The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared : Jonas Jonasson

Image Credit: Goodreads

 I have been enjoying a spate of holidays here in India, and feeling incredibly guilty that I haven't as yet responded to emails sitting in my Inbox. It's weird how this online world can seem so incredibly real yet so distant. But then I thought to myself, and to quote from Allan Karlsson : "Things are what they are and whatever will be will be" so let me get right down to business and write about a book that amused me, moved me and was insanely crazy. If that doesn't sound like a recipe for some great reading, what else will?

Thanks to the popularity of Stieg Larsson and similar books after him, one would have thought that Sweden is the place to obtain great crime fiction. Think again. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is one of the most hilarious books I have read in a while, and those who know me, know how hard it is to get me to laugh. Stuck in an house for the aged, and on the day that little Swedish town of Malmkoping wants to celebrate him turning 100, Allan Karlsson decides to climb out of the window, on to the flowerbed, to the little town's only bus station, and so begins his caper - a rollicking romp that is absurd, inane, unbelievable, funny and more than a little heart-warming. On the journey, Jonas Jonasson also tells us more about Karlsson's unbelievable life and how this one man who knows more about the atomic bomb than anyone else in the world, influenced world events from Churchill to Nixon to Kim il Jong to French presidents and Russian nuclear physicists.

Here's the blurb from the book cover:

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.

I have rarely enjoyed a book as much as I did this one - in a true comic sense. Yet, if I have to think too much, and that kind of thinking comes much too easily for me, then I would say that in reading about Allan Karlsson's life, there is a fair bit to learn from. Don't take life too seriously - and there is nothing in the world that can't be washed away with some good food and vodka. Who can argue against that? Throw in some great friends, and an elephant and you are set for life, even if you are hundred years old. Or perhaps that's what makes you live to one hundred years old.

So what's the book? Murder, for one. Money for another. And the two have always managed to mix very well. Behind the centenarian is a bumbling Swedish police force who try to scramble just how the old man leaves behind corpses in his wake. The trail of adventure takes us from one crazy character - a hot-dog proprietor named Benny who is an almost-literate  in practically any subject that you can think of to the hilariously named The Beauty who would not leave anywhere without Buster, her beloved Alsatian and Sonya the elephant. Yes, you read that right, an elephant. Add in Julius, a petty thief, and a lot of other bumbling criminals from the Never Again gang, there is much fun to be had. So read this book for that fun. And I have to go and tell myself that what will be will be...

Verdict : A wonderfully picaresque novel that begs to be read, laughed over and smiled at. 

Rating: 4.5/5