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dairyofaliterarian's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
fictionfan's review against another edition
3.0
One for lovers of whimsy...
Daniel Mercier is eating alone one night in a restaurant when François Mitterrand, President of France, and some friends settle themselves at the next table. Daniel is thrilled to be so close to the great man, and begins to imagine that he's part of the President's group. When they leave the restaurant, Daniel notices that Mitterrand has accidentally left his signature black hat behind. Succumbing to an overwhelming temptation, Daniel picks it up, crams it on his own head, and scuttles quickly out of the restaurant before Mitterrand notices and comes back for it. The strange thing is that, almost immediately he acquires the hat, Daniel, usually a rather diffident and anxious young man, finds his confidence growing and his bosses appreciating him more. So when he in turn accidentally leaves the hat on a train, he is very upset. But the woman who picks it up suddenly finds the desire and courage to change her own rather unhappy life...
And so the story progresses, with the hat being passed from one person to another. In each case, we learn a bit about their story and then see how the possession of the hat leads them to make fundamental changes for the better in their lives. The book is well-written and quite entertaining, though undoubtedly a little on the twee side for me. The stories vary in their interest level. One that I enjoyed tells of a 'nose' – a man who used to have a glowing reputation for creating lovely and highly successful perfumes, but who in recent years seems to have lost the knack. The descriptions of how he finds himself inspired by various smells that he comes across and how he then goes about recreating these is done well, and I enjoyed the idea of him being able to identify the scent each person he met was wearing. Other episodes were less successful for me – like the man who found his entire political outlook on life changing as a result of wearing the hat. Even whimsy must have some basis in reality, and the idea that one shows one's conversion to socialism by buying up lots of expensive art to hang around one's home seemed a little odd.
It's not a book to over-analyse, but... well, when did that ever stop me? ;) I found it intriguing in an irritating kind of way that all the men in the book were inspired to change either their working or political lives, while the solitary (beautiful, of course) woman's story is one of breaking off a romantic relationship where she's being used, and then finding true love. The book was written, I believe, in 2012 – have we really not got beyond these stereotypes? I also didn't much care for the portrayal of Mitterrand – a man I know almost nothing about, so it's not that I have a bias. In the book he comes over as rather creepy, misusing his position as President to use the Secret Service for personal rather than political purposes, and lasciviously drooling over a photo of the woman who briefly has his hat. For all I know, this might be an accurate portrayal, but even if it is, it didn't feel right in a book as frothy and fanciful as this one is.
Still, it is quite readable and lightly enjoyable for the most part, so I'll stop criticising now. Not one that worked terribly well for me, as you'll have gathered, but I'm sure will work better for people who are more skilled than I am at immersing themselves fully in a bit of whimsy...
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Gallic Books.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Daniel Mercier is eating alone one night in a restaurant when François Mitterrand, President of France, and some friends settle themselves at the next table. Daniel is thrilled to be so close to the great man, and begins to imagine that he's part of the President's group. When they leave the restaurant, Daniel notices that Mitterrand has accidentally left his signature black hat behind. Succumbing to an overwhelming temptation, Daniel picks it up, crams it on his own head, and scuttles quickly out of the restaurant before Mitterrand notices and comes back for it. The strange thing is that, almost immediately he acquires the hat, Daniel, usually a rather diffident and anxious young man, finds his confidence growing and his bosses appreciating him more. So when he in turn accidentally leaves the hat on a train, he is very upset. But the woman who picks it up suddenly finds the desire and courage to change her own rather unhappy life...
And so the story progresses, with the hat being passed from one person to another. In each case, we learn a bit about their story and then see how the possession of the hat leads them to make fundamental changes for the better in their lives. The book is well-written and quite entertaining, though undoubtedly a little on the twee side for me. The stories vary in their interest level. One that I enjoyed tells of a 'nose' – a man who used to have a glowing reputation for creating lovely and highly successful perfumes, but who in recent years seems to have lost the knack. The descriptions of how he finds himself inspired by various smells that he comes across and how he then goes about recreating these is done well, and I enjoyed the idea of him being able to identify the scent each person he met was wearing. Other episodes were less successful for me – like the man who found his entire political outlook on life changing as a result of wearing the hat. Even whimsy must have some basis in reality, and the idea that one shows one's conversion to socialism by buying up lots of expensive art to hang around one's home seemed a little odd.
It's not a book to over-analyse, but... well, when did that ever stop me? ;) I found it intriguing in an irritating kind of way that all the men in the book were inspired to change either their working or political lives, while the solitary (beautiful, of course) woman's story is one of breaking off a romantic relationship where she's being used, and then finding true love. The book was written, I believe, in 2012 – have we really not got beyond these stereotypes? I also didn't much care for the portrayal of Mitterrand – a man I know almost nothing about, so it's not that I have a bias. In the book he comes over as rather creepy, misusing his position as President to use the Secret Service for personal rather than political purposes, and lasciviously drooling over a photo of the woman who briefly has his hat. For all I know, this might be an accurate portrayal, but even if it is, it didn't feel right in a book as frothy and fanciful as this one is.
Still, it is quite readable and lightly enjoyable for the most part, so I'll stop criticising now. Not one that worked terribly well for me, as you'll have gathered, but I'm sure will work better for people who are more skilled than I am at immersing themselves fully in a bit of whimsy...
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Gallic Books.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
mazza57's review against another edition
4.0
what a lovely take you away from it all read. One night, alone in the city as his wife and child are visiting relatives Daniel treats himself to a meal in a Brasserie. He finds himself sitting on a table next to Francois Mitterand. When Mitterand and his guests leave the President leaves behind his Hat and Daniel cannot resist taking it. The narrative then follows the hat is lost, left and found by others. Seemingly imbued with special powers it changes the lives of each of the people who wear it.
mattab94's review against another edition
4.0
A really pleasant and enjoyable read. A perfect book to read with a cup of coffee! It's a very simple story with gentle humour. It had me contemplating how we value ourselves, the nature of imposter syndrome, and how things can seem to be destiny.
The epilogue was unnecessary and made the book to close-ended. I preferred not knowing exactly where each character ended up after the events of the story.
The epilogue was unnecessary and made the book to close-ended. I preferred not knowing exactly where each character ended up after the events of the story.
guvenator's review against another edition
5.0
I picked this up and I struggled to put it down. It was a delightful tale about a hat and how it changed lives. An excellent light read!
kkruger8's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
A charming little book
fran_mcbookface's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely loved this book. Whimsical and feel good
rightonmama's review against another edition
5.0
My second book by this author. His work is so clever, fun, delightful and engaging.
“Pierre had developed a theory about all this, according to which he had lived a parallel life where he had not taken the hat from a bench in parc monceau, his wife had not made that comment about his beard, he hadn’t shaved it off, and of course the hat had not been placed on the sitting-room radiator on new year’s eve.
In this parallel life he was still wearing his old sheepskin jacket and had his beard, had never opened the door of his study and still went every Friday to his analyst. What aslan called a parallel life was actually a perfect illustration of quantum mechanics and of applied developments in probability theory, starting from the hypothesis that everything we do in our lives creates a new universe which does not in any way wipe out the previous universe.
Our lives can be thought of as like a tree hiding a forest of parallel lives in which we aren’t exactly the same, nor are we wholly different. In certain of those lives, we wouldn’t have married the same person, or lived in the same place, or had the same profession... To deny that fremenberg had played any part in his recovery had one flaw; namely that without the weekly appointment with his analyst he would never have sat on the bench beside the hat.”
“Pierre had developed a theory about all this, according to which he had lived a parallel life where he had not taken the hat from a bench in parc monceau, his wife had not made that comment about his beard, he hadn’t shaved it off, and of course the hat had not been placed on the sitting-room radiator on new year’s eve.
In this parallel life he was still wearing his old sheepskin jacket and had his beard, had never opened the door of his study and still went every Friday to his analyst. What aslan called a parallel life was actually a perfect illustration of quantum mechanics and of applied developments in probability theory, starting from the hypothesis that everything we do in our lives creates a new universe which does not in any way wipe out the previous universe.
Our lives can be thought of as like a tree hiding a forest of parallel lives in which we aren’t exactly the same, nor are we wholly different. In certain of those lives, we wouldn’t have married the same person, or lived in the same place, or had the same profession... To deny that fremenberg had played any part in his recovery had one flaw; namely that without the weekly appointment with his analyst he would never have sat on the bench beside the hat.”
lottiep2109's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0