The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog (2006, translated to English 2008) brims with internal rumination and philosophy. It is also the tale of human connection and the small moments that transform individuals existing in close proximity to others without ever really seeing one another into kindred spirits. Set almost entirely in the disconnected community of an upper class residential building in central Paris, The Elegance of the Hedgehog’s cast centers around the building fifty-four-year-old concierge; aloof and prickly, she is clearly an outlier living under the building’s glitzy roof. Readers meet a second integral character early on who calls the building home: the highly gifted, twelve-year-old younger daughter of one of the families. Perspective alternates between these characters through out the novel and the reader spends considerable time in both their internal thoughts. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is the story of misfits of a sort, deep-thinkers in a world of affluence: the awkward widow concierge, the precocious adolescent girl, the beloved Portuguese housekeeper, and a retired Japanese businessman who will shake the building up and challenge its assumptions. Each of them are philosophers in their own right. As the novel develops, so does a cast of individuals, some utterly predictable while others stand out as unique. In time, the individuals move out of isolation to find connection, and together they transform. Despite touching on difficult themes related to human mortality, including suicidal ideation, addiction, and accidental death, Barbery’s novel leaves readers hopeful even when tragedy strikes.
So many of the themes in The Elegance of the Hedgehog deal with living our best lives despite what society may expect of us. It should come as no surprise that Barbery, a professor of philosophy, employs storytelling to contemplate the good life. Philosophy can be a hard pill for many of us, but philosophy couched in story is another matter. In The Elegance of a Hedgehog, the alternating inner thoughts of a fifty-four-year-old and a twelve-year-old, both arguably genius in their own hidden ways, reveal much (and, unlike dry philosophical prose, they entertain). Indeed, Barbery’s novel makes many philosophical claims. One’s socio-economic station does not define one’s interests or pastimes; as such, we should not be surprised to find genius in the quarters of a building’s concierge nor in the mind of an adolescent girl. Art and language are the tools through which humans express and explore Beauty and Truth. Likewise, life brims with the unexpected which includes unlikely friendships and small joys as well as devastating loss and tragedy. By recognizing the whole package, we might embrace life with the audacity (and elegance?) of a hedgehog.*
I don’t often read books originally written in French, and I found being transported to Paris, by a French writer, a marvelous experience. It captured what I imagine to be Parisian snobbery as well as the thoughtful intellectualism of so many individuals (despite their outward appearance). The arm chair travel inherent to this reading experience (for all of us not in Paris), initially drew me in, but the characters and their awkward, inherently human blunders and connections kept me reading to the end. I found Barbery’s novel to start slowly (heavily referencing philosophy in which I am no longer fluent, if I ever was) but it is well worth persevering. Barbery leaves her readers with plenty to consider even if references to Marx, Proust, Tolstoy, or Immanuel Kant (to name only a few) do not. Indeed, this is a book I nearly began rereading as soon as I finished it, wishing to collect all the crumbs I had doubtless overlooked on first read. In other words, The Elegance of the Hedgehog has much to say about the human condition, about modern life and the disconnection (or connection) of people. By writing so much interiority of her characters, Barbery’s novel challenges us to rethink the narratives we tell ourselves are truth. Suffice it to say, The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a book worth reading if you enjoy ruminating life’s big questions.
* It should be said here that I have little experience with hedgehogs, as they are not native to North America, but I assume from the title that despite their awkward outer appearance, they are elegant in a fashion.
Bravery, Muriel. The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Transl. by Alison Anderson. Europa editions: 2008.
A Few Great Passages:
“This is eminently true of many happy moments in life. Freed from the demands of decision and intention, adrift on some inner sea, we observe our various movements as if they belonged to someone else, and yet we admire their involuntary excellence” (123).
