A Philosophical Detour

I'm going to say I had the pleasure of reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery. Be forewarned (and this is also the reason for my scoring,) that this novel is thick with philosophy and not so much a plot-driven book. It. Is. Dry... at times. This is essentially what you get when a philosopher consciously decides to write a novel about the preciousness/lack-there-of qualities of life. The novel exists to provoke thought, and that it does well.

Listed as one of the 1,001 books to read before you die, I liked the premise of the novel and thought, "hey I'll like this!" I do, but it's most certainly one of the toughest books I had to wade through for the sake of personal enlightenment. The best excuse I could have for picking this book up at this time, is that I wanted to participate in a book club discussion on GoodReads... and I happen to own a copy of the novel. The better half of the group's discussion is an opinion pole on whether or not the book is classified as "pretentious". It's philosophical - the end.

At first I too rolled my eyes at the "Profound Thoughts" of a 12-year-old girl, but I got over that when I actually found Paloma relatable and struck by some of her notions. Renee was a much easier character to digest from the get-go, but every now and then, her tangents would put me to sleep. It's actually the overwhelming nature of the THOUGHTS that I ended up rating this novel a 3/5. I loved the ending, but I hardly see this as a novel I would want to pick up again and again.