![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/bookreview.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/a>The Elegance of the Hedgehog<\/em>\nMuriel Barbery<\/strong><\/p>\n
Translated from French to English, The Elegance of the Hedgehog<\/em> is a powerful novel that brings two very extraordinary characters to life.\u00c2\u00a0 Renee Michel is a concierge at an upper-class Parisian apartment complex.\u00c2\u00a0 She constantly has to conceal her intelligence from the other tenants in her building for fear they may not appreciate her insights and philosophies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially if they are coming from one of their apartment employees.\u00c2\u00a0 Paloma Josse is the young (but not innocent) twelve year old daughter of a very wealthy Parisian family living in Renee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s building.\u00c2\u00a0 She struggles daily with the pointlessness of life and the bothersome relationships within her family.\u00c2\u00a0 Both women are best described as closet intellectuals \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hiding their knowledge from the world, their families, and strangers.\u00c2\u00a0 Their lives are full of personal longing, literature, and heavy thoughts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the hustle and bustle of their building tosses them from meditative state to ferocious frustrations in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n The book is written with alternating chapters between the two characters.\u00c2\u00a0 It is not until an older, cultured, Japanese businessman moves in that our Renee and Paloma begin to discover that they have more in common than they realize.\u00c2\u00a0 Mr. Kakuro Ozu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s patience and insight offers the women a chance to see each other for the first time, discovering that sometimes, anyone can have a secret that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better shared than kept locked inside.<\/p>\n With Ozu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence in the building, the tenants begin to adjust to the new stir of events.\u00c2\u00a0 He begins to break down Renee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solitary demeanor as the two begin to form an unusual friendship.\u00c2\u00a0 Paloma is also taken with Kakuro, his serenity and calmness — he gives her things to look forward to, which is ultimately what she needs.<\/p>\n The novel was first published in France in 2006 with a print run of 4,000 books, but became a publishing phenomenon and sold over a million copies the following year.\u00c2\u00a0 It was first printed in English in September 2008 to acclaimed reviews.\u00c2\u00a0 It has now been translated into several languages and published in a number of countries.<\/p>\n If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re worried the weather is going to keep you inside too long and you want something to help keep you warm, I recommend reading this book.\u00c2\u00a0 From time to time we need to remind ourselves that we are not alone in our questions or thoughts, and sometimes we could use a bit more elegance in our lives.<\/p>\n With questions about the meaning of life, suicide, and class, Barbery presents us with a Parisian world that could very well be our own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Translated from French to English, The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a powerful novel that brings two very extraordinary characters to life. Renee Michel is a concierge at an upper-class Parisian apartment complex. She constantly has to conceal her intelligence from the other tenants in her building for fear they may not appreciate her insights and philosophies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially if they are coming from one of their apartment employees. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[98,9,57],"tags":[68],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/bookreview.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}