Hannah's Revew: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

 

by: Jonas Jonasson, Rod Bradbury (translator)

(This book is a bit of a "hot" item.  As often happens when otherwise obscure titles gain rapid popularity, this novel is available at Costco right now.)

My review won't be as detailed nor as thoughtful as Sue's, but in my defense, this book is not as thoughtful as The Sense of An Ending seems to be (though it likely is more detailed!).  The title pretty much summarizes the premise of the novel. On the morning of his 100th birthday, Allan Karllson decides to sneak out the window rather than celebrate with the nurses and residents of his old-age home (even the prospect of shaking hands with the mayor isn't enough to keep him in his room). After he makes good his escape, he ends up as the focus of an intense national manhunt. The escapades he becomes part of are ridiculous and entertaining, as you would expect when the story includes a suitcase full of millions of dollars of drug money, an elephant, an explosives expert, an unlikely romance, American presidents, North Korea, a priest in Iran, a career student, two corpses, and a happy ending. 

As the story unfolds, the reader is also drawn into the old man's history, in which he, by fate or circumstance, is intimately involved in almost every significant historical event of the 20th century.  Most of the episodes will be clearly recognizable, but if you are like me, you might feel compelled to do a bit of research to separate fact from fiction, since some of figures and situations might be less familiar.

As I stated earlier, the result is a story that is both ridiculous and entertaining. But the book reads a little long, and so the humour and farce take on a somewhat tedious note. By the end, I was more bored by each turn of events that engaged by the resolution of the plot.

Overall, a decent vacation read, but not a book that you will be telling all your friends and family is a "must-read."