Then thereÂ’s Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.
Rating: 5 (Heartrending yet marvellous) Was helpful to 110 from 118 votes
"The Elegance of the Hedgehog" transcends excellence. It is one of those rare books with a special inner quality that makes you ponder over life in a way only very few others can. After turning the last page, I was left staring into space, feeling bereft. I wished there was more to read, yet its ending befitted the whole tale. I now understand why it received so many wonderful reviews in France recently and why it became such a literary success. It fully deserves it.
Just a brief summary, as described by both main characters -Renée and Paloma - introducing themselves in the beginning of the book, which is written in a diary form by each.
Paris, present day. Renée is the widowed concierge of an elegant building in an exclusive area. Its inhabitants all belong to the upper class. She is, by her own admission, dowdy, unattractive, often grumpy and wants everybody to believe that she is the stereotype of all concierges, blending into the background, almost featureless. But Renée has a well-kept secret: she is an extremely cultured autodidact. She loves art, philosophy, literature, music. Aestheticism and beauty in all of its forms fascinate her. Renée keeps concealing this aspect of her life to the outside world, hiding behind the concierge's screen -literal and metaphorical-.
Paloma is a twelve-year-old who lives in the building with her rich family. She is distractedly well-loved by her parents and does not get along with her older sister. Paloma is an extremely bright, clear-headed, lucid child. She is so lucid it is uncomfortable -yet to the reader she also conveys tenderness, and her wittiness is remarkable- . She pretends to be the average adolescent, yet despises what she considers the subculture of her peers and does not see any sense in continuing living. Her view of life is very disillusioned, disenchanted, sardonic. She decides to commit suicide on her 13th birthday.
Renée and Paloma could not be more different, yet their way of looking at life is often very similar. Their paths never cross, if not by sight, until the day a new tenant moves into the building and...
I cannot add anything else, the tale would definitely be spoiled.
In my opinion, this book is not your typical beach-read, it deserves to be savoured slowly and quietly if possible. Yet it is a page-turner and I myself have devoured it. Often heartbreaking, yet unbelievably funny in parts. Real humour pops up unexpectedly, which renders the reading even more pleasant and lightens some heart-knotting situations. The narrative flows beautifully and is linguistically refined.
Ladies and Gentlemen, get your tissues ready if you must, but do read this book. It shall touch you profoundly yet you will not regret having read it.
Rating: 2 (This is a good book but...) Was helpful to 10 from 21 votes
I condider this a good book because it has an interesting premise.A house divided into apartments which are owned by rich people.One of the two main protagonists of this book is the concierge of this house.This woman is 54 years old and has looked this way from the age of 20.The other main protagonist is a 12 year old girl who intends to kill herself on her 13th birthday.What they have in common is they are both very much smarter than all the people around them and comment on this fact.What I have against this book is even though the plot is good the writing is done in an overly pretentious style that makes it a very tedious read.
Rating: 5 (Beauty is truth) Was helpful to 159 from 168 votes
You are smart, but unschooled, a daughter of the poorest illiterate peasantry. Over the decades you have read your Marx and Kant, appreciated Mozart, immersed yourself in 17th century Dutch painting. You smuggle literature home in your shopping bag along with the turnips and cat food. You are Renee Michel and a concierge in a Left Bank apartment block serving the rich. You are an invisible drab, and no-one must ever suspect.
You are precociously intelligent but only twelve and a half. Your sister, studying for her Masters degree at the Sorbonne, is a `beautiful person' of barren soulless talent. Your mother is a vacuous socialist snob while your father is a senior Government official hiding behind his role. You know from Dawkins and all the rest that life is just a pointless primate struggle to reproduce your genes. Surrounded by so much empty posturing and mediocrity, what is the point? You are Paloma Josse and you are determined to commit suicide on your 13th birthday.
A particularly loathsome apartment owner dies and someone new moves in. Wealthy, cultured and thoroughly civilised, perhaps Renee and Paloma, in their daily deceptions, have finally encountered someone they can't hoodwink. Primary certainties are reworked as the story moves to its shocking conclusion.
This is a beautiful piece of work: erudite, laugh-out-loud humorous and tragic by turns. It can't have been easy for Alison Anderson to capture in English the sophistication of Muriel Barbery's writing, but she's made a fine job of it. Recommended.
Rating: 5 (Twice-told Tales) Was helpful to 3 from 5 votes
Elegantly written in every way, this will be on my shelf of favorites - and I'll be recommending to my reader friends - to a daughter who wouldn't be labeled as a "reader" - I'll be buying copies to give as gifts. I actually found myself reading it in the sauna, instead of meditating as usual!
Let me say that I'm not always a huge fan of stories told - back and forth - with two voices. This is an exception. The two stories, Renée the concierge's and Paloma the 12 year old tenant's, are a perfect counterpoint to each other, each delicate, each darkly humorous. There are twists, turns, and surprises, it's really a perfectly sketched and colored slice of life in the particular venue of an upscale, live-in, urban hotel. I could really relate to Paloma's search for meaning in the world - a reason to validate life in general, her own in particular.
I hate when a book draws me in and is over in a flash; at over 300 pages, the author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog allows her readers time to savor.
Rating: 4 (Entertaing, Deep, Funny and Sad ~Rather difficult writing style.) Was helpful to 2 from 2 votes
Let me explain what I mean by difficult. The author writes on a very high level with the most difficult words possible to say her point, a sesquipedalianism style of writing. Well not so much long words but diffucult or obscure words. For me this made the book a slow read, I usually read a book a day and I couldn't do that with this one. Guess I am not as philosophical and sophisticated as the writer to be sure.
What I loved most and laughed out loud about was Renee's description of herelf. She is the concierge of a hotel apartment complex, 8 in total luxury no less. She says "I am short, ugly, plump, I have bunions on my feet and, if I am to credit certain early mornings of self-inflicted disgust, the breath of a mammoth. I did not go to college, I have always been poor, discreet, and insignificant. I live alone with my cat, a big, lazy tom......" and on she goes.
The book goes between Renee's thoughts and feelings and also those of a 12 yr old girl who has "Profound Thoughts" The first of which is that she plans to kill herself on her 13th birthday. Her name is Paloma.
Both Renee and Paloma are not who they appear to be on the outside. We as the readers get to see the real people they are. You will laugh and cry(have the tissues ready) at times with them. Thankfully Hope comes as a gift from the friendship and more "Profound Thoughts" take form.
It is a reminder about how precious life is and needs to be enjoyed to the fullest each day. Has an ironic ending not what you expect.
We learn the deepest meanings of never and always. This is a deep book. I needed to keep the dictionary close so as to get the full meanings of what was being said. It is well worth the effort. I read on a college level I would say...this is more Doctorate level. I mean this as a compliment to the author.
It is not a surprise that in France this is a Best Seller.
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