mindless, soulless nonhumans.”

‰ЫПThe death of a concierge leaves a slight indentation on everyday life, belongs to a biological certainty that has nothing tragic about it and, for the apartment owners who encountered him every day in the stairs or at the door to our loge, Lucien was a non-entity who was merely returning to a nothingness from which he had never fully emerged, a creature who, because he had lived only half a life, with neither luxury or artifice, must at the moment of his death have felt no more than half a shudder of revolt.‰Ыќ