Elegant. What images immediately spring to mind? Probably something along the lines of stately architecture or a high-class garment. A hedgehog, however, is not usually on this list. But in Muriel Barbery’s “The Elegance of the Hedgehog,” this unlikely depiction of a hedgehog’s elegance is aptly applied by one main character to another with a sly wit and simple clarity that characterizes the novel.
A 12-year-old girl genius, fed up with the posturing central to her privileged lifestyle, and a middle-aged, outwardly homely concierge with startling intellectual similarities to one another, make up the main characters in this cryptically-named novel set in an upscale apartment building in Paris.
Paloma Josse, the unpretentiously precocious aforementioned 12-year-old lives in the building where Renée Michel works as a concierge with Paloma’s tediously self-absorbed, self-serving and self-congratulating family. In fact, Paloma has become so fed up with her family and all the inane narcissism of the world which they represent, that she has decided to set fire to her apartment and end her life on her 13th birthday.
This is an undeniably drastic plan of action and it is questionable whether Paloma ever fully intends to go through with it. But, it is her belief in the plan that gives rise to a series of essays based on a search for meaning in the world, which, along with their counterparts written by Renée, make up the narration of the novel.
Both Renée and Paloma share a love for Art (consistently capitalized throughout the novel to indicate the magnitude of the word’s meaning), Japanese culture and fine literature, but Renée feels compelled to hide her true identity as an autodidact behind the façade of a stereotypical concierge. At the onset of the novel, she describes her reason for this as a simple desire to “be left alone … so that for a few moments each day (she) might assuage (her) hunger” for intellectual stimulation. However, as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that she is also hiding out of a fear borne of trauma endured in her youth.
For roughly the first half, the book is structured as a series of alternating essays from Paloma and Renée, based on philosophical pondering on the nature of life and the beauty of Art in its many forms. Through these intensely personal musings, we get to know Paloma and Renée as complex characters, and gradually, almost without noticing, we also slowly fall in love with them.
As cheesy as it may sound, it is nearly impossible not to be touched by these ladies’ humorous, sensitive and straightforward takes on the world. This inspires in the reader a fierce desire for Renée and Paloma to carve out comfortable niches for themselves in the world, no matter how difficult that possibility is made by their unique natures.
However, when Kakuro Ozu moves into the building, both characters’ lives begin to change drastically. Kakuro brings a breath of fresh air to both Renée and Paloma as he alone notices from the start that neither one is as she appears. He manages to draw Paloma out of her shell in a way that allows her to reconsider her desire to take leave from the world, and slowly helps Renée to realize she does not have to hide her true self from the rest of the world, simply because of class boundaries.
It is not until near the end of the novel that Renée and Paloma strike up a friendship, but when they do, it is almost immediately apparent that they were practically made for one another — a theme that is echoed in Renée and Kakuro’s relationship.
In fact, the theme of fate is interwoven throughout the novel. Paloma believes she is destined to live a certain kind of life because of her family, but struggles against it with all her will; Renée lives in fear of crossing the invisible but heavily enforced class divide, regardless of her intellectual superiority.
Their journeys away from what they believe the world has in store for them constitute an utterly, though ultimately, bittersweet story that unfolds so naturally you almost don’t notice what has happened until it is over.
“The Elegance of the Hedgehog,” as a whole, is an endearing tale of what it means to live within the walls the world has built for you and what happens when you defy fate in a search for meaning and beauty. The events in each character’s life are alternately winsome, comic and heartbreaking. It is impossible to resist.