Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Elegance of a Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (3 1/2)


We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence.

Then there'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.

Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.


Purchased it Because: Book Club Choice

Well this is abit of mixed book for me .... There was some parts of it I hated and some parts of it was really good ... It would cause me to pause to think and then other parts I would laugh out loud ....

I think because I left it to a week before Book Club nite I found some parts of this book really slow and tedious mainly the start ... My advise would be to not have a time constrict on reading this novel as some chapters you will you probably find yourself in deep thought over ... This book would be perfect for a Literary class to do a thesis on but in some area's I have to admit I kinda skipped over ....

OK the book is mainly about the concierge Renee who looks after a Parisian apartment Building ... And a twelve year old girl called Paloma who lives in one of the apartments ... And for some reason I pictured this novel set in the 1940's .... like the whole way through it ... ( The girls in book club kept reminding me that they use dvd's and electrical devises ) but it still do not deter me from imagining Paris and these lovely building in the 1940's ... lol ...

For me the book really didn't really start until a good half way through .... When a new tenant arrives at the building ... The first half of the book tells about Renee well actually what Renee thinks on certain deep subjects .... That is what I felt frustrating at times I really wanted to know Renee but not what 'uncovering the final sense of science by becoming immersed in science qua noematic phenomenon' was duh !!! .... I did have a dictionary out at the beginning of the reading this book but at the rate I was looking up words it would take me forever to read the book ...

I really liked the character of Paloma although I didn't at the start ... I loved the scene with the doctor :) ... It did make me appreciate to look more closely to those around me as sometimes we are so caught up in our own world we fail to notice what is right in front of us ...

Can I just say that all in all I did enjoy this book and it will be one book that I will pick up again and re-read a few of the chapters ... Although I hated the ending .... and felt I went through all this for that ..... grrrrrrr .....

I did mark the book with post-its notes of thoughts or comments which I found interesting and fascinating ... Which puts me into a dilemma .... What to rate this book .... Did i find it boring? ... Yes ... Did I find it insightful? .... Yes .... Did I find I wanted to throw it against the wall? ..... Yes ..... Did I want to keep reading to see the outcome? .... Yes .... And it did make me pause for thought on numerous occasions and write notes down .... And isn't that what a good book does .... This book may not be an easy read but it is well written and not easily forgotten .....

So you will either love this book or hate it .....

Some of my favourite quotes ... 'Then suddenly I remembered that I had decided to build and not destroy. I looked all around me for something positive ...' pg 123

'this is the first time I have met someone who seeks out people and who sees beyond. That may seem trivial but it is profound all the same. We never look beyond or assumptions and, what's worse, we have given up trying to meet others, we just meet ourselves. I implore fate to give me the chance to see beyond myself and truly meet someone' pg 140

'Maybe that's what being alive is all about: so we can track down those moments that are dying' pg 269


I rate this book between a 3 1/2 and 4 ****

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