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Phrynne's Reviews > The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
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Reading all the reviews for this book is hilarious. They range from one star and "this book deserves to be shredded one page at a time" to 5 stars and "this is the best book ever written". I will go half way and say 3 stars and it has good points and bad ones. The bad - at first it comes across as pompous and trying far too hard to be clever. There are long philosophical passages which add nothing to the characters or the story. The good - once the new tenant arrives the main characters all become more likeable and interesting. The ending is rather a shock because the story lulls the reader into feeling that nothing much ever happens. And then it does and it is sadder for its suddenness. By the last page I realised I had actually enjoyed it all quite a lot.
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Reading Progress
October 26, 2015
–
Started Reading
October 26, 2015
– Shelved
October 27, 2015
–
Finished Reading
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PattyMacDotComma
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Oct 27, 2015 04:18AM
The name alone indicates it must be kind of 'different', eh? I see it's won some prizes, but like a lot of prizes, there are opinions about it at both extremes. Nice of you to hedge your bets, so to speak. :)
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Perhaps I should have persevered Phrynne..I really disliked it though. Good review!
Phyrnne - is this a YA novel? Great review!
Not YA Jen. I would put it under Contemporary or Literary Fiction.
I gave this book to a friend, although it took me ages to get into it and I found the writing self-conscious and "trying too hard" at the beginning. I personally loved the existential stuff and thought it veered into unrealistic romantic notions when the new tenant arrived. My friend was embarrassed and said, "Did you undertand it?" Ooops. She found all the philosophy alienating. I agree with the three stars. Thanks for reminding me about it, I don't think I've added it. My husband read it in the original French and the English. He said the translation was poor and missed the magic.
I did wonder if the translation affected it.
Ahh that's what I said in my review too...
I'll check out your review, Brenda. And I'll hunt out the paragraph that my husband translated and the same paragraph in the translated book. It's very different. I think translators are often under big time pressures, and although the translation was literally correct it lacked the nuance. My hubby showed his translation to his French teacher and she did one of those meaningful gallic shrugs and said, why would you want to translate it into English, a language without beauty!
Haha! Typical comment from a french teacher;)
