Set in 1980’s Paris, The President’s hat is a charming story about the hat of President François Mitterrand. One evening Mitterand accidently leaves his hat in a restaurant, and it is picked up by Daniel Mercier, a man who dined next to him. When Daniel wears the hat, he becomes more successful than he ever imagined, which he attributes entirely to the hat. Eventually Daniel loses the hat and is consumed with finding it again so that he may return to the life it provided him. ( )

A favourite book of mine and the third time I have read it. Probably my favourite book of the last ten years and definitely my favourite author. ❤️ ( )

Collection of whimsical linked short stories following the journey of Francois Mitterend's hat. ( )

Ein total nettes Buch das den Hut des französischen Präsidenten auf seinem Weg begleitet, wobei er bei verschiedenen Menschen landet und für eine kurze Zeit bei ihnen bleibt.
Es war eine locker leichte Geschichte für zwischen durch aber nichts außergewöhnliches. Die Geschichte der letzten Person hat mir nicht so gefallen. ( )

{stand alone. Historical fiction} (2013)

This seems to be a novella (my e-book is under 200 pages) and tells the story of the adventures of François Mitterand's hat starting in November 1986 when he had been president for about five years. The hat passes from person to person and seems to imbue them with presidential qualities, allowing them to find the strength of character to change their lives (for the better). It is told as one continuous story, albeit divided into title-less chapters, but I am dividing my review by character.

Daniel Mercier
When he decides to treat himself to a good (lovingly described) brasserie dinner while his wife and son are away on holiday, Daniel Mercier finds himself dining next to the (then) president of France. He realises later that Mitterrand has left his hat behind and so ... he takes it, most uncharacteristically. But he wears it constantly and feels that it gives him confidence.

Back in his office, Daniel settled into his swivel chair, stroked his hat, which he had placed on the desk in front of him, and savoured the quiet of the room. He closed his eyes. He had got through the meeting without being assailed by one of the waves of anxiety that had plagued him since early childhood. On the contrary, he had experienced a sense of serene calm. Just a few days ago, the very idea of a confrontation with Jean Maltard would have raised his blood pressure and brought on an attack of heartburn with the last bite of lunch. Tense as a bowstring, he would have played back their exchange over and over again in his mind, castigating himself all afternoon for some clumsy phrase, some word or point that had, unquestionably, caused him to hand the argument to Maltard. Daniel would have emerged ashen and drained at the end of the day.
Not so now.

3.5****

Fanny Marquant
When Fanny Marquant needs protection from the rain as she disembarks the Le Havre-Paris train (on the same evening of the day that Daniel took the train to Rouen from Paris), she finds a hat that doesn’t seem to belong to anyone else but has her initials in it. When she puts it on, along with her designer outfit that she shouldn’t have indulged in, she feels more powerful and it gives her the courage to face down her lover who hasn’t managed to leave his wife in nearly two and a half years.

At the age of twenty-seven, Fanny had achieved the status of mistress. The question of whether she might one day be promoted to official wife was still up in the air, as was the possibility of promotion to executive secretary at the tax office. Her application for that position was ‘under careful consideration’. The recruitment process for her life role was at the same stage, ‘under careful consideration’ by Édouard, whose inertia was thus on a par with that of the civil service.

And then she realises who the original owner must have been.

The picture showed François Mitterrand with a red scarf around his neck, a dark coat and a black felt hat on his head. He was staring into the camera with a mischievous glint in his eye, and Fanny had the distinct impression the President was looking straight at her.

3.25***

Pierre Aslan
Pierre ‘the Nose’ used to be a genius, creating well known perfumes, but for many years has been depressed because he suddenly lost his muse and has been unable to create scents. When he finds the hat, he smells Mitterrand’s eau de Cologne but also Solstice, the scent Fanny wears and one of those that Pierre created.

But there was also another perfume on the hat, a more recent addition: bergamot, pink jasmine, sweet myrrh, vanilla, iris and tonka bean. Pierre could have recited the ingredients of the second scent forwards or backwards. It was that mythical perfume Solstice. His perfume. Invented by him, Pierre Aslan, the nose.
He could not have said why he had picked up the hat. He had long since given up trying to find reasons for his bizarre behaviour, which had previously been a source of such confusion. He sniffed the hat again: there were definitely two perfumes, Eau d’Hadrien, for men, and Solstice, for women.

And so the hat brings him a new lease of life and one day Pierre takes his family to a certain brasserie.

There are a lot of well known brands throughout the book (the companies where the characters work, for example) and in Pierre’s chapters there are many recognisable perfumes.

3.75****

Then follows a series of correspondence between the characters as Daniel Mercier tries to recover the lost hat and we discover that they have capitalised on their good fortune, which has continued even after the hat passed out of their respective hands.

4****

Bernard Levallière
Bernard, a scion of old French aristocracy and who always wears a hat, unexpectedly (after visiting a certain brasserie) defends Mitterrand at a dinner party one night and then rebels against his family’s conservative traditions, becoming a buyer of modern art.

I feel his story was an excuse for Laurain to extol the good that Mitterrand did for France.

3***

And finally, after its adventures, the hat decides to return to its legitimate owner, aided by Daniel Mercier who has been trying to find his lucky hat.
4****

Epilogue
A quirky twist on the whole story.
4****

July 2021
Averaging: 3.75**** ( )