Publisher's Weekly Review
This trite debut follows a psychiatrist named Hector as he attempts to understand "what made people happy." At a crossroads professionally and personally, Hector resolves to take a trip, first landing in China, where he reconnects with an old friend and encounters Ying Li, with whom he spends a night. He also meets an old monk who offers a bit of happiness-related wisdom. Having suffered disappointment in his relations with Ying Li, Hector next heads to Africa, where he makes the acquaintance of a drug lord with a depressed wife, is kidnapped, and learns that "it's harder to be happy in a country run by bad people." Next up is the "big country where there were more psychiatrists than anywhere else in the world" and a meeting with a professor of "Happiness Studies." Lelord, a psychiatrist, writes in the simple prose you'd find in a children's book, and this stylistic choice quickly becomes irredeemably grating. Though the book is an international bestseller, it is far less a novel than a maudlin self-help guide that substitutes pat aphorisms for development. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
A simple parable, Lelord's first novel is a quick read that considers a complex emotion. Hector, a French psychiatrist and a charming narrator, is wrestling with a certain melancholy, so he embarks on a grand journey from China to Africa to the U.S. and experiences a string of wild, almost absurd events. While some readers may consider Hector and his lessons on happiness as trite cliches, the accessible story line and language do not belie intellect. Rather, like Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, Lelord's tale induces one to suspend disbelief and embrace the innocent character and his discoveries as embodying the breadth and depth of human experience. At the onset of Hector's wanderings, a Chinese monk imparts. It's a mistake to think that happiness is the goal. In that vein, Lelord's novel should be read not for a revelatory ending but for the wisdom and reflection it imparts throughout.--Fronk, Katharin. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In this first novel, which achieved best-seller status overseas, a psychiatrist named Hector takes a trip around the world to find out what makes people happy and to define what happiness is. From China to Africa, he talks to many people, and every time he learns something instructive about happiness, he writes it down in a notebook. Then he verifies his list with a Professor of Happiness and discovers that he has indeed figured it out-mostly. Lelord, a French-born psychiatrist and author of several self-help books, has written this story as if speaking to a child-he's presenting a simplified version of Hector's (and his) adventure. The book, part of a series, reads something like Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon, but the overall effect is charming, clever, humorous, and insightful. VERDICT Adults and teens will both enjoy this rulebook for happiness; recommended.-Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
