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Katya's Reviews > The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
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after giving this book a chance, i have decided that the only chance it deserves is to be methodically shredded page by page and subsequently dissolved, in its entirety, in a pool of ammonia.
the rampant fetishism of japanese culture aside (which is seriously so disturbing and surprising to come across in a bestseller that was written within the past 5 years), the plot is entirely centered on the interior monologues of two characters, two characters who are so unctuously trite and platitudinizing in their "petit daily observations" that I believe only the heartiest of misanthropes will take any joy in following the oppressive journey this book calls its narrative.
the rampant fetishism of japanese culture aside (which is seriously so disturbing and surprising to come across in a bestseller that was written within the past 5 years), the plot is entirely centered on the interior monologues of two characters, two characters who are so unctuously trite and platitudinizing in their "petit daily observations" that I believe only the heartiest of misanthropes will take any joy in following the oppressive journey this book calls its narrative.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
April 24, 2009
– Shelved
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Flo
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Jun 13, 2009 09:14PM
i love how you express your feelings for this book!
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Ironically, your rant against the book sounds as if one of the characters you so detest could have written it!
Matthew : eventhough I agree with Katya Nick your comment made me laugh out loud. Thank you for that :-)
Thank you, I now do not feel that I have missed some startling revelation, or the cohesive point where it all comes together and you smile and say "ah I get it now" I just didn't get it, and it was written in a very boring style.
I figured your review was purposely written tongue in cheek. This book has a lot of words; I just wish they said something.
I appreciated reading your comments....I didn't care at all about the characters. It felt like a sophmoric retell of western philosophers. If I smoked, I would have grounded my cigarette into the dirt filled ashtray, like most older Parisians, and blown the residual smoke into the face of the imagined protagonist.
I loathed this book and am glad to know I wasn't the only one. The condescending attitude and arrogance of the two main characters was such a turn off that it is a miracle that I was able to get through this book. Only sheer determination to find something, anything that I could like about it kept me turning the pages long after I should have moved on to another novel. I just can not understand all the fabulous reviews.
^^I'm on pg. 247, Laura Dragon, and having more fun, and gaining more insights (by far), reading the reviews and comments than the novel. What a tedious, self-righteous, self-aware novel that is a blatant exercise in masturbatory ontology without basic craft in characterization. Ugh.
I read about twenty pages and stoppedI don't normally give up but this was unbearable
Your comment is just as pedantic as you say this book is.
