The Elegance of the Hedgehog

I have set as my goal to have the greatest number possible of profound thoughts.

Rating: 2/5 – Bland pop fic.

Superficial.

Narrators with opaque motivations work to convince the reader that their depression is actually secret genius, and then are rescued by a magical Japanese man.

It’s never properly explained why it’s so important that each of these lonely people hide their vast and burdensome intellect, though the reader is expected to sympathize with their plight. Nor is it very apparent why the younger narrator is even a necessary character, as most of the focus is on the older protagonist, and their paths only cross at the very end of the novel.

Perhaps the biggest crime is the book’s overwhelming passion to tell, not show, the reader how totally superior the minds of the narrators are to the rest of the blandly privileged characters. Long stretches of text are devoted to intense navel gazing and self-described “profound thoughts”. Maybe I was supposed to take that all ironically, but the near total lack of reflection by the narrators has me doubting that.

Indeed, there is very little growth at all from either protagonist. Instead it is the world around them that changes via their interactions with the magical Japanese man, as they are finally recognized for the wonderful and special people they have always known they are. Their faith in their own superiority or the inferiority of all others is never challenged or questioned, only affirmed.

Avoid this one.

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