My book club met last night to discuss THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG by Muriel Barbery and the we were all basically on the same page (no pun intended).
As much as we all appreciated the writing and the characters and kinda sorta the plot, we are a little overwhelmed by the philosophy. Most of us, including myself, admitted to kind of zoning out a bit during much of the philosphizing.
Personally, I thought there were some interesting, thought provoking ideas but to really consider many of them would have taken way more time than the month we had to read the book.
We all agreed that we cared very much about each of the characters, and I will admit to some tears at the end, but I think we all wished the plot would have started to move along way earlier.
As it is, the book doesn't really get moving until about two thirds of the way through and for me and the gang that was when it really got interesting. The theme we spent the most time talking about was class structure and along with it the idea that we don't really "see" people for who they are. Renee realizes this towards the end of the book when several women from the building don't recognize her. It is Kakuro who points out that it is because they never really saw here before - and she suddenly realizes that perhaps she had not seen them either.
We all liked 12 year old Paloma and I think one of the things that drove all of us to finish was to make sure she did not carry out her plan to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. That said, we also spent some time discussing whether or not 12 year olds who think this way really exist.
All in all none of us were enthralled and alas the member of our group who recommended the book initially didn't make the meeting last night. I think it would have been interesting to hear from her on why she loved it so.
When I asked if anyone in the group would recommend the book to their friends, they all said no, except our one guy member in attendance who said he thought his mother would like it.
Have you read it? What did you think?
-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor
