Centenarians Just Want to Have Fun

A Book Review by Elizabeth Redhead Kriston

The 100-year-old man who climbed out the window and disappeared was a pretty interesting guy who, despite a rough early life, grew-up to be an extremely influential political figure quite by accident. For a guy who avoided the topics of politics and religion, Alan Karlsson deeply influenced many world leaders over his long and eventful life.

In fact, Alan’s life was reminiscent of another well-known fictional man, Forest Gump. Happy accidents and a very easy-going attitude were all it took for Alan to live through many harrowing and volatile situations. He survived wars, prisons, starvation, and nearly freezing to death by simply going with the flow. Of course, he used creative thinking and resourcefulness to overcome many of his life’s obstacles.

Who knew that drinking vodka and learning to blow things up would allow one to live such an amazing life? This book becomes a history lesson told through the eyes and adventures of the centenarian main character. Since I am not a history buff and had no interest in fact-checking, I cannot guarantee the history presented by the author is 100% true. However, the basic history lessons about presidents and dictators, the arms race and wars seemed plausible enough to believe the author, Jonas Jonasson, incorporated actual historical events into this comedic saga.

I wouldn’t call this historical fiction per say, but history does play a major role in the 100 plus years that the old man lived. This book, translated from Swedish, is exceptionally funny. Cheers to the translators for being able to maintain the dry humor and extremely smart jokes embedded into the dialogue and narration of this book. The imagery and character flaws of all the hooligans our old man meets throughout his life did cause me to laugh out loud many, many times.

Because this was a book written in flashbacks, I found it a bit hard to stay focused on the storyline. The history lessons became cumbersome. I enjoyed the storyline taking place in the present much more than the recollections.

The characters that our guy met along the way were each interesting and well fleshed out by Jonasson. Throughout his meetings of the various flawed men and women, Alan escapes death and tragedy in very comical ways. He is like the guy who walks down the street in old films while to world falls apart behind him as he whistles a happy tune oblivious to the destruction that lies in his wake.

This book taught me a few things. 1. Don't force centenarians to live boring, boxed-up lives. 2. Learning to go with the flow will most likely provide you with a much more interesting life. 3. Maybe I should learn more about explosives. 

The adventures of Alan and his band of misfit cohorts is expertly narrated by Steven Crossley in the audiobook version. This book might be best read versus listened to due to the intricate historical details. It was hard to focus both on driving and attending to all the minutia. 

According to an internet search, Will Ferrell is making this into a movie. That will be worth seeing for sure!