Francois Lelord, himself a psychiatrist, created this fictional character named Hector in his first novel “Hector and the Search for Happiness”. The writer continued with the same fictional character in his third book. This time round, Hector journeyed on to find the answer to why people are up against the clock and why people are always short of time for activities. He is trying to understand why some people wanted to slow down time; why some wanted to speed time up and why most worried about time.As a psychiatrist, he came across patients with different concerns about time. Hubert, a patient, wished he could turn back the clock and showered his wife with more attention. Marie-Agnes wanted to stay young to meet many more suitors.Hector had written a Time Exercise which I thought was very meaningful:“Imagine your life as a big roll of fabric, from which you have made all the clothes you have worn since you were little. Imagine the set of clothes you could made with the rest of the roll.”A person’s life is finite and will end one day much like the roll of fabric simile. What is past is gone and there is no need to dwell in them. What is important is to move forward and lead a meaningful life at this very moment till the end.Hector addressed the question of time at two levels. One is the level of conventional understanding of time and how best to live life fully without regret or worry. The writer came up with many Time Exercises to help readers to reflect and find out for themselves several positive behaviour. An example is to take note of how many times during the course of a day that you have set aside time for yourself. Do not live life based on others imposing on your time. For those in a career, a useful advice is to sort out everything you have to do into “important for doing your job well”, “important for your boss”, and “important for your career”. How much time do you spend on each of the three? The ideal proportion is dependent on your individual circumstances. There are many more such Time Exercises to let you tackle time.The second level is at a philosophical level. You ask such question as the definition of time. “There is no time without movement, and no movement without time. Time is a measure of movement.” The writer brought in several philosophers in his book: Aristotle, Pascal, Hobbes, St Augustine, Kant and others to review their different perspectives on time. One last Time Exercise which is profound is: “to try to experience the present as eternity and feel that it’s everything and nothing at the same time”.CommentaryThe novel was written in French by the author back in 2006. It was translated into English by Carol Gilogley and published in 2012. Like his first bestseller book, Francois Lelord wrote simply. The same format was adopted with Hector travelling and meeting people from Arctic, China and his home country, to discover the answers to his quest on meaning of time. He provided a list of Time Exercises to summarise what was written as he discovered new ideas and nuggets of living out time. The writer used several of his dreams to expound some ideas that were not conventional and not easily comprehensible by lay readers. The philosophies disclosed were far-fetched in this realm of existence, ie beyond one’s intellect. Because the dreams came on without warning, I was not able to switch direction so smoothly as I progressed with the book. I had to re-read that part again before I can anchor my bearing.My expectation of reading the writer’s third book was that I am going to get practical tips on time management. This was not to be. Instead it was the exercises which the author wanted us to work it out ourselves to live time. Some philosophical aspects of the book did floor me. On balance, there are more good ideas for one to take away after reading this novel.
After reading Hector and the Search for Happiness, I have decided to pick up Hector Finds Time to see if I can learn a thing or two out of it. I didn’t expect much out of this book because after the Hector and the Search for Happiness, the novelty of Hector’s quirky journey and complex-theory-made-simple speak started to wear off.While the advice in The Search of Happiness was generally profound, in Hector finds time it is not so. There were a few advice or time exercise that I go “huh?” just because it didn’t draw any meaning to me, for example these two:Time Exercise No. 19: Meet the children of the women you love loved when you were younger.Time Exercise No. 21: If you want to look young, always stay in the shade (or candlelight)??????There are one or two great time exercises and advices in the book. It is not a time management book. My best advice is make the best use of your time, go live your live to the fullest instead of reading this book!For full review see : http://bibliojunkie.wordpress.com/201...
Auch in diesem Buch geht Hector wieder auf die Reise. Diesmal nicht auf der Suche nach dem Glück oder der Liebe, sondern nach der Zeit. Ihm fällt auf, dass viele seiner Patienten über entweder mangelnde Zeit klagen oder über Langeweile. Manche möchten unbedingt schon älter sein und manche trauern ihren jüngeren Jahren nach. Verbindend ist, dass die meisten nicht glücklich darüber sind, wie sich die Zeit in ihrem Leben ausdrückt. Und so beginnt Hector Ideen von Zeitetüden festzuhalten, mit Hilfe derer er seinen Patienten Hilfestellungen geben möchte, um über die Zeit in ihrem Leben nachzudenken.Er trifft auf seinen Reisen einige Bekannte, wie in China auf Ying Lee, die er auf seiner Suche nach dem Glück kennengelernt hatte. Mit von der Partie ist auch sein alter Freund Eduardo, den er diesmal am Südpol besucht und er versucht den weisen Mönch wiederzufinden, von dem er sich kluge Einsichten erhofft und der wie vom Erdboden verschwunden scheint.Daneben schlägt er sich selbst noch mit so existenziellen Fragen herum, ob er denn nun seine Clara ehelichen sollte oder nicht. Ob es dafür überhaupt den richtigen Zeitpunkt gebe oder ob er nicht schon verbei wäre.All das webt Francoise Lelord zu einem wunderbaren Portrait der darin vorkommenden Menschen zusammen. Sprachlich auf seine unnachahmliche Art und Weise mit Metaphern und köstlichen Vergleichen, die einem vieles komplizierte auf einmal ganz deutlich begreifbar machen. Hector gehört zu den Psychiatern, denen man in seinem eigenen Leben gern begegnen möchte. Der einen mit Zuhören und klugen Fragen dazu bringt, sich in seinem Leben neu zurechtzufinden. Z.B. mit der Zeitetüde 25: 'Hören Sie Musik und sagen Sie sich dabei, sie sei ein Sinnbild für die Zeit. Welche Melodie hat Ihr Leben?'
—Alexandra Graßler
When I found this novel in a lovely independent bookshop, it really appealed to me. As I studied the blurb and the cover design, I thought "an adventurous psychiatrist setting off round the world to find the wisest person he knows, his friend the Buddhist monk", sounded a wonderful idea. However, as I read the book, I felt that the potential of the idea had not been fully realised. I found it a curious mix of boring and wise. Perhaps that was a cunning device by the author to demonstrate to us that we should be willing to enter into a state of boredom, in order to overcome our obsession with time. I had expected the book to be something along the lines of "The Tao of Pooh". It's written in too simplistic a style for me, which I found mundane and pedestrian. The author is trying to present Zen-style ideas for a western audience, but his deadpan approach strikes me as rather patronising and annoying. Throughout the book Hector builds up a catalogue of useful thoughts about time, which he calls "Time Exercises" and repeats as a complete list in one of the final chapters. However, my own favourite quote about time, from George Eliot, was not included: "It's never too late to become what you might have been." Nevertheless, there are some nuggets of wisdom within these pages which could be very helpful for a variety of people with different negative attitudes towards time which are adversely affecting their lives.
—S.C. C Skillman
i normally like this kind of thing (parable, etc.) . . this read like *the phantom tollbooth* or something like that a little, yet more obviously for adults . . but this just seemed kind of tedious . . i do think it's fun for the author to have a lot of freedom, not need to follow more traditional conventions, etc. . . i'm giving it a three because it seems like there are some good bits of wisdom in there re: time . . which, of course, was the point . . so, while i didn't love it, it's valuable . . and i don't fault the author for the style/form of the book, which i'm generally a fan of . . put it this way: i don't see myself seeking out the other hector books . . though i'm sure if i did, they'd have something valuable to say . .
—Matt Hill
