Book: The President’s Hat
Basic Information :
Synopsis :
Characters :
Expectations :
Thoughts :
Evaluation :
Book Group :
New Words :
Book References :
Good Quotes :
References
Basic Information:
Author: Antoine Laurian
Edition: ePub on Libby from the Los Angeles Public Library
Publisher: Gallic Books
ISBN: 9781908313478 (ISBN10: 1908313471)
Start Date: December 22, 2021
Read Date: December 31. 2021
208 pages
Genre: Fiction
Language Warning: Low
Rated Overall: 3 out of 5
Fiction-Tells a good story: 4 out of 5
Fiction-Character development: 4 out of 5
Synopsis:
What about Mitterrand’s hat gives its wearer the confidence and determination to take on what they would shirk from without it? This story takes on the hat’s journey from the time Mitterrand forgets it in a restaurant to when it gets returned to him. Daniel gets confident in his own thinking; Fanny is able to understand her lover is a dead end; Pierre overcomes a block to his abilities; and Bernard takes on a new outlook.
Cast of Characters:
- Daniel Mercier-picks up François Mitterrand’s hat. A low level governmental manager who suddenly has confidence and is able to express his ideas.
- François Mitterrand-somewhat minor character in story. President of France.
- Fanny Marquant-second person to find the hat. She has a lover, or more accurately the receiving end of an affair. She gets the boldness to end the affair, write a story and open a bookshop.
- Edouard -Fanny Marquant’s lover
- Pierre Aslan-creator of fragrances. Regains confidence with the hat.
- Dr Fremenberg-Aslan’s psychologist
- Esther Kerwitcz-a classical pianist, world renowned. Wife of Aslan
- Bernard Lavalliere-upper crust inheriter of money and the hat.
- Monsieur Djion-import/exporter. Liberal. Same building as Bernard. Physically large. Also able to negotiate.
- Recommendation: Book Group-Val
- When: December 9, 2021
- How come do I want to read this book: Book group book for January
- What do I think I will get out of it? A good read
Thoughts:
There are no chapters in this story, even though there are definite breaks in the story telling. I wonder if this is just his style or something he wants to make integral to the story.
The hat:
- homburg
- Has F.M. in the headband
- Black
Interesting. When you look at Google photo’s of François Mitterrand, only two show a hat out of the first set (maybe a hundred photos). Evidently a hat was not a big part of Mitterand’s life.
A series of people come across François Mitterrand’s hat. While they possess it, they are subsequently endowed with confidence to tackle circumstances they had not confronted before.
The first is Daniel Mercier, a low level department management person, a deputy director. He goes into a restaurant-his wife a child is away, to find a bit of himself again. As he is dining, François Mitterrand gets seated in the next booth, along with some friends. Daniel is able to hear the conversation and imagine he is part of the group. He imagines himself to be witty and able to hold his own in the group. This was in November 1986.
When the President of France leaves, Daniel rehearses the conversation. He reviews the small choices he had made this evening which lead him to dine beside the President. The important events in our lives are always the result of a sequence of tiny details. Then notices that Mitterand had left his hat. Instead of letting the restaurant know, he takes the hat, a theft. He cannot explain, but He felt buoyed up with a confidence that was as comforting as a warm bath. Daniel rationalizes his theft by saying others would have just kept it.His wife thought it would be too bad he could not have given it back. He still preferred the real-life version of the story, the one that ended with him wearing the presidential hat on his own head The hat has Mitterand’s initials on the inside, F.M.
At work, Daniel is insignificant. That is until he gains confidence. Then he disputes a plan in front of his superior. The head of finance of SOGETEC is there and is impressed. He felt that his real self was now on display. The hat is a homberg. Wearing a hat gives you a feeling of authority over someone who isn’t, he thought to himself.
He meets with the head of Finance for breakfast. Daniel gets promoted to director. He will move to Rouen. He was now part of the in-group. He was now a person who could use words to his own benefit. But he loses the hat on the train on the way to Rouen.
SOGETEC-Sounds almost like a quasi governmental agency. But I do not see it on a Google search.
===
The story of the hat now takes the turn where Fanny Marquant finds it. She is trying to write a short story to enter into a contest, Prix Balbec. She is in an affair with Edouard who is married. She is stuck in it. It is not moving towards marriage, but she does not get out of it. He keeps on pleading for more time. She is 27. She finds the hat abandoned on the train. It is raining, so she takes it for protection.
Fanny notices the initials on the inside and thinks it may be destiny for her since they have the same ones. While a male’s hat, she suddenly feels more attractive. She becomes very possessive of the hat and will not let her lover touch it. The dynamics of their relationship is changing. She feels the hat is giving her better decision making. Edouard becomes very inquisitive about where she got the hat, after all, it is a man’s hat. Fanny breaks off their affair.
Fanny was left with the thought, How could you disappear from someone’s life just like that? This could lead to self-doubt? Or wondering what was there in the first place? Fanny realizes that there was nothing left to remind her of Edouard. Which makes you wonder if there ever was something there? Do people need something physical when they are in a relationship? Is love enough?
One thing which Fanny now had was a conclusion to her story. She felt that the hat had served its purpose. Now what to do with it. Unlike Daniel or Mitterand who lost it, she would purposely give it up. She left it on a park bench and then monitored who would come and take it. Eventually a man of 60, sniffed it and took it.
Mylene Farmer you can also find her singing on YouTube
le nouvel observateur - there is a magazine by that name
===
Pierre Aslan now has the hat.The reason why he sniffed it was that until he hit the equivalent of a writer’s block, he was the premier designer of scents. It was his job to sniff and determine what scents there were and what would make a scent people would want. He was able to determine the scents on a hat.
Because of the block Pierre faced he was seeing a psychologist who did not talk, only listened. He had been going to him for several years. Pierre felt that not only was he a disappointment to his company, his wife, but also to his psychologist. A ‘disappointment’ was the worst possible thing to be. This has got to be one of the most charged sentences in the book: Pierre Aslan had been great, now he wasn’t. Not that he was not useful, nor able to be in front of everybody. But he was totally invisible. He was not a person to anybody.
A thought on the psychologist-why even have the psychologist? Does this type of therapy make the psychologist to be more of an automaton than a person?
Having the hat gave Pierre some fond remembrances of his first hat, where he had met Tony Curtis and became distant friends.
After finding the hat, Pierre goes back to the apartment to find his pianist wife practicing. The notes sounded good to him, but not good to her. A tiny detail became a huge obstacle and they could only rest easy once they had surmounted it. When do you need to be perfect and when does it not matter? I think my answer would be when it matters to yourself. Laurian’s observation: The repetition of the notes helped create a reassuring impression of eternity.
A sign that the hat was changing him: he cut off his beard, revealing a new person. Esther cried because she felt she was getting her husband back. Many years ago, during a makeover, my beard was cut off. I did not feel new, I felt naked.
Pierre felt that the head chose the hat more than the hat had chosen him. This gave him a feeling of significance. Also he felt the old Pierre was reaching out to the disillusioned Pierre. He went as far as burning his old clothes, the clothes he had degraded into. He now dressed himself as one who was like his old self.
Then inspiration struck-or maybe the hat drying released scents. He found the scent he had been looking for. From there, he created the scent he was smelling. He sent it to his old company who received it aesthetically.
He missed four months of appointments with the psychologist who demanded payment.
Pierre’s thoughts about parallel timelines. Where what happens if you did not do something or did do something. Are they all viable branches?
The family goes out to dinner. The wrong hat is returned to Pierre.
Eau d’Hadrien-a real fragrance designed by Annick Goutal
I wonder if the character Pierre Aslan is based on the perfume designed by Annick Goutal. She was a concert pianist, like Aslan’s wife, and then became a perfume designer. She designed the scent Eau d’Hadrien
====
Daniel has put in an ad. Fanny answers it to say she had the hat but no longer does. Also gives a bit more background. She is considering marriage. She has won the first prize because of her story about Edouard. Daniel answers and gives more background. Fanny sees an article about Pierre and a very brief mention about the hat. Sends it on to Daniel. The article is shown. The author of the article writes to Daniel. Pierre writes briefly to Daniel.
===
Bernard Lavalliere is the person who got the hat mixed up. Bernard never saw that this was not his hat.
They had gone to a friend's dinner party. At the party among people who are conservative, which he himself is on, asks that Mitterand’s name is said correctly. This earns him the scorn of all who are in attendance, including his wife. Mitterand is a socialist. Mittrand’ served as a password among them. Sort of like Trump is for liberals, for any Democratic politician is conservatives.
Bernard found out that his “friends” could not stand even the minor correction of mispronouncing a name. In what way did these people really count as friends? It was far too strong a word for what they meant to him; just because you had had the same sort of education, had gone to the same parties and the same universities, that didn’t make you friends. It was ridiculous to think that it did. They moved in the same circles. This brings up the question of what is friendship? Bernard then goes on and tries to find examples of friendship. Saint-Exupéry, on the other hand, had written very eloquently on the subject, with his tale of the little tamed fox you were forever responsible for. This was in the book Little Prince.
This brought out memories of childhood and the warmth of a stove at the cook’s house. He now re-evaluates what gives him comfort. His surroundings said to him: You’re a conventional bourgeois and you always will be. You’re exactly the same as everyone else at that dinner. Just like them, you live surrounded by things you did not choose and to which you have contributed almost nothing new. Your children will do the same and their children after them, and so it will go on.
He was now reading liberal newspapers-there was only one in his building who read that. The person was Djion. His family was taken back and criticized it. His retort was one ought to have some idea of what one is talking about before presuming to criticise.
He was now looking around with new eyes. An art project (Beuren’s Columns) which he thought was ridiculous showed people using it and enjoying it. The glass pyramid of the Louvre was different from how he thought about it. He was now seeing life through the eyes of those on the left. Also being scorned by those on the right. How had Machiavelli put it? ‘He must have a spirit that can change depending on the winds and variations of Fortune.’
Dijon invites Bernard to a party being held by Jacques Seguela. This will be a hotbed of leftest and new artist types. It was one of those nights that take you back to the magical nights of youth, filled with fun, freedom and boundary breaking – the kind of nights that naturally exist only in your imagination. At the party, he meets a person who has a gallery of Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings. Bernard feels wild enough to buy three for a substantial amount of money.
This leads to a changing of his decor in his apartment. His wife throws a tantrum, but agrees, one in the home; two in the office. People see him as an asset if the Leftist win in 1988. Then his hat is stolen.
Santiago de Compostela-mentioned more as a weekend hike than as a pilgrimage for reasons of the spirit.
Apostrophes-A TV show about literature. Ran for 22 years. Also ended with the Proust Questionnaire
AXA-there is a large French insurance company called AXA. is this the one Bernard is employed by?
la force tranquille - the quiet force. Apparently the motto of Mitterrand
====
Daniel was the one stealing the hat. He had stalked Bernard and found his opportunity. It had been an obsession with him.
His family and he went to Venice Mitterrand is there at the same time as Daniel and Daniel catches a glimpse of him. Daniel is starting to feel guilty about keeping the hat. The hat gets blown away and Daniel goes off and chases it. Another person finds it and gives it back, with the comment that he had found the note. Perhaps the elderly Italian who had returned the hat to him was just one element of an overall scheme. There is a note with the phone number call if you found the hat.
 |
| 16 Rue de Passy, Paris, France |
There really is a 16 Rue de Passy, Paris, France.
EPILOGUE
This segment is told from Mitterrand's point of view. Mitterrand knew he had left the hat and had Daniel followed. They note that Fanny took the hat from the train. Then left it on the park bench where Pierre picked it up. Security found a copy of Fanny’s story of The Hat. Also they picked up a bottle of Pierre’s newest fragrance. They are able to track the hat through Daniels advertisements and the fact that he had stolen it. Mitterrand also added Fanny’s book store to the list of places they procured books from.
After Mitterrand died in 1996, his personal effects were sold. The French Socialist Party bought the lot where a homburg hat had been auctioned off. Every hat-wearer’s life is measured in a succession of headgear that wears out, is mislaid and found, or sometimes never seen again..
And then there is a summary of each character and what happened to them.
In Mitterrand’s final end of the year address he says: I believe in the power of the spirit and I will never leave you
Evaluation:
The President’s Hat by Antoine Laurian is a mostly enjoyable read. What happens to people when French President François Mitterrand’s hat gets left behind in a restaurant. A man picks it up and his life is changed. The hat gets misplaced and a woman gets the determination to change her life. Two others come into possession of the hat before it finds its way back to Mitterrand, transferring each person’s life.
The weakest part of the book is the Epilogue. Laurain tries to give a view of the hat’s travels from Mitterrand’s view, but it seems like the President of France has very little to do. Then the author summarizes each person’s life after the hat departs from their lives. This chapter is somewhat a throwaway. But the rest of the book is worth a few hours of your time.
Notes from my book group:
Describe the Mitterrand’s hat.
Do you have a favorite hat or article of clothing which you feel more confident in?
Who was François Mitterrand? What were his policies? What was his foreign relations like? Oes the book reflect a bias to or against him? Or an accurate description?
Lets start with the Epilogue. Describe Mitterrand and his actions when he lost his hat. Is he controlling? Curious? Using this as an experiment? Do you think he knew he was getting back his hat in the end? Do you think he wanted the hat to be taken?
Describe Daniel Mercier. Where is Daniel’s life going before procuring the hat? After? Why does the hat make a difference?
What would you have done if you found the hat?
Why do you think Daniel felt more confident in the meeting to confront a superior’s plan?
Describe Fanny.
Why do you think she kept her relationship with Edouard? What did Edouard give to Fanny? What did the hat give her to confront him? When Edouard leaves, she realizes that there was nothing to remind her of him. Is this something we need to remember somebody else?
Fanny was left with the thought, How could you disappear from someone’s life just like that? Have you known people whom you think a lot of which disappear from your life? How did it feel? Did it give you empathy with Franny?
Describe Pierre.
Was the psychologist’s approach real or a caricature? Why didn’t Pierra change approaches? What does Laurian think of psychologists?
What did the hat do for Pierre? How did it do it to him? Pierre felt that the head chose the hat more than the hat had chosen him. Explain this. Why didn’t Pierre create any more scents after his angel scent?
Pierre’s wife is a pianist. She plays a phrase of music over and over again. A tiny detail became a huge obstacle and they could only rest easy once they had surmounted it. Why does she need to do this if nobody will notice? When do you need to be perfect and when does it not matter? Laurian goes on and says that The repetition of the notes helped create a reassuring impression of eternity. Explain this..
Does a makeover change the person?
Laurian includes a section of letters back and forth from Daniel to Fanny and Pierre. What do they add to the book?
Describe Bernard.
Does Laurian expose his leanings in this character?
Is mispronouncing or making fun of names, just good political sport?
Laurain talks about friendship. What does he say about friendship? Is this how you would define friendship? CS Lewis talks about being that each member of the circle feels, in his secret heart, humbled before all the rest. Sometimes he wonders what he is doing there among his betters. He is lucky beyond dessert to be in such company. “The Four Loves”, chapter Friendship, pg 104
When Bernard’s selection of newspapers was attacked, he noted that one ought to have some idea of what one is talking about before presuming to criticise. Why do you think Laurian places this in Bernard’s mouth? (The book was written in 2013). How can we adopt some of this thinking?
Often when something public is changed, there is discord about what is the need for change? Why the expense? In Laurain’s book it is both the Beuren Columns and the pyramid in front of the Louvre. What has changed in your location which have been controversial? How was it resolved? How do we resolve what changes should take place in the public areas?
Unlike Mitterrand, Daniel, Pierre or Bernard, Fanny was the only one who voluntarily gave up the hat. Why do you think Fanny did? Did she regret it? If you have something which gives you an extra something to make you better, would you give it up voluntarily?
Do you think Mitterrand arranged to be at the same place as Daniel in Venice?
When Daniel originally eats with Mitterrand, he thinks: The important events in our lives are always the result of a sequence of tiny details. Later on Pierre talks about life being like a forest. Each tree shows a different route a life could take. Talk about Laurian’s thinking here.
Do you think how Laurain finished the story with the Epilogue was a strong finish?
Which character or their situation do you most identify with?
What moral choices, if any, do the characters need to make?
Do you think the hat possessed magical powers?
Who has read The Prince?
Why do you think Laurian wrote this book? Do you think he was a promoter of Leftist ideas?
Why do you think Laurain ended the book with some of Mitterand's final public words: I believe in the power of the spirit and I will never leave you?
Answer the Proust Questionnaire.
How do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why the title of The President’s Hat?
Does this story work as a short story?
Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Which character was the most convincing? Least?
Which character did you identify with?
Which one did you dislike?
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In what context was religion talked about in this book?
Was there anybody you would consider religious?
How did they show it?
Was the book overtly religious?
How did it affect the book's story?
Why do you think the author wrote this book?
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What “takeaways” did you have from this book?
What central ideas does the author present?
Are they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual, medical, or scientific
What evidence does the author use to support the book's ideas?
Is the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?
Does the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment? Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?
What implications for you, our nation or the world do these ideas have?
Are these idea’s controversial?
To whom and why?
Are there solutions which the author presents?
Do they seem workable? Practicable?
How would you implement them?
Describe the culture talked about in the book.
How is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
What economic or political situations are described?
Does the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
How did this book affect your view of the world?
Of how God is viewed?
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?
Reading Groups General Fiction Guide
New Words:
- arrondissement-a subdivision of a French department, for local government administration. an administrative district of certain large French cities, in particular Paris.
- Aperitif-an alcoholic drink taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite
- Orangina-a lightly carbonated beverage made from carbonated water, 12% citrus juice (10% from concentrated orange, 2% from a combination of concentrated lemon, concentrated mandarin, and concentrated grapefruit juices), as well as 2% orange pulp.Orangina is sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup (glucose fructose) and natural flavors are added
- brasserie-an informal restaurant, especially one in France or modeled on a French one and with a large selection of drinks.
- andouillette- coarse-grained sausage made with pork (or occasionally veal), chitterlings (intestine), pepper, wine, onions, and seasonings.
- saucisson-a family of thick, dry-cured sausages in French cuisine. Typically made of pork, or a mixture of pork and other meats, saucisson are a type of charcuterie similar to salami or summer sausage.
Book References:
- The Prince by Machiavelli
- The French Lady by ???
Good Quotes:
- First Line: Daniel Mercier went up the stairs at Gare Saint-Lazare as the crowd surged down.
- Last Line: I believe in the power of the spirit and I will never leave you.
- The important events in our lives are always the result of a sequence of tiny details.
- The repetition of the notes helped create a reassuring impression of eternity.
- one ought to have some idea of what one is talking about before presuming to criticise.
- Every hat-wearer’s life is measured in a succession of headgear that wears out, is mislaid and found, or sometimes never seen again.
References:
2 comments:
Hi,..
I can’t simply go without leaving a comment. This post is a great read. I hope you can take the time to read my post as well (Aura McClain).
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