The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared Paperback – Jonas Jonasson ----------------- 2 Stars

The 100 Year Old Man who Climbed Out the Window, was released about 10 years ago and was popular upon its release. However, I had not ever heard of it until a few weeks ago when someone said to give it a try. It was described as a nice, fun, airy and easy to read book. While not wrong, I found it just a bit too silly.

For those that are not familiar, as you may have gleaned from the title, the book is about an 100-year-old person who leaves a nursing home through a window. The rest of the book follows a Forrest Gumpian tale of his exploits after leaving the institution and many flashbacks about his life that brought him to this place. It is nothing if not fantastical, but I can see the allure to some readers.

While I thought they were parts of the book they were entertaining and even funny, I struggled with how unrealistic the book was. I understand it was a fictional story, but it was constantly on the verge of being so unrealistic it was silly. The main character is certainly alluring and the best part of the novel where the flashbacks when he was a major player in Geopolitics for nearly half a century. I less enjoyed the current story that include his getaway, eventual connections with numerous bizarre characters, and unanticipated ending. 

As noted in the last paragraph, I really struggled with just how light this novel was. While I am not opposed to a fun story that is totally unreal, I didn't feel like it had enough humor or exciting parts to carry the unseriousness. I also found the characters really not that exciting. Again, the 100 year old man was interesting but there are four to five other complimentary characters that I just couldn't find myself caring for. By the end of the book, I really just wanted to find out what happened, rather than enjoy the journey.

As I was curious what others thought of the book, I did check out some reviews afterwards. From what I could tell, it was a fairly polarizing story. There are some readers who absolutely loved it and others, perhaps more like me, that really didn't enjoy the story. In many ways, it reminded me of a slightly more positive version of A Man called Ove. Not surprisingly, that was one of my least favorite books I've read (review here). If you haven't read, perhaps it's worth giving it a try and seeing where you fall.