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