The Elegance of the Hedgehog

[jmnixon95]

I just joined this site today, so I am not certain if this is where I should be posting this thread, but...

Have you read The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery? I completed it on the 31st of January, and I am curious to see who else has happened to read it.

I am not sure if this is where I should be posting, as previously stated, because it is extremely recent (as in, 21st century), but it is nonetheless a philosophical novel.

[mal4mac]

I read this recently and quite enjoyed it. The basic idea of a concierge hiding away and reading great literature is a good one, and her interactions with the rich & stupid tenants of the building are well drawn. In the end, though, I thought it was a bit shallow, and nowhere near as riveting as the best outsider/philosophical fiction - like Kafka's Metamorphosis, Pessoa's Book of the Dead, Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, or Hamlet. So, worth reading but not on my re-read list.

[Buh4Bee]

I read it and thought it had moments of beauty, but was not left speechless at the end. It is a novel with philosophical themes that allow the reader to ponder the society of the people in the book, but does not motivate the reader to think about society beyond the pages of the book.