Recommended to me, and with a very long wait at the library, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery seemed like a sure fire hit for me. It's also French! But it just never really took off. The main protagonists, a French concierge in a fancy apartment complex and the 12 year old daughter of a pair of inhabitants, are both philosophical and literary snobs. The concierge, Madame Michel, pretends to hold up the stereotype of the concierge-- lazy, uneducated and with little interest beyond her tv. Paloma is a smart girl, but hides from her family, who she thinks are ridiculous. It was hard for me to figure out why both these characters were playing so miserable and it wasn't until late in the book the reader is clued in.
Part of my issues with this might have been the poor translation. The basic sentence structure was at times awkward, and there names and places that just didn't translate at all to the American audience. I'm a patient reader and it takes a lot for me to not give a book a full chance, but if I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't finish it. But I did and it partly redeemed itself, so I'm giving it 2 stars. Read at your own risk.
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