The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

I loved the dry humor and the impossible situations that were so realistic with great writing. All in all, one of my favorite books this year.

This book is as silly, light, and exciting as it is improbable. This is the perfect book to read on vacation. While this book isn't the great steak of modern literature, it is an excellent creme brulee! If you loved "Candide" or the movie "Bif Fish" you'll love this book too.

I thoroughly enjoyed this light hearted tall tale! It is an easy read and lots of fun. You won't be sorry!

The one hundred-year-old man who is the protagonist of this novel is known as Allan and he has, we learn, done a lot more than merely climb out the window of his ‘Old Folks Home’ and disappear. Allan contends with his fear of dying in an institution, the disabling repercussions of old age as well as the consequence of stealing a lot of money from a criminal bikie gang. Jonasson explores the domino effect of international politics and the way it led to the wars of the last century. A major theme of the book examines the way in which humans habitually forget the value of other human life, but cling dearly to their own individual existence.Structurally, the book is well written. Jonasson uses chapters to separate the two chronologically ordered plots, one – his past life – spanning a century, the other – his life as a retiree on the run – covering no more than a fortnight. Yet both carry equal weight in the book.To say that a novel is almost indigestibly plot-packed is not a criticism; I could have refrained from using the word almost. This is a fast-paced novel that covers a lot of fictional terrain, which is the where the strength of the book lies; it is action-packed and makes for an addictive single-sitting read. This novel is also very funny. Jonnason’s comedy relies on understatement and satire, which is layered and reiterated for effect. The way he zooms through a large chunk of history and manages to slot his protagonist in at every stage is skillful. However, there comes a point at which all of these chance encounters with Allan become difficult to believe. Through the comedic nature of this novel, Jonasson makes his skillfully crafted Twentieth Century history lesson appear facetious; and that being the case, also pedantic. This novel is written for those readers looking for an enjoyable read that doesn’t require too much thinking. Although we glimpse a few beautiful sentences here and there, the majority of the time the importance lies in what is being said, rather than how it is described; which makes the few glimpses of pleasurable prose stand out like gems. For half the novel, in which Allan has escaped and is on the run from bikies, the book is set in Sweden. Unfortunately we are given such a small amount of description in which to visualise this landscape, that the only prompts alerting us to the local setting are the strange place names. It would appear as though Jonasson had not expected an international readership. The book could be greatly improved if more visual details were included so that the non-Swedish readership get a deeper glimpse of that country. Jonaason’s characterisation and structure is tight and effective. His well-planned plots come together to make a very enjoyable story about modern history, old age, and not taking life too seriously.

zIt was a delightful, exciting book to read

What a fantastically written tale of a man, Allan Karlsson, who on his 100th birthday decided to sneak out of the Old Folks' Home through a window in his room and "disappeared." The author did a decent job of spinning the adventure of Allan and his newly acquired friends while simultaneously giving us insight into his life from youth to present.The characters were endearing, strange, eccentric and all things out of the norm...which I liked so much. Appreciate how they all eventually seemed to gel with each other and form this close knit family with secrets that make life interesting. The investigation surrounding them was comical, true to form and intriguing. [My most favorite character of all, besides Allan, was Herbert Einstein]While I was reading this book, especially the adventures of Allan, I thought how I loved, as a little girl, sitting around listening to my father and his baby brother telling stories of their lives and family secrets...histories, etc. I also kept thinking about my youth and the love I had for Mr. Peabody and Shermon, the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and the reinventing of Aesop Fables. Tall tales...exaggerations...histories. Loved, loved, loved every bit. Liked how this book did an outstanding job of story telling and I smiled so much as I read while even thinking a little how this was similar to Forrest Gump and how he met all the Presidents and in this case other world leaders. Tales of espionage, travels, prison camps, bombs, war, etc., etc., etc.. All Allan needed to survive was good food and alcohol, especially Vodka. This book captured/held my imagination as I watched Allan’s tale unfold before my eyes and hearing (since I also listened to the audible).I recommend this book if one is interested in reliving historical events as told through the life of an old man and his adventures in history.

TRIGGER ALERT: Talk of: Gang rape, abuse of women and children sexually, killing of innocent people for fun and sport, capturing young girls to use as sex slaves for the troops. On top of that there are details of what the Japanese did to the Korean, similar to what the Catholics did with our First Nations: "forced them to adopt Japanese names and in other respects done his best to eradicate the Korean language and culture".-Apart from what I wrote in the trigger alert, I thought it was over-the-top funny with unbelievable adventures, interesting politics and history bits. Funny, sad, awful, but always entertaining.-The back and forth into Allan Karlsson's life was well-written and I didn't find it confusing or boring in the least.-Father Ferguson had no respect for other religions whatsoever and his brutal death was no surprise; he had it coming.-Wow, the irony that a bigger country would get most of the money out of an agreement because, well, the other one only provided cheap labor and the oil in their soil. Most still think like this.-I was confused at to why the scent of death couldn't have been from someone previously on the trolley or right after the duet left it.-How many of you Googled "how to make alcohol from goats’ milk"? Well, if you didn't, it's actually possible and someone in Tasmania is doing it.

This was a very enjoyable story, I liked the pace and the bits of history.

I would suggest this book to have in every readers bookshelf.The story will is quite interesting and will excite you to read further and to know what happened next .

Brilliantly written, I had a smile on my face throughout. It's like a funnier version of Forrest Gump- highly recommended

Ce livre est génial et si vous avez la possibilité de le lire en anglais ou en français, faites le en anglais c'est encore plus drôle!!!