Description

Wednesday, November 9th at 5.30 pm at Dolce Vita , Wine Bar, 609 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth. Alliance Francaise Palm Beach invites you to join our Book Club. We meet once a month to discuss abook followed by a movie based on the book. The Book club (in French) is free. The drinks and food at the wine bar: 10% off for members of Alliance Francaise South Florida. The screening of themovie will take place (after our Book Club) at the Playhouse, 709 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth at 8 pm. Admission (movie): $6 for members of Alliance Francaise, $9 general admission To become a member of Alliance Francaise, follow the link http://www.afmiami.org/Membership.htm The Elegance ofthe Hedgehog (L'élégance du hérisson) is a novel by the French novelist and professor of philosophyMuriel Barbery. The book follows events in the life of a concierge, Renée Michel, whose deliberatelyconcealed intelligence is uncovered by an unstable but intellectually precocious girl named PalomaJosse. Paloma is the daughter of an upper-class family living in the upscale Parisian apartment building where Renée works. Featuring a number of erudite characters, The Elegance of the Hedgehog isfull of allusions to literary works, music, films, and paintings. It incorporates themes relating to philosophy,class consciousness, and personal conflict. The events and ideas of the novel are presented through the thoughts and reactions, interleaved throughout the novel, of two narrators, Renée and Paloma. The changes of narrator are marked by switches of typeface. In the case of Paloma, the narration takes the form of her written journal entries and other philosophical reflections; Renée's story is also told in the first person but more novelistically and in the present tense. First released in August 2006, the novel became a publishing success in France the following year, selling over a million copies. It has been translated into several languages, and published in a number of countries outside France, including the United Kingdom and the United States, attracting critical praise for both the work and its author.