"Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she's covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary---and terribly elegant."
-Paloma Josse, from the novel
With a trip to Paris coming up, I selected this book which is set in "the City of Lights." The plot sounded intriguing enough and it was available in paperback from Amazon. All I can say is, it was VERY challenging for me. I was not surprised to learn that it was written by a philosophy professor! A person I met on the trip had read the book and encouraged me not to quit. She said the ending was worth it and I'll admit I'm glad I stuck with it to the end.
The novel has two protagonists and the story alternates between them in first person narratives. The first is Madame Renee Michel, concierge of what is called an elegant hotel, but what seems to me to be more like a condominium. She appears to the hoity toity residents as a common person but secretly is an autodidact. I had to look that up: it means self-educated. The second is Paloma Josse, a super smart 12-year-old, who is planning to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. The reason still isn't very clear to me. Paloma's chapters are somewhat like diary entries or advice columns. Both characters express very profound thoughts. (No problem finding worthy quotes!) Fortunately Paloma adds some humor occasionally.
The book was entirely too transcendental for me. It required too much concentration at a time I needed lighter reading. The characters must have been somewhat engaging though---by the end I was rooting for them both! I rate it a 3.
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