From the perspective of two autodidacts and intellectuals, The Elegance of the Hedgehog exudes multi-syllabic sophistication. It embodies movement, beauty, and life itself.

A concierge and a twelve-year-old girl search for life’s meaning and beauty and to escape the stereotypes of their class and fate. As they do, they strike up an unusual friendship that in itself proves that the similarities between humans supercedes the limits of class and age. And what better way to show this than have the two connect over literature, beauty, and philosophy–topics unexpected in a concierge and twelve year old.

Often, the powers that be encourage writers to avoid big words. And often, this is good advice because the big words don’t contribute to–in fact, detract from–the overall voice. But here, all these magnificent, tasty words work–even in the voices of a concierge and a twelve year old–because Barbery makes it clear that these two women love words and beauty.

Toward the beginning of the book, Renee, our concierge, discusses phenomenology. Can we truly know things through our observations or are these things a construct of language, culture, and semantics? In other words, is the sky truly blue, or have we categorized it as blue? Renee affirms we can truly know things, the essence of things, more than our social constructs. Than Barbery uses Renee’s story to show how Renee is more than the social construct of a concierge. She is more than her stereotype, in other words, though she hides behind the stereotype. She is knowable if you’ll take the time to see her. And this is the key. The discussion of phenomenology asks the wrong questions. The question is: do we take the time to see and perceive? (Later, Renee also discusses Ockham’s question: are there universals or only specifics? In other words, is there a universal table or only tables. Renee affirms universals by virtue that we have a category tables but that the universal is only through specifics–again, a topic of perception and categories.) Renee says, "I am struck with incredible force by this proof that sight is like a hand that tries to seize flowing water. Yes, our eyes may perceive, yet they do not observe; they may believe, yet they do not question; they may receive yet they do not search: they are emptied of desire, with neither hunger nor passion" (p. 304).

But Renee herself must also overcome the stereotypes she perpetuates of the elite French culture, stereotypes she formed after a childhood tragedy. To do so, she must accept the overtures of friendship from a Japanese gentleman (the new tenant in the building) and a twelve-year-old girl, Paloma. Only in these friendships can Renee embrace the freedom and responsibility not of the elite, to whom she believed freedom and responsibility belonged, but of humanity. In other words, only in community can we discover human freedom and responsibility, and as we do so, we also find beauty.

Barbery connects beauty with responsibility. Those free to know beauty also have a responsibility to create beauty. Beauty is also connected with movement and the meaning of life. Paloma concludes, "Maybe that’s what life is about: there’s a lot of despair, but also the odd moment of beauty, where time is no longer the same. It’s as if those strains of music created a sort of interlude in time, something suspended, an elsewhere that had come to us, an always within never" (p. 325). This speaks to me about the beauty that sneaks in from the new earth. It’s the beauty of rebirth and resurrection. It’s the beauty of the kingdom of God, which dances in and around us–the always in today’s never–and will someday be fully realized.

And now, dear friends, if you have not read the book, I bid you adieu as the rest of the post contains spoilers. But, please, read this book. And when you do, come tell me what you think. If you have read this book, please continue reading because I crave your opinion as to the end. I waver as to my feelings about it.

First impression: Barbery chose an easy way out. Yes, in this case, death was the easy ending. Conversion does not bring ease. Quite the contrary! Those around us resist the change in us and the change that threatens their way of life. Renee’s death gives an escape to the difficulties and dreariness of everyday life following conversion.

Yet, second impression: Her sacrificial substitutionary death forces Paloma to experience real pain, and only in this experience can she make a real choice between embracing life (and its responsibilities and beauties) and her own escape.

Renee’s death also carries a theme Paloma raised toward the beginning: "The important thing, said Paloma one day, is not the fact of dying, it is what you are doing in the moment of your death." Renee’s death came about because she sought to save a fellow human being, something she perhaps would not have done if she hadn’t herself up to the love and community of humans.

So, fellow readers, what do you think?