100 Books in 2018

48/ the hundred-year-old man who climbed out the window... by jonas jonasson

read: 05.07.18 - 09.07.18

book: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

author: Jonas Jonasson

blurb: It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people's home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not... Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan's earlier life in which – remarkably – he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century.

review: I've always heard good things about this book, in fact the woman at the cashier desk when I bought this told me how much she'd laughed when reading it. I regret to inform you that I think I chuckled once. In the whole book.

It's not that this book was necessarily bad, but it wasn't spectacularly good. It just felt like it was quite average which is a weird comment to make due to the extraordinary nature of the book. All of the references to Allen's past and his supposed part in the big diplomatic developments of the 20th century made me cringe a bit because while I knew they were supposed to be funny, it just really wasn't.

Overall it was an okay read, quite charming in places and relatively action-packed to hold your attention. But I wouldn't read it again.

rating: 6/10