The elegance of the Hedgehog

We saw the movie and it's nice but nothing can compare with this great book. I'm re-reading (in IT) and I've realised that it's all about spaces. Real spaces versus inner spaces. While the first are represented by the building apartments, the second are eptomized through two charaters, the concierge Renée and a sharp-eyed 12 year old named Paloma. Tangible spaces and the appearance of Reneé are only functional shells that hide respectively rich but deeply superficial people and an intelligent woman with a delicate soul.

The small world of the building apartments is seen through the sarcasm and the brightness of Reneé and Paloma who happen to know each other due to a Japanese who buys a vacant apartment. It's interesting noting that, Kazuro organizes his apartment space in a peculiar way. Specifically, as Paloma subtly argues, Japanese mostly use sliding doors that separate rooms from other rooms without "cutting" off abruptly portions of space. Kazuro's apartment is not a "shell" poorly related to its resident, rather there is no difference between the outside and the inside.

Conclusion: the movie counterpart is nice but READ the book first!