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The Elegance of the Hedgehog
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat, Cassandra Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
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Editorial reviews
The Elegance of the Hedgehog tells the story of a life spent in hiding. Madame Michel is the concierge of a luxurious Parisian apartment building, tending to the plants, signing for packages, and polishing the brass, retreating when she can to her rooms on the first floor. She keeps a television blaring where the tenants can hear it; she zealously polices her speech and gestures to keep from giving herself away. What is the secret she hides? Madame Michel is an intellectual. She knows Kant, but she's separated by class from other people who do, so she discusses his work with herself while we listen in. Her musings are voiced by Barbara Rosenblat, who lends an air of theatrical irony an auditory raised eyebrow to her descriptions of class blind spots and philosophical rabbit holes.
The other pole of the story is Paloma Josse, a 12-year-old tenant in the building, voiced by Cassandra Morris with an appropriate measure of sarcasm and outrage. Paloma is a wildly precocious girl raised in privilege who has all the gifts of intellect and all the faults of a pre-adolescent. She's grandiose she favors us with excerpts from a journal titled "Profound Thoughts". She's happy to throw stones at glass houses, and even plans to burn hers down, with the aim of teaching her family a pithy lesson about deprivation. She describes the currently deprived in terms that, while well-intentioned, condescend and distort. She is, in other words, a burgeoning intellect in serious need of the influence of an adult she can respect. An adult, perhaps, like the 54-year-old concierge on the first floor. But it takes more than a ride in an elevator to truly meet a woman who has spent her life in hiding. The novel takes two world views, both meticulously constructed from sound philosophical materials, and happily pulls them apart. Rosalie Knecht
Publisher's summary
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.
Critic reviews
"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)
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Ah, France—the food. The wine. The style. From the City of Lights to the countryside, France is one of the most popular tourist destination spots in the world. But whether your French travel plans are on hold or you’re ready to take a virtual trip now, French literature is one of the best ways to get to know France’s fascinating history, people, and culture. Discover three centuries of the best French authors and their greatest works.
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The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
- By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Narrated by: Edoardo Camponeschi
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.
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A hidden masterpiece
- By C. Park on 08-09-18
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The Schooldays of Jesus
- By: J. M. Coetzee
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
David is the small boy who is always asking questions. Simon and Ines take care of him in their new town, Estrella. He is learning the language; he has begun to make friends. He has the big dog, Bolivar, to watch over him. But he'll be seven soon, and he should be at school. And so, with the guidance of the three sisters who own the farm where Simon and Ines work, David is enrolled in the Academy of Dance. It's here, in his new golden dancing slippers, that he learns how to call down the numbers from the sky.
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SEXUAL PERVERSION PRESENTED AS BRILLIANT
- By Amazon Customer on 09-29-18
By: J. M. Coetzee
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The Door
- By: Magda Szabó, Len Rix - translator
- Narrated by: Siân Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Intense, brilliant and moving, The Door is a compelling story about the relationship between two women of opposing backgrounds and personalities: one, an intellectual and writer; the other, her housekeeper, a mysterious, elderly woman who sets her own rules and abjures religion, education, pretense and any kind of authority. Beneath this hardened exterior of Emerence lies a painful story that must be concealed.
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Challenging, but an engrossing, literary work.
- By Earnest on 09-05-17
By: Magda Szabó, and others
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The Razor's Edge
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Great War changed everything and everyone, and Larry Darrell is no exception. Though his physical wounds from the war heal, his spirit is changed almost beyond recognition. He leaves his betrothed, the beautiful and devoted Isabel; studies philosophy and religion in Paris; lives as a monk, and witnesses the exotic hardships of Spanish life. All of life that he can find - from an Indian Ashrama to labor in a coal mine - becomes Larry's spiritual experiment as he spurns the comfort and privilege of the Roaring 20s.
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An Classic of Love and the Desire for Meaning
- By Eric on 01-06-17
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A Tale of Love and Darkness
- By: Amos Oz
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 23 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is the story of a boy growing up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the 40s and 50s in a small apartment crowded with books in 12 languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. His mother and father, both wonderful people, were ill-suited to each other. When Oz was 12 and a half years old, his mother committed suicide - a tragedy that was to change his life. He leaves the constraints of the family and the community of dreamers, scholars, and failed businessmen to join a kibbutz.
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His life was interesting, but not his memoir
- By DR Harle on 01-27-19
By: Amos Oz
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Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
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Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
- By Virginia Waldron on 03-30-17
By: Thomas Mann
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Wicked Autumn
- A Max Tudor Novel
- By: G. M. Malliet
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold's in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women's Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max's training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play.
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A Classic Cozy English Village Mystery
- By Sara on 10-08-14
By: G. M. Malliet
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The Sunday Philosophy Club
- An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith, winner of the first-ever Saga Award for Wit, has entertained millions with his beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mysteries. Now this phenomenally popular author introduces a fresh series, brimming with the charm and humor his stable of dedicated fans can't get enough of.
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Advice For Prospective Listeners
- By DCinMI on 02-18-13
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Amulet
- By: Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews - translator
- Narrated by: Adriana Sananes
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A tour de force, Amulet is a highly charged first-person, semi-hallucinatory novel that embodies in one woman's voice the melancholy and violent recent history of Latin America. Amulet is a monologue, like Bolaño's acclaimed debut in English, By Night in Chile. The speaker is Auxilio Lacouture, a Uruguayan woman who moved to Mexico in the 1960s, becoming the "Mother of Mexican Poetry", hanging out with the young poets in the cafés and bars of the University.
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Read The Savage Detectives first
- By Alicia Grega on 12-05-13
By: Roberto Bolaño, and others
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The Bad Seed
- By: William March
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
There's something special about eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark. With her carefully plaited hair and her sweet cotton dresses, she's the very picture of old-fashioned innocence. But when their neighborhood suffers a series of terrible accidents, her mother begins to wonder: Why do bad things seem to happen when little Rhoda is around?
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loved it
- By CoCo B.M.J on 07-23-19
By: William March
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More Die of Heartbreak
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Kenneth Trachtenberg, an eccentric and witty native of Paris, travels to the Midwest to spend time with his famous American uncle, a world-renowned botanist and self-described "plant visionary". After numerous affairs and failed relationships, the restless Uncle Benn seeks a settled existence in the form of marriage - but tying the knot again opens the door to a host of new torments.
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A great book
- By John A. on 03-16-22
By: Saul Bellow
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A Closed Eye
- By: Anita Brookner
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Born to elegant but frivolous parents, Harriet grows up ignored and unguided, and retains a curious innocence that neither her marriage to Freddie Lytton, nor her friendship with the beautiful Tessa can dispel. Freddie is far older than she is - a companion rather than a lover - and slightly disapproving of Tessa and her irresponsible, attractive husband, Jack. Yet all four are bound together: by their backgrounds, their children, by Harriet’s unspoken feelings for Jack and by the tragedy that lies in wait for all of them.
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The Late Great Ms. Brookner
- By David P on 05-15-16
By: Anita Brookner
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An Available Man
- A Novel
- By: Hilma Wolitzer
- Narrated by: Fred Sullivan
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Edward Schuyler - a modest and bookish 62-year-old science teacher - is widowed, he finds himself ambushed by female attention. There are plenty of unattached women around, but a healthy, handsome, available man is a rare and desirable creature. Edward receives phone calls from widows seeking love, or at least lunch, while well-meaning friends try to set him up at dinner parties. The problem is that Edward doesn’t feel available. He’s still mourning his beloved wife, Bee, and prefers solitude and the familiar routine of work, gardening, and bird-watching.
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Lovely book, easy read, wonderful characters
- By Molly-o on 02-17-12
By: Hilma Wolitzer
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What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
- Stories
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon, Piter Marek, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In "Books and Roses", one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?", an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks", where doors can be closed only with a key - with surprising unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think", a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).
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clever
- By jared rogerson on 03-15-18
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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Past Imperfect
- By: Julian Fellowes
- Narrated by: Richard Morant
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Damian Baxter is hugely wealthy and dying. He lives alone in a big house in Surrey, England, looked after by a chauffeur, butler, cook and housemaid. He has but one concern--his fortune in excess of 500 million and who should inherit it on his death.
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Read Snobs instead
- By cristina on 02-14-13
By: Julian Fellowes
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please please try again
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New York Times best-selling author Ian McEwan's novels have inspired sweeping critical acclaim and won such prestigious awards as the Booker Prize for Amsterdam and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his modern masterpiece, Atonement. With Saturday, McEwan has crafted perhaps his most unique achievement to date.
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The Only Story
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Trick
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Trick is a stylish drama about ambition, family, and old-age that goes beyond the ordinary and predictable. Imagine a duel between two men. One, Daniele Mallarico, is a successful illustrator who, in the twilight of his years, feels that his reputation and his artistic prowess are fading. The other, Mario, is Daniele's four-year-old grandson. Daniele has been living in a cold northern city for years, in virtual solitude, when his daughter asks if he would come to Naples for a few days and babysit Mario. Shut inside his childhood home, grandfather and grandson match wits.
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Interesting book
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The Last Runaway
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Overall
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New York Times best-selling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring and At the Edge of the Orchard, Tracy Chevalier makes her first fictional foray into the American past in The Last Runaway, bringing to life the Underground Railroad and illuminating the principles, passions, and realities that fueled this extraordinary freedom movement. Honor Bright, a modest English Quaker, moves to Ohio in 1850 - only to find herself alienated and alone in a strange land.
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Easy listening, no great depth
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The Sweet Life in Paris
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Great content, but it needs a different narrator
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The Red Notebook
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Story
Heroic bookseller Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on a Parisian street. There's nothing in the bag to indicate who it belongs to, although there's all sorts of other things in it. Laurent feels a strong impulse to find the owner and tries to puzzle together who she might be from the contents of the bag. Especially a red notebook with her jottings, which really makes him want to meet her. Without even a name to go on, and only a few of her possessions to help him, how is he to find one woman in a city of millions?
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A slight story
- By RueRue on 12-22-16
By: Antoine Laurain
What listeners say about The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Pyles
- 04-21-10
It surprised me
I would not have had the patience to read this book with my eyes. I used it as a companion for pulling weeds and I must report that the garden and I are both the better for it. It was a very good listen. I'll not forget these characters anytime soon.
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76 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Zuleika
- 07-23-09
Fantastic!
This is an absolutely charming and wonderful book that I'll be recommending to lots of people. It is told in the first person by two narrators, both of whom are very intelligent intellectuals who are constantly evaluating the psychological and philosophical nuances of everything. While that sounds like it could be unbelievable dull, it isn't. I laughed so hard at one point, I had to stop the recording.
Cassandra Morris is very good, but Barbara Rosenblatt gives an award winning performance. It is one of the best narrations I have heard not just from Rosenblatt, but from anyone.
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61 people found this helpful
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Overall
- A.
- 06-19-09
An " Elegent" Novel
I'll admit at first I was frustrated by The Elegance of Hedgehogs. The plot took a long time developing and the two main characters spent a lot of time pontificating on heavy themes. I love philosophy as reflected by fiction, but I felt the author spent much too much time on heady intellectual theories and not nearly enough time in the forward action of the story. However this was all absolved as I learned to understand them. One is an older woman in her 50s, a concierge in a rich apartment building who has been stunted by class expectations of her childhood and tries to hide the fact that she is an intellectual so as not be seen as putting on "airs". The other is a 12 year old girl of parents who pretend to have socialist aspirations but are really bourgeois, aloof and unfeeling. The girl is of extraordinary intelligence and can see through the facades maintained by her parents, older sister and adult society at large. She is disenchanted with the idea of growing up and living a "fish bowl" existence. Thus she has resolved to kill herself on her 13th birthday. As the story progressed I realized that to truly understand these characters and the boxes they put themselves it was important for the reader to endure the various wonderings, profound thoughts and journal exaltations, otherwise the resolution when they discover that their fates are not predetermined would not have been nearly as satisfying. It is an all together "elegant" novel filled with minute perceptions and sensory satisfactions.
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54 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Sara
- 10-12-16
Stuck In A Quandary
If you read the reviews here you will notice a strong divide between lovers and haters of this book. I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with both of these extreme ends of the review spectrum. On one hand I thought the first part of the book was lecturing and posing in tone and that the narrators mispronounced many words. Then as the book progressed the whole feeling changed and I found myself really liking the story and thinking the narrators were good.
I know this isn't much of a help if you are trying to decide on whether or not to try the book. I'm afraid that I am of two minds and will have to give it all three stars and stand right in the middle. Parts of the book and narration are excellent and deserve 5 stars and parts are just dreadful. I will say that in the end I was glad I gave it a try and stuck with it, but I'm also glad the book was on sale and that I didn't spend a credit.
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37 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Lynn
- 06-17-09
Characters to Love
Delightful rendering of a wonderful set of characters. Provocative in its reflection of literature, art and the meaning of life. Fun, though, and not too heavy. Full of fantastic language even though a translated work. In fact, I have ordered a print copy to review in addition to this pleasant listen.
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35 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Ann S. Tidwell
- 06-19-09
Overstuffed
I really did try to listen. Someone is trying too hard to impress. Like being trapped in a corner at a party by a first-year philosophy student.
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34 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Pamela J. Lassiter
- 06-23-09
Enchanting
Although it took a bit of time, perhaps one hour of listening, to "get into" the personalities of the story, I found this to be a completely beautiful and thought-provoking novel. Barbara Rosenblat is a genius storyteller. She is funny, sublime, and absolutely perfect in her role. Honestly, this is one of the best books I have ever had the pleasure of reading (listening) and I highly recommend it. It is a literature that makes you think about it for days as well as cry when you think about the characters. If I could give this 6 stars, I would!!!
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32 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael
- 08-15-10
This book is not what you think...
I liked this book quite a bit. The book, the story, and the characters are all simple, yet satisfying. The writing and language are superior. The meaning was, in my opinion, the key and was not overt. This seems to lead to strong feelings, both positive and negative about this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the narration and the humor, but mostly I enjoyed the spirit.
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31 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Liz
- 07-24-11
Boring and pretentious
I persisted with this book for about a third of its length as I thought it MUST surely improve and engage me, but it didn't. The reviewer who said that it's like being trapped in a corner with a first-year philosophy student hit the nail on the head. I just wanted to escape!
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23 people found this helpful
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Overall
- The Garden Geek
- 03-18-10
A Rare Example of a Reader Spoiling a Book
Barbara Rosenblat has a huge following for her audiobook reading. But in this case she actually spoiled the book immensely for me. Her interpretation of Rene didn't come close to what I felt when I originally read the book. It was over the top and melodramatic. It seemed that she was more interested in her performance than the content or character. Kinda like many people who drag out the singing of the national anthem to show off their voice.
Sadly it seems that this a trend. Having listened to books for more than 20 years I can see it. At first it was a revelation when readers put some drama like an actor into the reading. But it has gone way beyond that. Also some of the readers are playing the same character no matter what book they are reading.
I very rarely stop listening before I finish but I just couldn't go on. Especially since this is such a lovely & deep book.
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19 people found this helpful