Alternating between engaging, sharp, interesting writing and sentimental manipulation, this book drove me crazy. On the one hand, the main character was extremely interesting with so many fascinating inner debates about art, beautiful, class conflict, personal responsibility, happiness and more. On the other hand, the romance in the latter half of the book betrayed the convincing portrait of that main character and substituted maudlin, superficial romantic drivel for the philosophical musings that were so wonderful. I tore through it and found it hard to put down, but was annoyed about half the time. ( )

I'd rate this 7 stars if i could, but at the same time, I realise this isn't for everyone. It's surreal, subtle and is specifically meant for an audience that has thought as deeply about everything as the author has. In other words, another masterpiece, amidst a mayhem of lesser masterpieces. ( )

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is Muriel's second book after Gourmet Rhapsody, and is actually the bread on a Gourmet Rhapsody sandwich.   The Elegance of the Hedgehog is set in the same building as Gourmet Rhapsody and begins shortly before the death bed of Pierre Arthens, and quickly passes by his death with a simple thought from a 12 year old girl in another apartment:

Pierre Arthens for sure was truly nasty.   They say he was the pope of food critics and a worldwide chapion of French cuisine.   Well, that doesn't surprise me.   If you want my opinion, French cuisine is pitiful.   So much genius and wherewithal and so many resources for such a heavy end result ... And so many sauces and stuffings and pastries, enough to make you burst!   It's in such bad taste ... And when it isn't heavy, it's as fussy as can be:   you're dying of hunger and before you are three stylized radishes and two scallops in a seaweed gelee served on pseudo-Zen plates by waiters who look as joyful as undertakers.

As a classically trained chef myself, i couldn't agree more.

Once Pierre is dead, the story quickly moves on as Pierre's apartment is soon taken over by a new, wealthy occupant.

So while Gourmet is certainly a good starter, you don't need to have read it beforehand to enjoy the main course of Elegance, you could actually read it when the Pierre's death is spoken about in Elegance, or even afterwards, as a desert, if you so wish.

But whether you read Gourmet or not, i highly suggest you read Elegance.   At it's heart is Muriel having some fun with the juxtaposition of the poor concierge on the ground floor with the wealthy inhabitants of the apartments above; peeling back the curtains to see what's really going on behind these closed doors, throwing in some great little rants, ideas, and wonderful, philosophical, food-for-thought concerning the disparity of rich and poor in society; and how each tend to live in completely separate universes, oblivious to each other, hopefully never having to meet on the stairs.

As i've previously mentioned in Night Train to Lisbon, i do enjoy philosophers who write novels, and if i had real books i'd happily put Muriel on the shelf next to Pascal.

Super good, and next up from Muriel will be The Life of Elves which i'll be sure to get around to reading in the not too distant future. ( )

Well, I finished this book yesterday and I'm still trying to decide whether to give it three stars or five. There are many elements that are preposterous, such as the characterisation - if there were a million Parises you still wouldn't find one Renee Michel; the ideas - a novel about class in a developed country in this age of globalisation is instantly redundant; and the plot, which is both ludicrous and predictable.

On the positive side, the writing is wonderfully light and very enjoyable. Both of the narrators dip their toes into serious thought in a way that leaves the reader feeling satisfied but not taxed. And this, I have decided even as I write, is why I shall give it three stars. There is a certain cynicism to the way the author performs this trick, of providing a veneer of cerebralism with the likes of Marx and Husserl without ever challenging the reader. It’s a cynicism which also drives the most basic appeal of the novel - the fact that apart from a very select few, most readers feel a bit like Renee Michel. We feel like our sensitive aesthetic dispositions are unvalued by our everyday lives, we imagine that we’re intellectual butterflies just waiting to emerge from our quotidian pupae. Mightn’t it be more interesting to have this belief challenged than to have it reinforced?

So, having said all of that, why did I give it any stars? Well, I was entertained by it. This book is an enjoyable read, provided you don't take the philosophical and aesthetic asides remotely seriously, but it just doesn’t have enough power or depth for four or five stars. I’d recommend it if you are going on holiday or to hospital or any other situation where entertainment is more important than challenge and it's OK that the kind of fun that comes from self-satisfaction triumphs over beauty or truth. ( )

Puoi trovare questa recensione anche sul mio blog, La siepe di more

Avevo letto questo romanzo nella tarda adolescenza e me lo ricordavo come una lettura senza infamia e senza lode, tant’è che mi era scivolata dalla mente e, quando è stato scelto come libro del mese di dicembre per LiberTiAmo, ero contenta perché pensavo che avrei finito l’anno con una rilettura tranquilla.

Non dovrei proprio fidarmi ciecamente del giudizio della me lettrice adolescente: immagino che, ai tempi, fossi rimasta colpita, e forse anche un po’ intimorita, dalla filosofia che circola nel romanzo. Essendo Barbery una proprio una professoressa di filosofia, ha profuso le sue conoscenze in questa storia, che si presenta come una raffinata commedia francese.

Inizio quindi col dire che non ho ben colto l’ironia de L’eleganza del riccio, perché sebbene si prendano in giro le pretese dell’alta borghesia parigina entrambe le protagoniste, la portinaia Renée e la giovane Paloma, hanno punti di vista che suonano molto borghesi. So che la storia gioca con l’umile portinaia più colta di quanto sembri, ma mi è sembrato un gioco molto debole: in primis perché, finché non scopriamo il motivo della sua reticenza, le sue precauzioni appaiono decisamente spropositate; poi perché, quando questo motivo ci viene invece rivelato, non c’è tempo per metabolizzarlo prima che il romanzo sia finito.

Sono rimasta anche sconcertata dal modo in cui viene introdotto il nuovo coinquilino, il signor Ozu: solo perché giapponese sembra possedere tutta una serie di ottime qualità. Ora, se è passabile che Paloma, una dodicenne appassionata di manga e studentessa di giapponese, sia tutta eccitata dalla novità e se lo immagini già come il suo senpai, meno comprensibile è l’atteggiamento di Renée, che tra l’altro dovrebbe temere i ricchi borghesi tout court. Invece pare che nel suo mondo non esistano giapponesi ricchi e buzzurri. Okay. ( )