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Thewanderingjew

Thewanderingjew

I Thought It Was Cute, But A Bit Disappointing

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonasson, Jonas (2012) Paperback - Jonas Jonasson

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson, author; Steven Crossley, narrator

When I started to read this, I enjoyed the humor and the premise of the story. Who wouldn’t love a man who wanted to escape the confines of an old age home where he is no longer treated like an adult, where he is unable to make decisions for what he wants to do with his own life, eat what he likes, when he likes, and sleep when he likes? He is fit and has all of his wits about him so he decides to run away. I thought to myself, kudos to him! 
The novel begins on May 2, 2005. Allan Karlsson, born on May 2, 1905, is 100 years old today. A celebration, complete with local celebrities, including the Mayor, is being set up at the same moment he decides that he will not attend his own party. Instead, he slips out of the window, in what he calls his “pee slippers”, to escape his confinement and Alice, the Director, who appears to run the place with an iron hand, treating him like a disobedient child who won’t follow her rules. He is obviously in great shape for anyone of that age, and he makes his way to the bus station where he meets a rude young man who asks him to keep an eye on his suitcase. Because he views the young man distastefully, when Allan’s bus comes, without giving it much thought, he steals the suitcase, taking it with him onto the bus. Throughout his life, as the story progresses, the reader learns that Allan often gives little thought to his actions or to their consequences afterwards. He simply makes decisions, almost on a whim, and proceeds from there, letting the cards fall where they may, and then deals with the results.
What seems like a simple act of theft sets the story in motion. As Allan’s previous long life is explored and exposed, it goes off in all directions, involving many countries of the world and many major leaders, especially during their moments of crisis. His life had been very unconventional. Through a serendipitous set of events, he often found himself globetrotting to unusual places, meeting with heads of state, and although, pretty much unaware of the fact, he was influencing world events. Because of his seeming innocence and lack of concern for what happened to him and around him, he also wound up spending years in prison in many foreign countries, as well.
The people he meets are as quirky as he is, and if the book hadn’t gone on as long as it did, it would have been far better, in my opinion. It was very imaginative but it got a bit bogged down in the multitude of events presented. It required even more than a suspension of disbelief when the reader sees him sitting down with Truman, Stalin, Franco, Kim Jong-Il, a not too bright step-brother of Albert Einstein, and others, influencing events far beyond his capabilities. It seemed to spiral out of control, almost as if the author didn’t quite know how to end it so he just kept on writing hoping it would end of its own volition.
At the same time as the reader is treated to Allan’s various escapades, there is also a wide,  and more or less incompetent, search for the centenarian who has somehow disappeared leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake!
The story is told with wit and a heavy dose of sarcasm. All of the unusual incidents and remaining questions are eventually explained to the reader and to the investigators being led on a merry chase. However, the explanation is very convoluted and will take the reader’s imagination to its limit.  For awhile the reader will chuckle, but after awhile the reader might be inclined to go ho hum. The narrator did a very good job of presenting the humor and derision as he portrayed each character, but I thought, even he must have eventually tired of the story.