Name: Hector and the Search for Happiness
Rating: 3.416666666666667 (18 reviews)
ISBN: 9781906040994

François Lelord

Can we learn how to be happy? Hector is a successful young psychiatrist. He's very good at treating patients in real need of his help. But many people he sees have no health problems: they're just deeply dissatisfied with their lives. Hector can't do much for them, and it's beginning to depress him. So when a patient tells him he looks in need of a holiday, Hector decides to set off round the world to find out what makes people everywhere happy (and sad), and whether there is such a thing as the secret of true happiness...

Hector and the Search for Happiness

Story of a psychiatrist who traveled around the world to try to understand what made people happy or unhappy.

A Novel

Edwin Lang

I was sitting in a hospital recently while visiting someone who was sick and having a chili from an open concept, in-house Tim Hortons by the hospital's entrance and registration desk. Not far from me was a man waiting for his wife to return with some goodies, who seemed healthy and fit and could easily have been a distinguished engineer for a large engineering or construction firm or was some form of self-made man. His wife had seemed frail and aging so it was a shock when I realized that it was the man in whom there was no one home: he obviously had some form of Alzheimer’s, perhaps that dreaded early-onset variety, and she was his caregiver. There is love, and sex and longing, in Francois Lelord’s 2002 book Hector and the Search for Happiness. I mention this in the context of the tragedy that has enveloped this poor senile man before me, and his faithful spouse. Hector in his travels had drafted a rule for happiness (#18, and shame on me I suppose as it is the only one I can recall), 'happiness is the freedom to love more than one woman at a time'. Hector was a distinguished psychiatrist - as was the author - and did not mean this from a promiscuous point of view: I think he was reflecting on each person’s need for love and to be loved, and the need for physical contact, and this as a key component of happiness. It also reflects the great deal of humour in Lelord’s book – and the story and all of it is presented in a very light-hearted manner - but it has many serious moments and touches on serious topics – death, sickness, corruption, money and materialism – and so is in many respects a really serious treatise on happiness. The book was also written by a Frenchman and I was reading a 2010 translation by Lorenza Garcia. The French (as do the Canadian Quebecers) have a unique perspective on life and how it should be lived. I recalled, in reading this (mostly at the hospital by the way, and mostly in Tim Horton’s) a movie which I think is called The Man Who Loved Women, and whose hero dies at the very beginning by being hit by a car as he turns his head back to admire an attractive women walking by. I think, secretly at least, every man wants to die like this, except perhaps by a Mach truck to ensure the chances of survival are exceedingly slim. This thought came to me as I had noticed an attractive middle-age woman in a tight clingy but becoming dress, and laughed at myself for being so attracted to bright shiny things that I might well have the genes of a raccoon in me. It was the same reason I bought the book in a second hand book store: it had a bright, light attractive cover. I have no regrets in buying or reading it. It is light and a great summer read and it is never a waste of time to be reminded that each of us is called to live a good life. Hector emerges from his search for happiness an enriched and better man, and better psychiatrist too. Hector and the Search for Happiness was a popular book when it was released and there have been many sequels. There is a sadness about it though, because we know that Hector is above the fray of the ordinary man, like the hapless engineer with Alzheimer’s. One gets the sense that Hector never really gets his hands dirty, and will ultimately be far too careful to ever get hit by a Mack truck. It is now 20 years later, and we are beyond the 9-11 that Lelord had to wrestle with. We are faced now with calamitous climate change, massive levels of immigration and migrations, incursion of the wealthy and super-wealthy into everything we had once held sacred. It is also a moral tale. We do not just live in hard times but in a time where many of us are appalled that even our moralists have dirty hands. I am a Catholic, and it is disheartening to see the evidence of the immoral and illegal behaviour of a few and to be a witness to the immoral and illegal behaviour of the many who attempted to cover the dirt up. So Hector is an innocent and good man, and this story is an innocent and refreshing book, written by both a fictional doctor (Hector) and a real-life doctor (Francois Lelord), who ultimately are sincere in their desire to help their fellow man and woman. It is a good little book and I recommend it. Edwin

Originally published: New York: Penguin Books, 2010.

Rodrigo Figueiredo Severino

** spoiler alert **
           This was a roller coaster of a book. First of all this book has some of the most basic writing I’ve ever seen and sometimes it was charming, some others it was not. The last line of the book is like the most childish written quote by an adult.

Now why was this a rollercoaster? Cuz this book nearly lost me. I adored the pages in China, and the bits with Ying Li. It made me kinda weirded out how easily the protagonist cheated on his wife and even blamed her for it, but you know what? I liked their story so much I even overlooked it. Now the Africa stuff was also cool UNTIL HECTOR CHEATED AGAIN WITH ANOTHER WOMAN, which made me super frustrated and made me not care whatsoever about what happened in the States. The ending redeemed this tho which pushed it back up to 4 stars. This is apparently a series but I feel like this caps off pretty well.

Some bits of this were super charming and beautifully written and then some just made me want to rip my eye balls off. I really liked it is what I’m trying to say.

Domenico Di Leo

A nice easy book to read that touches on one the fundamental questions of human existence: the search for happiness. It can be an eye opener for people who think that happiness is the goal or that being richer or more important make you happier.

Pretty cheerful book, came off a bit naive in its overall message. I thought it had some good messages, especially near the end as Hector grew as a character, but I thought it was a little too simple

Emma Lechner

Anna Ureta

Every once in a while I’ll read a motivational novel.
 People need to be motivated or encouraged every once in a while to do something or need that extra boost on how to live. In Hector’s Search for Happiness, I found that it wasn’t an instructional or How To manual, but instead a nice guide or rather nice insight on how to be happier. I’m not saying these points and methods work for everyone but I think they make a lot of sense. I think a good motivational novel every now and then would do everyone some good – just like it did for Hector.
 
Hector is a psychiatrists in a city that needs a lot of psychiatrists. He is very good at his job and listens to his patients very well. Sometimes he prescribes them pills and other times they just come back for more sessions because his rates are fair and they think he’s very good at what he does. But Hector finds he’s not happy, so how can he make other people happy if he himself isn’t happy. So he takes a leave and travels around the world in order to figure out the secret to happiness.
 
Raw, vulnerable, and imaginative, I believe everyone should take a page out of Hector’s book and should travel the world to find what makes them happy. Often times happiness can be found in the simplest of places but it takes leaving to find it. I thought this book was incredibly creative and imaginative. It was such a small and such a quick read, but the values it teaches you are very important.
 
The book is told from a narrative point of view, as if someone was reading you a bedtime story.
 This was the first time I’d ever read something like this and thought it extremely creative. It almost sounds like it was written by a child as they almost never give specifics or go into too much detail as it drives away from the story.
 
“And since he was seeing more and more people who were unhappy for no apparent reason, he was becoming more and more tired, and even a little happy himself. He began to wonder whether he was in the right profession, whether he was happy with his life, whether he wasn’t missing out on something. And then he felt very afraid because he wondered whether these unhappy people were contagious.”
 
The points that Hector makes or what he discovers on his trip can definitely be applied, in some manner, to how we live our lives. I’m not saying that this is the key, I’m just saying what he discovers and his experiences make a lot of sense.
 
In truth, I did see the film adaptation before the book, and I did prefer the film over the book, not because I was biased but there was just something…even more simplistic to the movie than to the book. I think the message the book is trying to send is conveyed better in the novel than the film, but the film still has this beautiful aesthetic to it that leaves audiences in awe and wonder that they should be taking steps to leading happier lives. So go see the movie, or read the book, preferably both! Because they are both absolute terrific.
 
I often wonder what it’s like to be happy, especially because I don’t feel that I’m particularly happy with my situation in life. It’s not just about material things or my job….I want to be simply happy – Happy for the sake of being happy. Right now it’s difficult because I’m fighting depression and a health condition that affects my self-esteem and state of being, but I do want to be happy again and I hope I can be one day. I think this book is a terrific first step and has inspired me to see waht makes other people happy.
 
5/5 Hearts of Love

Lorenza Garcia

James Clamp

Georgia Carr

If you want to read a supposedly 'inspirational' book told through sentences written for tiny children with a protagonist who is obsessed with women in a creepy way, then this is the book for you. 

If, like me, that's not for you, don't bother. I wanted to love this and I didn't like it one bit.

NOPE. Never rolled my eyes this much because of a book. Got through this only because I had it as an audibook.

Hector is an excellent psychiatrist. He's very good at treating patients who are ill, but more and more, his patients are people he can't treat. They have no serious problems -- they're simply deeply dissatisfied with their lives. Hector can't do much for these people, and it's beginning to depress him. So when a patient tells him he looks in need of a holiday, Hector decides to set off on a trip around the world to try to find the key to happiness. Along the way, Hector keeps a list of observations about the people he meets and learns a great deal about what true contentment is all about. His journey into the soul is entertaining, empowering and often funny -- as winning in its optimism as it is powerful in its simplicity.

Melody Izard

This is sort of Jonathan Livingston Seagull redo. It's simple, true, and practical. Hector does like his women to act a bit like a trinket however. But he is still a goodhearted soul.

Elizabeth Garza

Was this charming? 
Kind of. 
Was it dumb? 
Yes, but also no(?). 
Would I recommend it? 
Eh. Probably not, unless you want something that's kinda cutesy, and written simply, and doesn't require a whole lot of brain cells to digest. 

This book is very . . . male orientated, and reflective of its culture and time. Take that as you will.

Rachel Schommer

Cute concept, but the way women are portrayed in this book is just something I can't get over.

Hector and the Search for Happiness

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