The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery Gallic, HK$114 The Elegance of the Hedgehog is one of those intriguingly titled books that appears as if from nowhere (well, Europe actually) and becomes a worldwide sensation. Bernhard Schlink's The Reader was one such novel; Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was another. The second novel by French author Muriel Barbery makes it un hat trick le plus best-selling (Hedgehog sold more than a million copies in France). Set in Paris, it stars 54-year-old Ren?e, who for exactly half her life has been the concierge of a posh apartment building en la rive gauche. The building is gauche in more ways than the geographic, being filled with a succession of pompous, vain and snootily superior types. Honest, kind and thoughtful, Ren?e is something of an amateur philosopher and writer, who watches Death in Venice on the TV, reads Tolstoy and has eyes that fill with tears in the 'miraculous presence of Art'. This story crosses swords with that of 12-year-old Paloma, a similarly misunderstood Genius who lives upstairs. Unfortunately, neither Renee nor Paloma is half as charming or clever as Barbery clearly thinks they are. Quel dommage.
