A Good Read: The Kennedy Girl & The Elegance of the Hedge Hog

Connie Cronley joined News On 6 to talk about a few of her latest reads.

This time, we're focusing on two novels set in the "City of Lights." The first is The Elegance of the Hedgehog and the second is The Kennedy Girl

What is the Elegance of the Hedgehog about?

"It's not a traditional, narrative-driven novel. It features two characters, Renee, an older dumpy concierge, and Paloma, a difficult 12-year-old who says life's not worth living. They live in the same apartment and very different, entirely different personalities, but the similarity is that they're both very brilliant, which they hide behind this gruff exterior, hence the Hedgehog, hedgehog, right? And the book is like alternating chapters of each of them thinking about art and philosophy and literature and class differences. And it all resolves happily."

What is the Kennedy Girl about?

"It is story-driven. It is set in Paris in the early 1960s and here is the story, a young woman who is 19 whose father recently died alone working in a bakery. She has suddenly chosen to be a model at a couture house in Paris. Off she goes this life adventure never been out of the country, and then she finds herself embroiled in international spies."

Why did the author set the Kennedy Girl in 1960s Paris?

"It's becoming known exactly. And she, I want to ask her, why did she she's a young girl. Why did she set it in the 1960s in Paris? That's when Jackie Kennedy was a fashion idol. And the irony of this is, I was a young girl who went to Paris at exactly that same time, and what she tells is just the way I saw it."