Scan barcode
A review by fictionfan
The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain
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