Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An absolute delight. Muriel Barbery’s ‘The Elegance of a Hedgehog’ is a wonderfully innovative and highly erudite work of literary fiction that speaks to the power of fiction and its ability to find meaning in the seemingly banal monotony of human experience. “The Elegance of the Hedgehog,” written in French and translated into English by Alison Anderson, revolves around three characters, Renée, Paloma, and Ozu (the latter of whom features less prominently but whose appearance remains central to the novel’s plot and significance). More than half of the book centers on the confessions of Renée, a middle-aged, widowed, and rather unattractive (Renée describes herself as “short, ugly and plump”) concierge in a Parisian block of luxury apartments. What makes Renée special is that beneath her stereotypical working-class persona lies an autodidact of incredible sophistication and highly refined taste. When free of the tasks that otherwise occupy her in her concierge day job, Renée reads Tolstoy, listens to Bach and reflects on the beauty of Japanese aesthetic sensibility. Paloma is much younger than Renée; she is a precocious 12 year old whose family also live in the luxury block of apartments in which Renée serves as concierge. Paloma is unlike other 12-year-olds. She is highly intelligent for her age and spends a lot of her time populating her notebook with ‘profound thoughts’. Unfortunately, Paloma believes that the world is meaningless and so has decided to commit suicide when she turns 13. Our last main character is Mr. Kakuro Ozu, a tremendously rich Japanese gentlemen who decides to purchase one of the vacant apartments in the luxury block in which Renée and Paloma live. The first part of the novel depicts daily life in the apartment building as it is observed through the vision of Renée and Paloma. Their meditations on daily life are inspired by the great works of philosophy and art and carry tremendous depth of meaning. The second half of the book brings all three characters together and their interactions and the experiences that result drive the plot until the end of the novel.

It would be somewhat of an understatement to describe the book’s critical reception as ‘mixed’. Apparently, readers either love the book or detest it. One recurring criticism takes issue with the apparently ‘pretentious’ spirit of the book. The philosophical ruminations that permeate the book are critiqued for their redundancy and are alleged to undermine the believability of the characters themselves. I think these criticisms are seriously off the mark. The philosophizing that takes place throughout the novel is absolutely central to the book’s structure and literary effect and so the charge of redundancy does not stick. Also, if all philosophically-laden books are to be deemed ‘pretentious’ what are we to do with Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ or other similarly-structured literary works. Barbery succeeds admirably in ensuring that her erudition doesn’t detract from the literariness of this philosophy-laden work of fiction. Her reflection, via the characters, on philosophy as it applies to daily life is rich with insight and carried out with a lightness of touch that helps to preserve the readability of the novel. In fact, Barbery has a wonderful sense of humour and as one reviewer puts it, it is this sly wit, ‘which bestows lightness on the most ponderous cogitations, [that] keeps her tale aloft’.


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