Help YOURSELF
THIS NOVEL COMBINES ADVICE WITH THE STORY OF A BORED PARISIENNE WHO TRANSFORMS HER LIFE
This feel-good book is huge at the moment. It has sold two million copies, so clearly lots of people completely adore it. I’m not sure that I did, but I am intrigued by the concept.
It’s a hybrid – partly self-help and partly a novel. Through the story of a Parisian woman, readers are given a step-by-step guide to changing the parts of their lives they find unsatisfying.
Camille is driving home through the woods that surround Paris when she has a minor car accident. Seeking help in a nearby house, she meets an interesting man. He tells her he is a “routinologist”, practising an innovative technique to help people who have good lives but are feeling empty and unhappy.
On the face of it, nothing is wrong in Camille’s world. She has a well-paid job, a steady husband, a child – everything she needs to be content, and yet she feels as if her life has lost its flavour. So she signs up to the unconventional personal development programme.
From losing weight to improving her work life, there is so much she wants to change. The mysterious method involves everything from hot-air ballooning to spring-cleaning her house. And although Camille’s path isn’t always smooth, gradually her life and attitude changes.
At the end of the novel there is a helpful glossary of the “routinology” techniques dotted through the story so the reader can start making their own transformations and lead a more positive life.
It’s a clever idea, and a more compelling read than many self-help books, but it doesn’t entirely work as a novel. That’s partly because you never really get to know Camille properly so struggle to care about her. Also the writing isn’t great – possibly it reads better in the original French. But the main issue for me was that it felt too much like I was being taught a lesson and not enough like I was lost in a story.
Having said that, haven’t all of us felt a little like Camille does at times?