The Elegance of the Hedgehog
A Review by Shannon
1/27/13
Dear
Grandma (and Fellow Family Bookclub Members),
Since I know not everyone has read the
book yet, I am keeping my comments more general and don’t have any spoilers in
my comments. I would be very interested to hear thoughts regarding how
people felt about the ending of the book.
Historically, I rarely read a book
more than once. There have been some notable exceptions where I have
overcompensated by re-reading certain books three or more times (All The
Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren; Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand; Winter’s
Tale by Mark Helprin; the Anne of Green Gables and Harry Potter
series). The Elegance of the Hedgehog has not only been added to
my slowly growing list of numerously re-read books, it is quickly becoming one
of my all time favorites. First off, I am fascinated on a certain level
that it is a translation. How much does the translator’s word choice influence
my love of the book? It’s made me curious about how translations work.
Mostly though, I love how the book
challenges our pre-conceived notions about people and blows away
stereotypes. It’s made me wonder about people that I meet in everyday
life. My work experience as an attorney, particularly as a family law attorney,
has taught me that you never really know what is going on in someone’s house
just by their appearances, job, education, religion, etc. However, the heroine
of Hedgehog (ironically, I struggle to remember her name despite my three
readings of the book! – Renee - No one really calls her by her first name)
causes me to take a look at the “invisible” people that we see every day: the
grocery checker, the garbage person, the mailperson… and wonder what kind of secret
life they may have.
Early in the book, Renee is almost
found out as the closet intellectual she is after making a literary reference
in response to a tenant’s comments to her about Marx. She then quickly
mutters something inane as a cover and then says: "As always, I am saved
by the inability of living creatures to believe anything that might cause the
walls of their little mental assumptions about me [to fall)]."
Last year, I had an experience where
the walls of my own mental assumptions fell and I have been thinking about it
ever since. I was sitting on the packed evening commuter train headed
from Chicago back to the suburbs. I was dressed for the business meeting I was
returning home from, but was knitting. I was sitting on the bench seats that
lines the upper deck and faced the bench seats across the way. When the
train took off, I noticed that a guy across the aisle was pretty openly looking
at me. He was not your typical commuter - - he had a shaved head,
tattoos, combat boots, big black earrings (the kind that look like faux African
tribal earrings…I have no idea what they are called, but they leave huge holes
in the ears when they are removed) and he was drinking a “tallboy” beer and had
a second one in a sack (although a beer on the train does not make you an
atypical commuter, not even a tallboy). Mind you, he is someone I would
have hung out with in college, but he did not fit with the crowd on the train
at all. So of course I think, hmm he is checking me out. Almost exactly
as the thought crossed my mind, he said, “I’m sorry to bother you, but may I
ask why you are using a contrasting yarn when you cast on?”
Huh? He went on to say that he had recently taught himself to
knit and had never seen a cast on like that (it’s how you get the stitches on
the needle for the first row…). Well, we ended up having a great chat
about knitting and provisional cast on using the “long tail” method. We
were so wrapped up in our conversation that he almost missed his stop and had
to make a run for it down the stairs to the first floor of the train.
There was silence after his departure until another guy sitting across from me
smiled and said, “Wow”. I responded, “Who’d have thunk it?”: certainly
not me, not until then.
The three main characters in Hedgehog
challenge our assumptions about class, race, intelligence, education, and age.
I think they are all the more interesting as characters because even though
they are not stock characters, Renee and the girl actively work to encourage
people to react to them stereotypically, only being recognized for their true
selves by each other and by a “foreigner” (who may not be trying to act
stereotypically, but is likely perceived in such a way by society). Each time I
read the book, I see things that I missed before and find myself underlining
yet another passage. To me, Hedgehog is a book that reminds me of how good
books can be because I find myself thinking about the book while living my life
and about my life, when reading the book.
I hope that you have enjoyed the book
and that it has given you food for thought as well. If you are
interested, Muriel Barbery has written another book about one of the other
tenants in Renee’s building. It is called, Gourmet Rhapsody. It’s
about the food critic that she mentions offhandedly in Hedgehog. I think
it’s a very good book as well, but not necessarily worthy of multiple re-reads.
Can’t wait for the next selection!
