The Elegance of the Hedgehog

By: Muriel Barbery

Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat, Cassandra Morris

Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

An enchanting New York Times and international best seller and award-winner about life, art, literature, philosophy, culture, class, privilege, and power, seen through the eyes of a 54-year-old French concierge and a precocious but troubled 12-year-old girl.

Renee Michel is the 54-year-old concierge of a luxury Paris apartment building. Her exterior (short, ugly,and plump) and demeanor (poor, discreet, and insignificant) belie her keen, questing mind and profound erudition. Paloma Josse is a 12-year-old genius who behaves as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. She plans to kill herself on the 16th of June, her 13th birthday.

Both Renee and Paloma hide their true talents and finest qualities from the bourgeois families around them, until a wealthy Japanese gentleman named Ozu moves into building. Only he sees through them, perceiving the secret that haunts Renee, winning Paloma's trust, and helping the two discover their kindred souls. Moving, funny, tender, and triumphant, Barbery's novel exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

©2006 Editions Gallimard, Paris (P)2009 Highbridge Company

Critic reviews

"Gently satirical, exceptionally winning and inevitably bittersweet." ( The Washington Post )
"An exquisite book in the form of a philosophical fable that has enchanted hundreds of thousands of readers." (Italian Elle)
"Kinetic minds and engaging voices." ( New York Times Book Review)
"By turns very funny and heartbreaking". ( Publishers Weekly)
"Life-affirming." ( Time)

Fabulous! A great read.

I loved everything about this book. The characters are smart, well developed, and very interesting. The narration is excellent. I highly recommend it.

Performance Excellence - Elegance of the Hedgehog

Beautifully performed. The readers/actors were able to interpret the beauty of the English translation very well. I found myself listening to portions of text over and over. This book is heavy with ideas and it required adept readers who could not only tell a tale, but skillfully share knowledge.

A sweet book about clear-seeing

A sweet book about clear-seeing, i.e. seeing what is really in front of you whether beautiful or ugly, rather than what you want to see. It's also about a bunch of other things: class relations, art, philosophy, snobbery, meaning vs. meaninglessness, what true intelligence is, (and what is it good for?), and how people sometimes prevent themselves from finding true happiness.

All this sounds like a warm-fuzzy wrapped in a personal affirmation scented with camellias and delivered with sprinkly cupcakes to your frontdoor with a copy of Eat Pray Love, right? But the book cleverly counterbalances this with a healthy dose of skepticism and misanthropy.

The conclusions are still too easy/obvious sometimes, but I would rather a book risk the dangers of sentimentalism than sit comfortably on its sanitized throne of intelligent and secure discourse.

There is very little plot, but instead we get a series of monologues, philosophical asides and observations from two of the main characters. One is an elderly concierge, and the other is a precocious 12 year old girl. Both belong to that class of human beings that most other human beings ignore: they are invisible in the grand scheme of things. Yet under the surface, they live rich and imaginative lives.

I would say that there is a little bit too much black and white in this novel, though. I felt like the characters you were supposed to root for were a little too blameless and noble in their intentions, and the ones who were shallow ignoramuses were just that.

Especially true of this is the character of Kakuro Ozu, who is like some kind of angel of Eastern wisdom and exoticism meets Western intelligence and sophistication, without a blemish in sight. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the guy, but he didn't seem very real to me.

Language of Love

The language chosen by Rosenblat was refreshing music on the ears, in this world of texting and garbage. It was an exquisite tale of characters entwined in a wealthy apartment building with secret lives, thoughts, and love.

Memorable

The passages on philosophy can get a bit wheezy, but I loved the characters and their relationships, and enjoyed the narrator. Not much plot, but a lot of heart and soul.

In depth glance into life

What made the experience of listening to Elegance of the Hedgehog the most enjoyable?

It felt as if I was reading someones thoughts rather than listening to a story, the plot unfolded slowly but I found it to be very intricate.

What did you like best about this story?

The Japanese man and his acceptance of those around him without prejudice.

Have you listened to any of Barbara Rosenblat and Cassandra Morris ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, sorry.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The end of the story, I did not expect it.

Any additional comments?

A wonderful story, well worth reading or listening to.

Treasures hide in every corner, obvious yet missed

I was drawn in immediately by the language. The characters were beautifully crafted and resonated as very real. Their problems were both universal and selective as defined by class.

A teensy semi-spoiler at the very end - FYI


The apartment building is a hive, with its layers of bees on each level. All know where they belong and where everyone else belongs. They are secure and in control. One change, one person, one apartment and the hive begins to lose the tensile strength that holds up the structure of who is who and where they belong.
The references to literature, philosophy, film and art were a delight. The author handles them with a delicate hand and is deft in making them a part of the character???s world.
I enjoyed the book very much until the end.




I deduct two entire stars for that worthless, trite and absolutely pi??tre qualit?? ending.

Interesting story- Narration is poor!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I enjoyed the story but the woman narrating the concierge role must be a heavy smoker. Her voice detracts from the story and the character. I had a difficult time listening to the audio without wanting to quit in the middle. If the audio was rerecorded with another narrator, it would do the story justice.

Something quite different

The pace is a bit slow, but the detail and language is quite lovely. Interesting thought processes between characters, though possibly unrealistic in some ways. I found the different narrators comfortable in their transition between voices. Easy to pick up between car trips.

I finally gave up on this book.

I was prepared because of reader comments to wait patiently for this story to unfold. But after many hours of no development, I gave up. The Parisian concierge was excellent, and I would love to hear her in better stories. The young girl's voice, however, was terrible: the wrong voice for the part and just ruinous to the audiobook.