The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Book | Muriel Barbery
A concierge and a poor little rich girl wax poetic on class, art, and Japanese food.
The Shakespearean maxim that all the world's a stage comes to life in Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a huge, bestselling novel in France and throughout Europe. The two heroines—a Husserl-reading concierge named Renée and Paloma, a suicidal young girl—are amateur philosophers who hide their intelligence from the rich snobs surrounding them while expounding on the hypocrisy and malice of the upper class in strong and distinct narrative voices. Unfortunately, their explications of transcendental idealism and phenomenology can feel like mini term papers transplanted into the story. Hedgehog is also plagued by idealized characterizations of Eastern culture and the working class, especially when a too-good-to-be-true Japanese tenant moves into the hôtel particulier where the novel takes place. Yet as Renée and Paloma seek out solace in art and friendship, their small, life-affirming epiphanies are skillfully illustrated. Evoking the frustrations of her characters with wit and compassion, Barbery manages to make The Elegance of the Hedgehog a novel worthwhile for its study of individuals' inner lives.
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