Muriel Barbery's novel about a concierge at an upper-class apartment house comes with plenty of needless baggage.
When the English translation of Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog was released in 2008, it had already been a publishing phenomenon in France. Many American critics were effusive with praise, marking it as literary, philosophical and sophisticated. It circulates regularly at the library and has a passionate fanbase. So why did the Richmond Heights Memorial Library’s Book Club dislike it so? Our responses included open disdain on one end and a form of mild, reluctant apologetics—“It’s not all that bad”—at the other. But no one responded particularly warmly to the work as a whole, much less praised or endorsed it. We did universally enjoy one aspect of it: the central story of the main character, a concierge at an upper-class …
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The "country noir" novel written by Daniel Woodrell was the focus of discussion this month by the Richmond Heights Memorial Library's Book Club.
It’s not really fair to call Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell, a controversial book. It did well and received positive reviews, and the independent film made from it did extraordinarily well, winning awards and high praise from many corners. But, for those who live in the Ozarks, or come from the Ozarks, “controversial” seems a small word. The book is set in the Missouri Ozarks, outside fictional towns somewhere in southwest Missouri, near the Arkansas border. Woodrell is credited with the term “country noir,” and this book is a fine example. It is dark, almost unrelentingly so, with bleak landscapes, terrifying people, an often helpless protagonist and no hope for the future. This is the book’s strength; as many noir fans know, this …
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Richmond Heights Memorial Library
8001 Dale Ave, Richmond Heights, MO
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