The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Book description
Rene is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building. She maintains a carefully constructed persona as someone uncultivated but reliable, in keeping with what she feels a concierge should be. But beneath this facade lies the real Rene: passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many…
Why read it?
2 authors picked The Elegance of the Hedgehog as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Renée is the concierge in an elegant Paris hotel. Widowed and in her 50s, she calls herself “short, ugly and plump,” a working-class nobody. She takes refuge in aesthetics and ideas but refuses to let her knowledge show. Renée’s friend in the building is 12-year-old Paloma, beyond precocious, who feels so let down by the meaningless in the world that she plans to commit suicide. Both characters are philosophers of sorts. “Beauty consists of its own passing, just as we reach for it,” says Paloma. In the end, they rescue one another from despair and loneliness. The experience of…
From Donna's list on featuring young characters with anomalies.
The Elegance of The Hedgehog is a story of hope and happiness that is always there in the world if you know where to find it.
Narrated through the eyes of twelve-year-old Paloma who is disillusioned with her privileged life and has decided to kill herself on her thirteenth birthday unless she finds meaning beyond her "vacuous bourgeois existence," the story is about how she finds it through her connection with Renee, the concierge who strives to hide her intelligence from the world. Through long self-reflective passages and gentle interactions between the main characters, this charming novel examines the question…
From Indu's list on surviving, overcoming and triumphing depression.
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