Book Review | Book Chatter

The Elegance of the Hedgehog
By Muriel Barbery
Penguin
September 2008
325pp

*No Spoilers*

The Short of It:

A curious look at life, love, philosophy, art and literature as seen through the eyes of a 54-year-old concierge and her 12-year-old tenant.

The Rest of It:

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a pleasant story with a colorful cast of characters. Renee is the concierge of 7, rue de Grenelle, a Parisian block of very expensive apartments. Her physical appearance is nothing remarkable and she prefers to remain somewhat invisible to the other tenants. She spends her days catering to the wants of others, while harboring an extreme love of the arts. This, she prefers to keep to herself. Afterall, no one would believe that a concierge would be capable of appreciating such niceties.

Paloma, is the twelve-year-old tenant. She is forced to live with her mediocre family and has come to the conclusion that living such a life would be pure torture, so she plans to commit suicide when she turns thirteen.

The two, living under the same roof, share their feelings through alternating, essay-like chapters. When a new tenant by the name of Kakuro Ozu moves in, it becomes apparent to all three, that they each possess gifts that may not be apparent to the average eye.

The first half of this book was a bit slow for me. I didn’t love any of the characters and the essay-like chapters took a bit of time to get used to. Additionally, the day-to-day activities of the other tenants seemed a bit…well…boring. However, when Kakuro Ozu moves in, the pace picked up quite a bit and my interest in the story returned. Ozu is such an interesting character. Educated, a real gentleman and as sharp as they come. He enters the scene and quickly realizes who he has in front of him. I found his character to be quite enjoyable.

Although I was often amused by the characters themselves, I didn’t care for the story so much. The ending completely blindsided me and made me angry with the author. I remember asking myself, “Now, why did she do that???” So yes, I enjoyed it to a degree and thought it a pleasant read overall but the ending killed it for me. If you enjoy books with an “upstairs/downstairs” quality, then you will find this book charming as there are lots of little details to absorb and ponder.

My book club discussed this last week, but I was not able to make the meeting. I heard from some of the other members that there wasn’t much to discuss and that the discussion only lasted twenty minutes or so. If you choose this for your book club, you might want to pair it with one of the film or book references noted in the novel.

Source: Purchased

Hating Olivia
By Mark SaFranko
HarperCollins
November 2010
262pp

The Short of It:

Hating Olivia is about obsession and lust and how easily we can lose ourselves when we are confronted with it.

The Rest of It:

Max is the type of guy who cruises through life. He’s educated, but unfocused. He would rather write, than make ends meet but the writing doesn’t happen too often. Although a bit unstable when it comes to finances, overall he’s a pretty happy guy.

Enter Olivia Aphrodite. Olivia is drop-dead gorgeous. She too, is not too stable in the finance department and has made a living working dead-end jobs and letting men (with money), take “care” of her.

Although their personalities are quite different, Max and Olivia move in together and it goes downhill from there.

The story is told from Max’s point of view so what we get is the incredible frustration he experiences in loving a creature like Olivia. Max is consumed by her and completely obsessed with her. As their relationship progresses, he realizes that he needs to break it off, but how? How does one extract himself from an addiction such as this?

I must tell you right off, that there is a lot of sex in this little novel. A lot of sex, and a lot of language that you may not be comfortable with. Putting that aside, I found myself able to relate to both characters. Although you may never experience a relationship such as the one Max has with Olivia, you’ve probably known someone who has.

The story is a bit repetitive because this couple flounders over and over again while trying to make it work. But there was something about the novel that kept me reading. Perhaps, I wanted Max to find a way out. Perhaps it was a bit like watching a train wreck. Either way, I could not pull myself away from the novel and found myself completely wrapped-up in the story.

The writing is tight and the characters never waver. Also, Max is quite the reader so there are lots of literary references that you might enjoy. Overall, I enjoyed reading it even though it’s not something I would have normally picked-up on my own.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.

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