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A review by getajeevan
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
4.0
doing this challenge of reading literature based on the places i travel to, while im there. i started reading this on my train to paris and now im sobbing like an idiot on the train back home, having just finished it and feeling all sorts of grief.
it was slow at grabbing my attention. the characters don’t seem real, they felt somewhat superficial or pretentious at points. i wasn’t sure where it was going more than halfway through it, although there were quoteable bits and things that made me giggle. a lot of the middle part was intellectual discourse, throwing in some philosophy names here and there, without much progression in plot. i would have DNF’d it had i been travelling with more books to entice me but i persisted and boy was my perseverance rewarded. the last 60 or so pages tugged all of my heartstrings and made it all up for me. it changed my whole experience retrospectively and i ended up loving it.
the other aspect was the reading experience outside of the book. something about walking the streets from a story you’re reading, tracing the paths of the characters, eating what they’re having, and watching the lines between reality and fiction fade is really touching as a reader.
and both those things together make it a 4 for me, can’t wait to travel again with a new story!
it was slow at grabbing my attention. the characters don’t seem real, they felt somewhat superficial or pretentious at points. i wasn’t sure where it was going more than halfway through it, although there were quoteable bits and things that made me giggle. a lot of the middle part was intellectual discourse, throwing in some philosophy names here and there, without much progression in plot. i would have DNF’d it had i been travelling with more books to entice me but i persisted and boy was my perseverance rewarded. the last 60 or so pages tugged all of my heartstrings and made it all up for me. it changed my whole experience retrospectively and i ended up loving it.
the other aspect was the reading experience outside of the book. something about walking the streets from a story you’re reading, tracing the paths of the characters, eating what they’re having, and watching the lines between reality and fiction fade is really touching as a reader.
and both those things together make it a 4 for me, can’t wait to travel again with a new story!