Dire... just dire 2010-09-07

Reviewer: S. Chiger

It's been a long time since I've read a book that I've loathed as much as this one. Quite frankly, I can't think of a single redeeming feature. Intriguing, sympathetic characters? No, unless you find self-absorption an attractive personality trait. A gripping, engaging plot? I've waited in lines at the post office that were more entertaining (not to mention faster moving). Masterful wordplay and evocation of time or place? Nope. If ever a book was a must to avoid, it's this.

Held my interest, but ultimately, I didn't like it 2010-09-04

Reviewer: skeptic44

It was a little strange, to say the least, that two people living in the cultural and culinary center of the universe (Paris) prefer Japanese cuisine and culture. Their cultural preference is then validated, in this book, by the extremely non-representative man from Japan who moves into their building. He is inexplicably rich; at first Renee the concierge thinks he's related to a film director, but that turns out not to be the case. He's extremely kind and reaches out socially to both characters, as if he had divined that they would be receptive to him -- it just didn't make sense.
And I agree with one reviewer who found the philosophical rants of Renee to be a bit tiresome. I also wondered what was going on with Paloma that she was so emotionally divorced from her family. To sum up, the nonsensical aspects of this novel made it difficult to enjoy it.

Slow and elegant 2010-09-03

Reviewer: Lena

Take a cup of tea or glass of wine and prepare to enjoy this book. Before you depart, though, here is a word of warning: the trip will be very slow, with many stops, planned and not.
You are going to put the book down not once, but many times - either taking a break from the dense prose or stopping to think about the sentence or chapter that you just have read. You may even abandon this train altogether for a while, going for a walk (or for easier read, with more action and less philosophy). As English is not my first language, I had to refer to the dictionary many times while reading this book.
The book starts with a voice of 12-year old Paloma, who is too mature for her age - and who decides that the best way to make sense out of life is suicide. If that's not depressing enough for you, just wait until you meet the concierge of the building, who is, in her own opinion, "fat and ugly". The daily interactions and happenings in the building represent (on the surface) ninety percent of the action in the book. However, starting at some point, I was mesmerized, by the elegance of the language and by the way the story unfolds and characters reveal more about themselves - and learn more about the life around them.
Not recommended if you like a lot of action and fast moving stories; still a good reading when you need to change a pace and think.

PS On a transatlantic flight, I was able to watch the French movie `Hedgehog", based on this novel. For those who don't have patience for philosophical descriptions, the movie would be a preferred alternative. I was amazed how the book was transformed into a story on a screen.

I wanted to like this... 2010-08-31

Reviewer: J. Douglas Wellington

I was intrigued by the concept of this book. And after reading some reviews I decided to purchase it. However, the only reason I was able to finish it is because each chapter is 2 - 4 pages long. So I could read a chapter or two, stop, come back, read some more, stop, etc. Each chapter is as pretentious as the next. As an example, I just opened up the book to a random page: "But many intelligent people have a sort of bug: they think intelligence is an end in itself. They have one idea in mind: to be intelligent, which is really stupid. And when intelligence takes itself for its own goal, it operates very strangely: the proof that it exists is not to be found in the ingenuity or simplicity of what it produces, but in how obscurely it is expressed." Those sentences actually express the problem with this book. If there were a few passages like that, it might have been an interesting read. But every chapter, seemingly every paragraph, is written like that.

Would not recommend....DULL 2010-08-31

Reviewer: Jess

I made it 100 or so pages in and decided life is too short to read a book that I don't enjoy. The book never drew me in and I felt like the author was overly wordy and it was a chore to get through page after page. Would not recommend.