I just finished reading The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by the Swedish Author, Jonas Jonasson. It is the funniest novel I have read since I read Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency! I highly recommend it!
The international publishing sensation--over six million copies sold worldwide!
A reluctant centenarian much like Forrest Gump (if Gump were an explosives expert with a fondness for vodka) decides it's not too late to start over . . .
After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he's still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn't interested (and he'd like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some unpleasant criminals, a friendly hot-dog stand operator, and an elephant (not to mention a death by elephant).
It would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: Not only has he witnessed some of the most important events of the twentieth century, but he has actually played a key role in them. Starting out in munitions as a boy, he somehow finds himself involved in many of the key explosions of the twentieth century and travels the world, sharing meals and more with everyone from Stalin, Churchill, and Truman to Mao, Franco, and de Gaulle. Quirky and utterly unique, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has charmed readers across the world.
I found out after I read it that it was also made into a movie that received an Oscar nomination. I have got to see it sometime!
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
Has anyone else here besides me checked out this book? If you appreciate good humor, you will be glad you did. I already read it in its English translation. My new Danish son-in-law presented me with a Danish translation of it, which is closer to the original Swedish, and which I am now reading. It is even better in Danish, though I would like to compare that to a Norwegian translation, which is my language of birth. If any of you know Swedish, it would probably be worth your while to find a copy of it in its original language.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
Gunnar wrote:Has anyone else here besides me checked out this book? If you appreciate good humor, you will be glad you did. I already read it in its English translation. My new Danish son-in-law presented me with a Danish translation of it, which is closer to the original Swedish, and which I am now reading. It is even better in Danish, though I would like to compare that to a Norwegian translation, which is my language of birth. If any of you know Swedish, it would probably be worth your while to find a copy of it in its original language.
Off topic, but I am curious, have you ever watched Lilyhammer on Netflix? I really enjoyed that style of humor, even with the broken languages and subtitles. I was bummed when they did not renew the series. It is the type of humor that you either love it or hate it. I also loved Norsemen, who have many of the same actors.
Don't take life so seriously in that " sooner or later we are just old men in funny clothes" "Tom 'T-Bone' Wolk"
Gunnar wrote:Has anyone else here besides me checked out this book? If you appreciate good humor, you will be glad you did. I already read it in its English translation. My new Danish son-in-law presented me with a Danish translation of it, which is closer to the original Swedish, and which I am now reading. It is even better in Danish, though I would like to compare that to a Norwegian translation, which is my language of birth. If any of you know Swedish, it would probably be worth your while to find a copy of it in its original language.
Off topic, but I am curious, have you ever watched Lilyhammer on Netflix? I really enjoyed that style of humor, even with the broken languages and subtitles. I was bummed when they did not renew the series. It is the type of humor that you either love it or hate it. I also loved Norsemen, who have many of the same actors.
My wife and I enjoyed that one. Too bad it didn’t get a renewal.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
Gunnar wrote:Has anyone else here besides me checked out this book? If you appreciate good humor, you will be glad you did. I already read it in its English translation. My new Danish son-in-law presented me with a Danish translation of it, which is closer to the original Swedish, and which I am now reading. It is even better in Danish, though I would like to compare that to a Norwegian translation, which is my language of birth. If any of you know Swedish, it would probably be worth your while to find a copy of it in its original language.
Off topic, but I am curious, have you ever watched Lilyhammer on Netflix? I really enjoyed that style of humor, even with the broken languages and subtitles. I was bummed when they did not renew the series. It is the type of humor that you either love it or hate it. I also loved Norsemen, who have many of the same actors.
Thanks for the recommendation! I will check them out!
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
No, haven’t seen that one. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks!
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951