The Hedgehog and le Hérisson

Those who know me know that books are a big part of my spring stay in Charlottesville. (More will be revealed in future posts.) This year, the book theme started earlier than usual. I discovered at my knitting group that several of my friends there were members of the same book club, hosted by the New Dominion Bookshop, my favorite book store in Charlottesville. Opened in 1924, it still looks like a bookstore should.


Its mezzanine is host to a variety of book-signings throughout the year – and, as I discovered, a monthly book club, too. The discussion leader is one of the women in my knitting group. They were preparing to discuss a book I love, called “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” by French author and philosophy professor Muriel Barbery. It’s a surprising book club hit here in the United States.

Barbery’s book was also a surprise hit in France in 2006. It was described by her husband, whom she freely admits helped her create the story line and structure that links everything together, as a “gift-seller” – the sort of book people recommend or give to their friends. That’s the way it happened for me. My friend Ingrid told me I would love the book. I did. I, in turn recommended it to others. My friend, Joan – another American in Paris –and I read “l’Elégance du Hérisson” last year. We wondered at the time if it would translate well. Here was my chance to find out. I asked if I could join the discussion and was welcomed as both participant and “cultural consultant.”
By “translate well”, we didn’t mean the language. Alison Anderson seems ideally suited to translating this book. I read extracts of her work and thought that she kept the tone of the French as well as the different melodies of the two languages allow. But this book seemed to me a quintessentially French book – like a really good dinner party with hours of good food and conversation -- well turned and witty phrases, touches of philosophy, art, music, literature. Nothing too deep, perhaps, but elegantly said. The main characters are well drawn and accessible. But, if you knew little or nothing of the “caviar left”, the French intellectual, the role of the concierge, the Portuguese cleaning lady, the self-absorbed pretention of people from “the best families”, could you really appreciate the novel?
After my Saturday morning with an interesting and well-read group of people, my answer is “Partly.” The lone man in the group didn’t like the book at all and didn’t finish it. Several of the women expressed serious reserves, saying the characters seemed stereotypical and the book was hard to get into. Alison Anderson would not have been surprised. She says in her blog “Not everyone likes it; my own sister couldn’t finish it. That is the prerogative, and the duty, of Great Books, to be disliked, or misunderstood as much as they are loved and praised. “
My conclusion, after a stimulating morning, was that those who liked the book had appreciated the universal elements. Others had more cultural filters – things they either didn’t understand or understood but did not appreciate. I helped where I could but I learned, many years ago, that experience can’t be transmitted. I’ve had nearly forty years to try to understand the French and I learn something new every day. "Vive la différence".