Title: The Elegance of the HedgehogAuthor: Muriel Barbery
I'd heard lots of buzz about The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Every time I looked up a book on Amazon, their specially formulated computer spit out that that I should really be reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I'm nothing if not obliging, so I read it.
The book is a translation of a novel that was originally published in France four or five years ago. The basic premise of the novel is that there's a misunderstood and brilliant middle-aged concierge and a misunderstood and brilliant twelve-year-old girl living in the same fancy Paris apartment building. Both of them are lonely and frustrated until an older Japanese gentlemen moves into the building and the three come together and find meaning in their lives.
Even after Mr. Mind-Reader of the Amazon recommended the book, I seriously considered quitting it in the first hundred pages, which was filled with philosophical musings of people I'd never heard of before. But I'm glad I didn't. The action takes place in the last hundred pages, even the last twenty pages. And just like life, this book doesn't end the way you may want it to. I'm a notorious read the last page first kind of girl, and I was really disappointed that I knew what was coming in this book. I predict a beautiful and angsty French film will come out in the near future. If you pick it up, just remember, it's French, and unlike those of us in America, they're comfortable with angst and tragedy in their art.
2 comments:
Yes, yes, yes on the first 100 pages. I would have given up if I had had anything else to read when I was at the gym, but just making it past section 1, it felt like a different book.
I just finished this and am glad to see I am not the only one that found the first 100 pages difficult to get through. I also felt like I needed a dictionary.
In the end though, I'm glad I read it and am glad I didn't know the end going in.
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