To page 170.

In Barbery's novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Renee, the concierge of a Paris apartment block, tells us how she prefers to play this role rather than herself. French society, according to her, expects a concierge to be doltish, unsophisticated, uneducated, and certainly not well-read, so she gives the people who live in her block what they expect. She is, however, very well-read, both in literature and philosophy - an autodidact of the highest order.

For the people who live in the block, she prefers to be seen as the typical, slow-minded concierge. In this way she can live a quiet life that pleases her, and allows her to carry on reading and learning. Her cover is blown when she says, in a conversation with the new tenant, a wealthy Japanese man named Karuko Ozu by quoting the first line from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina: "All happy families are alike." To which he replies with the next line from the novel: "Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." She know that this will, in some way, be her undoing, at least to some extent.

To this point in the novel, the "plot" if you will, has been driven by the novel's other main character, Paloma, who, with Renee, shares the narration about equally. Paloma is a 12 year old inquisitive genius who reveals very early on that she intends to commit suicide on June 16th, the day she turns 13. She is a happy cynic, who feels there's not much point in going on with her life.

Both characters feel it is better not to be known. They do not even seek to be seen as mysterious, or eccentric. They would simply rather not be known, despite both having exceptional intelligences, and what we would call, "great potential." In our celebrity-intoxicated times, where reality tv makes famous anyone prepared to expose their potential, or lack of it, these characters stand in stark contrast.

One question: If Renee is party to the telling of the story, in the very public form of the novel, what am I to make of her intentions? Am I being too clever as a reader? Should I ignore the apparent fact that a character who does not want to be known is telling me and anyone who will read her words that "reality?" How does the form and structure of the novel work in this kind of story-telling. This revelation, that the character is a paradox, works as high irony on me, the reader, if I don't wake up to how I am getting this "inside" information. That is, that she who does not want to be known is in the process of telling me, and anyone who will read it, who she really is. I feel like I've just opened up a Russian (or Chinese?) nesting doll. Where does it all end?

More later. I have reading to do. In the mean time, have fun with this "rick-rolling".

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