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

The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Read April 2024 - Zoom Reading Circle

The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared

I’m liking this one but not just loving it yet.  I was reading it and it felt like it was taking a long time to get through.  Have switched to listening and that has made it much more enjoyable.  Funny how some books are just better in print or in audio - and it really makes a difference.  

I finished the book.  Audio version was better than reading it, I do believe.  By the end I would say it was enjoyable, but not a favorite.  It has been compared in many ways to Forrest Gump and I get that comparison - if Forrest Gump were a far less likable human.  ha!  :) 

Alan Karlsson is not a bad man, but he is also not a ‘good’ man.  He has no distinct sense of honor or morals - just believes that everything ‘is what it is’ and he takes no sides - like a human ‘Switzerland’.  That can appear somewhat admirable at first, but really, I feel it is a cowards view... never having to delve deeply and consider important issues - simply being willing to do whatever for whomever in pretty much any situation.... Not a man of deep character, to say the least. 

Yet throughout his life he has found himself in situation after situation that helped shaped history around the world.  Chance encounters with various world leaders from Harry S. Truman to Winston Churchill to Mao Tse Tung... and beyond... and then snippets of how HE actually influenced world events associated with each of them.  

So overall the story is slightly intriguing, quite farcical (which I realize is the point) and mildly entertaining.  I would have to say that I am also ‘Switzerland’ on this in some ways... I neither despise nor like Alan Karlsson.  But that doesn’t make for a favorite read.  I would rate it 3.5 stars.  Zoom Reading Circle group rated it 3.6 stars. 

Quotes from The 100-year-old Man...

“People could behave how they liked, but Allan considered that in general it was quite unnecessary to be grumpy if you had the chance not to.”

“Never try to out-drink a Swede, unless you happen to be a Finn or at least a Russian.”

“It had been exciting, the entire journey, but nothing lasts forever, except possibly general stupidity.”

“It was tough to think in new ways and equally tough to remember the old.”

The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
Read April 2024 - Zoom Reading Circle