The President's Hat (2012) by Antoine Laurain: A Review

 

"The important events in our lives are always the result of a sequence of tiny details."

🎩 Isn't that quote so true? That is what this story is truly about. Set in Paris in the 1986, a series of trivial incidents touched and changed the lives of at least four people.

🎩 Daniel Mercier is an ordinary accountant. One day he impulsively decides to dine alone at an elegant Parisian brassiere. A group of men sit next to his table, and to his astonishment, Daniel recognizes one of them being François Mitterand, the President!

🎩 The President put his black felt hat up on the rail. The dinner becomes the most memorable one for Daniel, not only because he sits next to the President's (he's dreaming to become the fourth person on that table!), but also because after the President and his entourage left, Daniel notices that the President has forgotten his hat. It's still there! Again, impulsively, Daniel takes it (after making sure nobody sees him, of course), wear it on his head, and leave.

Mitterand wearing his Homburg

🎩 The hat boosts Daniel's confidence; so much so, that on a meeting, he dares to contradict his manager, and comes up with a brilliant idea. This amuses the big boss, that Daniel is soon promoted. On the way to the new city he's promoted to, Daniel accidentally leaves his precious hat on the train. It is soon found by a girl called Fanny Marquant, who is on board the next train.

🎩 And so, the President's hat's "adventures" begins. Fanny is an aspiring writer in a toxic relationship with a married man who couldn't (wouldn't?) divorce his wife. The relationship has gone stale, but Fanny hadn't had courage to break it up. She wears the hat that night, and soon dumps him. Feeling that the hat had served its purpose for her, she leaves it on a park bench. An unkempt man takes it. And Fanny writes story about her experience with the hat to be included in a contest.

🎩 The hat then touches two other lives: that of Pierre Aslan (used to be the most genius perfume inventor people nicknamed "The Nose"), but had had a career break down for years. The other one is Bernard Lavallier, a right wing conservative who would soon change his views!

🎩 All the while, Daniel tries to locate the missing hat (he still can't say goodbye with it). And for me, this is the second best part of this book - the 1980s way of living; with no cellphones, no internet, no google). Daniel's entire effort to find the hat is through letters, newspaper add, and phone calls.

🎩 I also loved how Laurain included the 1980s pop culture in the story. The mention of popular perfumes of that era, TV series (David Hasselhoff in The Knight Rider); all these brought me back to that glorious era - my era! It's an unexpected sweet nostalgia for me. Laurain wrote it beautifully that I was transported to that era whenever I opened the book.

🎩 The President's Hat is a wonderfully crafted story of ordinary people whose lives are crushed by disappointments and chains of daily routines, that they can't find courage when they need it. It needs something trivial but extraordinary to break that chain, for them to see the clearer way to success. Every single one of them have in themselves the capability; it's a powerful "kick" that they lack of.

🎩 l love, love, love this book! It's funny, sweet, unputdownable, brilliant, inspiring story. And let me say this: the 1980s is the best era!

Rating: 5 / 5

2nd book for Paris in July 2023