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

Allowing us to see the events both in context and from the first person perspective.' – Diane Reynolds

A look at history through the guise of a single person. 'I found it in the same style as Forest Gump. I like that kind of humour which I am familiar with through my Swedish American heritage.' – Suzette Ehrlich I like the way all the great adventures are received with deadpan acceptance. 'The friendships in this book are nice because each character’s eccentricities are just matter of fact accepted. It is like adhering to a rigid routine and welcoming the certainty. The repeating of jokes may seem old and boring to some people, but I find it funny beating up on a joke. The emphasis on calmly engaging in rigid daily routines amongst chaos is funny. Of all the books we have read so far, this book seemed the most Swedish to me. Here's what else Book Club members had to say about the book: 'Swedish death-cleaning is something we should all think about – and enjoy'.Like Doris in The Red Address Book, Allan has a frank view about death, telling his adversaries: 'If you want to kill me, you'd better hurry, because I'm 100 years old.' There's certainly a Swedish pragmatism in that attitude, summed up near the start of the novel when he decides he will have to get around to dying some other time.

We can all make an impact, and it's never too late. In The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, author Jonas Jonasson addresses other serious issues, not least when we find out than Allan was one of many victims of sterilisation programmes in Sweden.Īllan himself takes all the upsetting, exciting and downright bizarre things that happen to him in his stride, apparently shaped to some extent by his mum telling him at a young age: 'Things are what they are, and whatever will be, will be.' We are repeatedly told he has 'no opinion whatsoever', as he saves General Franco, helps President Harry Truman invent the atom bomb, and befriends the brother of Albert Einstein, among other adventures.īut by showing how this unlikely hero changes the course of world events, Jonasson is sending the reader the opposite message.

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