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uhines 's review for:
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
by Jonas Jonasson
In this book, Allan, a centenarian, walks out of the window of his retirement home on his birthday. He steals a suitcase and picks up individuals along the way to form a band of misfits with no particular destination or purpose. These misfits cause a lot of trouble on their journey to nowhere in particular, as well.
This book is told from three different angles, and it is later reduced to two when two angles finally intersect. The first angle is the present day which starts with Allan walking out of the window. Another angle is the past, which starts with Allan’s birth and eventually moves all the way to the present by the end of the book. The third angle is from the gang from which Allan stole the suitcase. This is the angle that ends when the gang boss meets up with Allan and friends in the present.
This is a Forrest Gump style book in the sense that Allan’s past is pretty unbelievable and full of interactions with famous leaders and events. However these events were far less interesting to me than anything in Forrest Gump. It was bothersome that it is repeatedly stated that Allan hates talking about politics and religion, but these are the main things that the reader has to suffer through when reading about Allan’s past. The past storyline is somewhat helpful for getting to know about Allan and how he got to the point of walking out of his window, but it is terribly boring at times unless one just wants to read about politics and religion.
The present day shenanigans that Allan and his band of misfits got into were mildly amusing and the most interesting part of the book. Nevertheless, it was a strain to read that storyline after a while, too. When the group gets caught, it gets even more boring and silly as they try to tell a believable story to cover the real events to a detective and lawyer after they have already been declared innocent.
I bought this book when it was on a severe discount on the Amazon Kindle bookstore probably more than a year ago. The storyline was interesting and the book had many good reviews. The book is well written. However, I wish that I had not paid money for it. It really depends on your interests and tolerance for preposterous situations that will determine whether or not to read this book. 2.5
This book is told from three different angles, and it is later reduced to two when two angles finally intersect. The first angle is the present day which starts with Allan walking out of the window. Another angle is the past, which starts with Allan’s birth and eventually moves all the way to the present by the end of the book. The third angle is from the gang from which Allan stole the suitcase. This is the angle that ends when the gang boss meets up with Allan and friends in the present.
This is a Forrest Gump style book in the sense that Allan’s past is pretty unbelievable and full of interactions with famous leaders and events. However these events were far less interesting to me than anything in Forrest Gump. It was bothersome that it is repeatedly stated that Allan hates talking about politics and religion, but these are the main things that the reader has to suffer through when reading about Allan’s past. The past storyline is somewhat helpful for getting to know about Allan and how he got to the point of walking out of his window, but it is terribly boring at times unless one just wants to read about politics and religion.
The present day shenanigans that Allan and his band of misfits got into were mildly amusing and the most interesting part of the book. Nevertheless, it was a strain to read that storyline after a while, too. When the group gets caught, it gets even more boring and silly as they try to tell a believable story to cover the real events to a detective and lawyer after they have already been declared innocent.
I bought this book when it was on a severe discount on the Amazon Kindle bookstore probably more than a year ago. The storyline was interesting and the book had many good reviews. The book is well written. However, I wish that I had not paid money for it. It really depends on your interests and tolerance for preposterous situations that will determine whether or not to read this book. 2.5