Muriel Barbery
Hello, readership of..... TWO!! Hooray! Thank you! Welcome! It's a huge deal for me that you are following, second reader. Thanks a heap!
Before I write about the book, a comment on my surroundings: I'm at the Starbucks in Union Square, writing a blog post while drinking my grande iced chai latte. I'm feeling pretty cool right about now.
So the book. It took me a very, very long time to get through this 325 paged novel. I couldn't read it before I went to bed, just because it's not the type of book you read before getting your forty winks. It's this deep book, filled with the characters philosophizing and ruminating at every opportunity. Heavy stuff before hitting the sack. But I eventually got through it, and it was good. The main characters were interesting and well developed. From the outset, Renee and Paloma are individuas, and after the first chapter you get a sense of their personalities. Unlike many novels that progress from a boneless, boring character to a full-blown hero or herion, the characters are already somewhere along their journey. I enjoyed that. They weren't "blank slate" characters. They each had quirks and ideas about the world that over the course of the book were broken down and analyzed and in the end, changed. If there is one word to describe this book as a whole, it would be analytical. Renee and Paloma, and later on Mr. Ozu are the deepest people out there. Its hard to be inside their head, and thats one of the reasons it took me so long to read it, but its also very enjoyable. They think great thoughts, and notice the most minute details of their lives, and the lives of those around them in their building, 7 Rue de Granelle. And the book is very french. I loved that. Who doesn't enjoy a book that takes place in an upscale apartment in Paris?
I read this book for my book club. For the past five years, I have been a member of a very exclusive book club of two. It's members are me and my friend named Zahava, and we like it that way. We started the book club to keep in touch with each other when she moved to LA, and it worked. Now we're both living in New York City, and when we finish a book we go out to eat and discuss it. Some of our past books have been "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman and "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides. The most recent book we read was "Cloud Atlas" and that was amazing. I really loved that. After we go out and discuss it, I hope to write a part two of my review of "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Zahava always has interesting thoughts on the book, and our discussions get really intense sometimes. We cheated a little this time and spoke about it and she hated it. So that should be interesting!
It's my turn to choose the book for our club. Any recommendations? Preferably something short-ish, considering I am only on book four of a hundred and it's already March. Eep. So... Any thoughts, readership of two?
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