Lesson No. 1: Making comparisons can spoil your happiness.
Once upon a time there was a young psychiatrist called Hector who was not very satisfied with himself. Hector is a man on a mission. He wants to find out what makes people happy so that he can help his patients become happy, too. He is baffled that so many of the people he sees are not happy, even when they have nothing wrong with them and life should be good.
Hector and the Search for Happiness is written in a simple and straightforward style. Not quite Dick and Jane, but pretty easy to read and understand. It is a short book. Only three CDs in the audiobook edition. James Clamp does a wonderful job of bringing the story of Hector’s quest to life.
There are still a few small problems with the book. François Lelord wants the reader to guess where Hector is from and where he goes on many of his travels. He also uses the overly cute euphemism they do the thing that people in love do instead of saying Hector the horndog has sex with two strangers while he leaves his girlfriend at home. There are other places where the author refuses to use clear and simple language, as if he really were writing a children’s book and all but resorts to spelling out words to protect delicate ears.
Lesson 18: Happiness could be the freedom to love more than one woman at the same time. Hector scratches this rule out, but clearly wishes he could have at least two of his three women in his everyday life.
Hector and the Search for Happiness is a very good book and it put a smile on my face in a number of places. The lessons he learns are clear and simple, but as he notes, happiness is more a byproduct than something that can be whipped up out of thin air.
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