The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery

This is an unusual sort of post for me. I am going to take a few minute to review a book I just 'read'. I am not a book reviewer, I am not a writer nor am I a grammarian. I do not even belong to a book club. What I am is a person who enjoys books. And with that sole qualification, I offer up my insight. You can take it or leave it.

You will notice that I put the word 'read' in quotations. I do that because I actually didn't read the book; I listened to it. And I think, in hindsight, that does a great injustice to this particular piece of work. Some books translate well off the page, and some don't, and I think this one may fall into the latter category.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is the story of a middle age widow, Renee. Renee is a closet intellectual who works as the Concierge at an upper class Parisian apartment. It is also the story of one of the tenants of that apartment, a precocious and intelligent 12 year old girl named Paloma. The audio version was narrated by two different performers, which I think may be the one benefit of the audio versus the printed version. The audiobook is over 8 hours long; and I had a very hard time getting through the first seven hours. I didn't like the characters; I couldn't identify with them and I couldn't figure out what there problem was. The plot took a very long time to develop and it was interrupted by long winded diatribes that seemed affected and indulgent and- often- a little bit boring. Yes, the writing was beautiful, but that isn't always enough to keep you reading. What did keep me going? Only the fact that I'd heard so many positive things about this book that I figured it must get better. That plus, I admit, it was taking so long for the story to develop that I was just a little bit curious about what would happen when it finally did.

As I said, the first seven hours were often tedious, with little gems of interesting. But the last hour? That last hour is when it all came together. That last hour gave meaning to all previous seven. That last hour drove me to tears. It was beautiful, it was moving, it was tragic.

In fact, after finishing the story, I have decided that I need to go back and read it all over again, so that I can better appreciate the first 7/8ths of the book. I really do believe that this is a book that will improve with repetition.

If you are even thinking about reading this book, I will tell you this: do. But be prepared. Stick it out to the end, and it will be worth it.