The Book Club Blog

Books for any occasion and other life stuff

Book Review – The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

on March 15, 2010

by Paige Nick.

elegance-of-the-hedgehog

I don’t know.

I really don’t.

I was looking forward to reading this book for a couple of reasons.

  1. I won it
  2. It’s had lots of critical acclaim and loads of people have been talking about it
  3. I like the title
  4. I like the cover
  5. It’s a New York Times Bestseller.

So I started out with high hopes.

At first I really didn’t like it at all. And then I liked bits of it and not other bits. And then by page 200 I was hooked and I raced on down to the last page, thoroughly enjoying the ride.

I was completely charmed by the story of the French concierge and the other characters living at number 7, rue de Grenelle, but the problem was that as soon as I got stuck into their lives I was pulled rudely away from them to go into pages and pages of philosophy, that if I’m honest, went right over my head.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I feel like perhaps I’m just not smart enough for this book. I’ve never read any Tolstoy, Marx or Freud, so a lot of that stuff about ‘the meaning of life, etc.’ just came across as a little pretentious and boring to me.

I suppose a philosopher would say they liked the philosophical ideas in the book, but that the author kept interrupting it with all those pesky characters.

I often felt like the author only created these characters because she needed a framework within which to spout her philosophical ideas and show how smart she is.

Overall though I ended up really thoroughly enjoying it. (I know, sorry, it’s a bit of a schizophrenic review) and I’m so glad I read it. Curious to hear how others have felt about it.

I will now continue to ‘pass on the love’ by handing it over to A Million Miles from Normal reader, Chryssa, who won it by default, by being the only person who showed any interest in getting it after me. (http://amillionmilesfromnormal.blogspot.com/2010/02/im-winna.html) Maybe she’ll write us a review too, and we can compare them.

Thanks so much book club blog. I’m so glad I got to read it.

Paige.

Thank you so much, Paige. I have to be honest here, and tell you that I would not have been able to write a review for this book, pretty much for all the reasons that you stated. Saying that, I did enjoy the book,the characters were quite vivid but the ending had me just  a little stumped.

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3 Responses to “Book Review – The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery”

  1. Shayne says:

    Ok well that’s it i suppose? I was so looking forward to reading this and was hoping to be included in the ‘pass the love’ project.

    Should i just give it a miss? I’m so not into the philosophical book reader.

    Pity really.

  2. paige says:

    Shayne, email me with your details if you want to read it and i’ll pass it on to you as soon as chryssa is finished with it.

    paige@polka.co.za

    we will continue to pass on the love with this book, promise.

  3. Shayne, email Paige with your details, read the book. Its a lovely book. It is a wee bit philosophical but (you can sort of skim read those pages…;-).
    yay to passing on the love! Love this idea. Hmm, think i may think about doing something with that…

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