The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


What do a super-smart teenage girl (Paloma Josse) and a middle-aged concierge (Renée Michel) have in common? That they are both interested in higher things (art, literature, classical music, philosophy) but hide their light under a bushel in order not to raise the suspicion of their environment. Secondly, they both like Japanese culture, the girl manga, the concierge films by Ozu. Thirdly, they hate rich people, the teenager because she finds them superficial and uncultured (like her parents and elder sister) and the concierge - as will appear later - because her sister died after she was discarded by a rich man. But both set aside their aversion to the rich when a wealthy Japanese, very coincidentally also called Ozu, buys an apartment in the building. His Eastern wisdom, however, does not go further than that he treats both Paloma and Renee as human beings instead of taking no notice of them. I can't see the wisdom of having sliding doors in a Western-style apartment (Japanese houses have only sliding doors in Japanese-style rooms with tatami), or a toilet that plays Mozart's Requiem when flushed (some Japanese toilets do make noise or play music, however not when flushed, but when being used, so that ladies don't have to worry that others can hear the sounds they make).

The by other critics much praised philosophy in the novel does not rise above a few unrelated snippets, and finally comes down to the common sense life lesson that one should enjoy the beauty of the world. The novel begins nicely by introducing the two quirky characters of Paloma (who says she will commit suicide in the near future) and Renee, but towards the end the quirkiness turns into sentimentality. And although I like the idea of an almost plot-less novel incorporating small essays on various topics, the essays remain too much on the surface. The (socialist? communist?) harping on rich people gets rather irritating, especially as in the context of the novel it is not demonstrated how or why rich persons are bad. Of course, this is all very French, although France is not a basic class society like England; the division in French society is rather caused by the education system, which nurtures a small elite of specialists.



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