Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Paris life in an apartment building is a fascinating insight into some very colourful characters. And what goes on behind the scenes of one apartment in the 17th arrondissement is like peeking behind the curtains.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
What you need to know before your trail
Renee is the concierge of this building and over the years has maintained an image of someone who is extremely reliable but totally uncultivated – just as everyone expects her to be. However, behind this façade lies the real Renée: passionate about culture and the arts as the ‘posh’ people whose homes she looks after.
Meanwhile, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse might only be young but she is on the brink of suicide. Something will happen to bring them together and to show them that no everything behind closed doors is as it seems.
Travel Guide
Travel to Rue de Grenelle in Paris and meet some residents of an apartment block in Paris that you will certainly not forget in a hurry…
This is not so much a book trail around Paris in that most if not all of the action centres around one apartment block in Paris – but the journey here is that via the thoughts and confessions of two women: Renée Michel, a 54-year-old concierge in a Parisian block of somewhat luxury apartments, and Paloma Josse, the 12 year old daughter of one of the families in the block.
“I am fifty four years old and for twenty seven years I have been the concierge at number 7, Rue de Grenelle, a fine ‘hôtel particulier’ with a courtyard and private gardens divided into eight luxury apartments, all of which are inhabited, all of which are immense.”
It’s in a nice part of the city though with lots of nice and posh shops nearby and some fab restaurants.
Booktrailer Review
Susan:
A book fundamentally about beauty, art and the meaning of life with a lot of thinking and philosophy included. The musings of the two main characters make for an often interesting but a slow read that is about the here and now rather than the plot.
Renée Michel is the self-described hedgehog of the story. she talks herself down and likens her own physical appearance as that which her tenants expect of her. In return, she takes a secret pleasure correcting their grammar and pretentious social behaviour. She hides her love of art and all things Japanese. Whilst I found her thoughts interesting, Paloma was hard to understand.
This isn’t an easy book. As can often be the case with French books there is a lot of philosophical pondering. Nevertheless, if you can stay the course it’s an extremely interesting one, even if I’d have liked to have seen a different ending.
Gourmet – Une Gourmandise – the author’s first book, is about the tenant who dies.
Where Next?
