I'm jumping the gun a bit with this book as it won't be out here for a while and I hadn't intended to read it now, but I picked up Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord after a particularly stressful and exhausting day when no other book would do, and it was just the thing for some light relief but with enough depth to it to make for a soothing and very engaging read.
I found it delightful, and was taken by its central character (who reminded me a bit of Louis Theroux) from the very first page. Hector is a psychiatrist and he's very good at his job. He talks to his patients, listens to them and is genuinely interested in them and in what causes them to seek treatment, but he's aware that many of them are not so much ill as just deeply dissatisfied with their lives, and he finds this puzzling and wearing.
Hector decides to take a break, a busman's holiday, travelling around the world to try to find out what makes us happy - or not - and searching for the elusive key to that state which can be as hard to recognise as it is to define. Along the way, Hector meets people and encounters certain situations, both mundane and extreme, experiences which his perceptive, logical mind distills down to form 'lessons' about happiness, ones he can apply to his own life as well as offering his patients.
I could use words such as 'quirky' and 'idiosyncratic' to describe this book, and its distinctive, simplistic style is perhaps deceptive, but it is a fable and commentary on modern life, full of a kind of wise but innocent charm and amusing authorial asides. Many a self-help book or even an academic study would tell you no more about 'cultivating your serenity' or 'subjective well-being' than this novel, but its psychiatrist author has cleverly got to the nub of things here and has chosen to present these findings in a beautifully naive manner.
What does Hector eventually discover? You'll have to read it yourself to find out!
