Book Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery (translated by Alison Anderson)

My rating: 4/5 (an average--3/5 for the slow start, 5/5 for the language)

I read this after a friend insisted I should. At first, I had to push myself through it. The pacing was slow, and for the first seventy or so pages, I didn't care much for the two main characters. I *wanted* to care for them, but the story didn't pull me in and let me do it. It's not a quick mainstream fiction read, and best for those times where you can curl up with a warm beverage and spend quiet time thinking about philosophy. What kept me reading at all (besides the sense of duty toward my friend) was Barbery's use of language. The best word to come to mind is "sublime". There were a great many moments where I admit I may have lost some of the nuances of idea and concept upon the first reading, simply because of the beauty of the language.

The styles of the two protagonists (fifty-four year old Renee and twelve year old Paloma) are different enough, yet each plays with words and phrases in a way that tells you that the characters themselves are in tune with language and put a great deal of stock in the beauty of words (this is constant throughout, but especially in the section entitled "On Grammar"). It took more effort to become comfortable with Renee's sections, and some of the passages seemed to preach a bit too much, but by the end, the book had won a place as one of my favorite pieces of literature.

I gave this book four points as a compromise. I'd have given it five points for the language alone--it really is beautiful. But the slow start dissuaded me from a giving a higher rating. I found that somewhere around page ninety, I did care for the characters after all, and I cannot really find a particular moment that switched on the feelings. The story came alive far too close to the end. If it had showed some of that same spark earlier on, I might have given this five points. But the end was touching and well-done. There were moments of humor interspersed with all the philosophy, and I could have done with a bit more of that, but I'd still recommend this for those I know who enjoy more than the easily-digestible bits of mainstream "airport" fiction (not that there's anything wrong with some of those tales), and especially for those who enjoy language and words.