Muriel Barbery: The elegance of the hedgehog (Hardcover, 2008, Gallic Books)
Hardcover, 322 pages
Published Jan. 5, 2008 by Gallic Books.
EA novel by the French professor of philosophy Muriel Barbery. The book centers on a working-class concierge of an upscale apartment building in Paris, Renee Michel. She is an auto-didact of immense learning who deliberately conceals her intelligence. Her secret is discovered by a young resident of the building named Paloma. The novel is narrated alternately by each of these two characters.
First released in August 2006 by Gallimard, the novel became a bestseller of over a million copies.
Lahko kar neham brati druge knjige, gospa pisateljica je tako visoko postavila lestvico. Super mešanica steklenih stropov, filozofije in Lepega.
On glass ceilings, philosophy (of Beautiful). The writer set the bar so high that after I read this book it's hard to find something as satisfying as this book.
The plot and characters provided no surprises. None.
One of the main characters, Renée Michel, pontificates (privately, to herself and occasionally to her cat) on Philosophy and Art...heaven forbid that her Natural Intelligence be evident to any lowly human being.
The other protagonist, Paloma Josse, is in the midst of adolescent angst.
Most of the chapters are just a few pages long, so the book was a fairy quick read. Sections voiced in Renée's pompous voice begged to be skipped, and I did just that.
