It mixes philosophies as disparate as Marx, Dutch painters, Eminen, apartment building gossips, and Mozart.

I’ll warn you, I cried as much in the reread as I did the first time around.THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG is a novel about class, unhappiness and beauty. However, if every once in a while you decide to read something that’s a great introduction to philosophy, art, and the classics, The Elegance of the Hedgehog might be a good place to start. It’s challenging, and the ending is as tragic as tragic goes. Upon my rereading, I realized I had forgotten how much this book impacted me, to the point that every heroine I now write has a little bit of Palome’s brilliance (and anger!) looking out through their eyes. This connects with my liberal arts training back in the States so naturally I feel right at home. The author makes plenty of references to literature, art, music, and philosophy. Think Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

In that way, it’s really as much a philosophy book as it is fiction. Yet through their perspective of the small things around them, I have learned so much. I’ll honestly say it’s one of the slowest books I’ve come across. It’s full of lengthy expositions on Madam Michel’s thoughts of the bourgeoisie and Palome’s thoughts of the shallow life of adults. The story is purposefully slow, like a film on slow motion. They realize they are invariably made of the same inner material. Through Kakuro, Madam Michel and Palome befriend each other. One day a new tenant moves in: the Japanese man Kakuro Ozu. The story follows Madam Michel and Palome as they observe their separate daily lives. The younger, Palome, is planning her suicide. One of the tenants in the building is the Josse family, with their two daughters: Colombe and Palome. Madam Michel, the concierge of a wealthy apartment building, is an “old soul” hiding behind the pretense of a dull janitor. It must be absolutely glorious in its original language though. The message came across well enough through the translated text, at least for me. I read it in English – it’s originally written in French. I recently did a reread of one of my favorite books ever: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

The elegance of the hedgehog book