The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
translated from the French by Alison Anderson
5 out of 5 stars
The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a novel of ideas, perhaps reminiscent of Milan Kundera, and while it may have some flaws, I had to give it five stars because, simply, this book was my best friend while I was reading it. If you feel depressed, meaningless, cynical, bored, angry… this is the ANTI -”self-help” cheerleaders’ book. Rather, it delves into the minds of two hyper-intelligent people who are baffled and lonely because they live amongst stupidity (it includes a hilarious yet disturbing scene with a psychiatrist humiliated by a 12-year-old). The main narrator is the aging, plain concierge of a posh apartment building in Paris who is locked away in her brilliant mind, never letting on (until near the end) that she is smarter than all the rich pedants she waits on. The other narrator is a sharp, perceptive twelve-year-old who lives in one of the posh apartments and doesn’t let on how bright she is because she refuses to be pigeonholed in the role of “gifted.” The arrival to the building of a kindred spirit to both (a tasteful, sensitive Japanese man) brings them out of the cells in their brains, into the role of empathy. What is their ultimate hope, by the end? The hope is not original – it seems all critical thinkers end up with this: Beauty (moments of it in life that escape many people’s attention) and, with that, Art, are the only saving graces for critical thinkers who must dwell in a small-minded, short-sighted society. There is also much commentary on philosophy (the concierge reads Husserl), the frivolity of so much academia, Dutch still lifes, class hierarchies, guilt and death.
-Sookie Toddray
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