The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (Review)

Title: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Author: Jonas Jonasson
First published: 2009
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Rating: ★★★☆☆

This book may be an "international publishing sensation", but the premise is anything but new. A disrespectful attitude to historical personae and an impudent handling of history in general are the same as in My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl, and a suitcase full of money and an adventurous elder seem to be both taken directly from Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene. And unfortunately Jonas Jonasson doesn't have as much talent as any of the above mentioned writers :) I may seem too strict and this search for similarities may seem unnecessary, but read all three of them and you'll see that they are so alike that making comparisons is totally inevitable :)

This said, I rather enjoyed the book, as I like such hilarious and unbelievable plots. The novel is cute, but I had expected more of it. The book is positioned as humorous, but I didn't actually laugh once. I'd say it's just a relaxing and amusing read, nothing more. I was reading it while recovering after an operation, and it fitted the day of lying on my back and not moving perfectly, which means it kept me occupied and distracted, but it's not great literature by any means :)

In my book:
An amusing holiday read, but Dahl and Green did it better :)