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

Challenge #15 ~ “A book with a title of five or more words.”

hundredyearoldman

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

My opinion in three sentences:

It’s a collection of tropes I’ve seen done before, surprisingly often in recent years, yet Jonasson had his own finesse to offer. With high-quality characterisation, you’ll find yourself emotionally attached to the characters before the adventure’s even begun, and despite all the odds of the plot line, you’ll be cheering them on to the very end (whatever it may hold, because, trust me, Jonasson has a fair share of tricks up his sleeve!) Unfortunately, however, there are some techniques used a little too much, leading to lengthy, dry passages when all you really want is to find out where on earth an elephant comes into the story!

(Without spoiling anything) the best bit:

An old man going on an adventure? Read that. A dual-timeline story with a current adventure and flashbacks to past events? Read that. Does that mean The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is going to be tiring and old-hat? Absolutely not. Jonasson presents a tale of (OK, quite unbelievable) adventure, which before long has the reader cheering on the ragtag group on the run from the police (not quite how things usually go!) Things get such that it seems no adequate resolution can ever be reached without some terrible plot device or out-of-character action, but Jonasson has more than a trick or two up his sleeve…

The best bit? Some really clever plot planning. It’s almost as if Jonasson is secretly a criminal mastermind!

A warning for the book:

It’s true that you can have too much of a good thing, and sadly this book does exemplify this. Intertwined with the modern-day (or, well, 2005) adventure are the flashbacks, and whilst these work well and are a clever device for humour, foreshadowing and character development, Jonasson uses them too much, such that meeting yet another important political figure becomes old very quickly. Not to mention that in introducing each new political setting, there’s an explanation to establish the setting and important characters which, whilst being well-researched, is more often than not excessively long, and thus dry. Cut these back and not only would those sections read better, but the book as a whole.

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