The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Author: Jonas Jonasson
Rating: ā 2/5
Date Read: 2014/04/04
Pages: 384
2.5 stars, but Iām rounding down due to gratuitous violence, including a brief mention of violence towards animals. Now, Iām not opposed to violence; indeed, I canāt imagine [b:Lord of the Flies|7624|Lord of the Flies|William Golding|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg|2766512], or even [b:A Game of Thrones|13496|A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1369520317s/13496.jpg|1466917], without bloodshed (also, Battle Royale is one of my favorite movies, so, yeah). Thereās a difference, though, between violent episodes that serve to establish the stakes within a particular fictional world, and violence that exists just to advance the plot. The former has emotional ramifications that can be cathartic for the reader, while the latter mostly signifies that a lazy writer has written themselves into a corner and doesnāt feel like rewriting themselves out of it. When deus ex machina appears over and over and over again in the form of āblowing stuff up,ā thatās a sign that a writer isnāt ready for prime time.
Beyond that, the plot (if you can call it that) is a strange, Swedish version of Forrest Gump, in that the protagonist accidentally finds himself in all sorts of historically important situations. Lest you forget, Forrest Gump is mostly a terrible movie, its only redeeming quality being the inexplicable likability of Tom Hanks (and, also, a fairly decent soundtrack). The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has no likable characters at all, and youāll have to supply your own soundtrack. I never thought that I give any sort of praise to Forrest Gump, so Iām surprised to find myself saying itās at least got an advantage over this 400 page disaster.
The moral of this story is that you shouldnāt pick up a book based only on a clever title, because a clever title canāt carry an entire novel. Also, if someone asks you to watch Forrest Gump, itās probably a good idea to decline.
