Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: In The 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson, gave us Allan Karlsson, a man who seems, Forrest Gump-like, to be present at most major historical events. Allan finds himself in a lot more sticky situations though, but continually gets out of them through sheer luck and his own lack of a filter when talking to world leaders. He relates the story of his adventures as he bumbles through yet another misadventure as he turns 100 years old. The humor in this first book is wry and subtle, and it was a real pleasure to read.
The next installment of Allan's life, as he turns 101, is a bit less enjoyable. I can imagine that the humor from the first book would be hard to sustain, especially as we must largely confine ourselves to Allan's present circumstances, as Allan encounters Donald Trump, Kim Jong-Un, and Angela Merkel, among others officials. Unfortunately, although Allan himself seems little changed, his companions now seem to find him more annoying than anything else, and that rubbed me the wrong way. When did he suddenly become a troublesome old man? Maybe it was just the little black tablet that he insists on consulting all the time...
Still, for all that this installment wasn't quite as good as the first one, it's very enjoyable, if for no other reason that Allan's continued lack of filter as he deals with current world leaders.
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