The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man

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I read the previous book, The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared several years ago. I would sum it up as sort of Swedish Forrest Gump. Allan Karlsson managed to be a part of most of the major events in the 20th century. I don't remember much more that that.That didn't hinder my enjoyment of this book. In fact, I think you really don't have to have read the first book in order to pick up this one. All you need to know is that Allan escaped his nursing home in Sweden and through a series of adventures has found himself in Bali accompanied by a petty thief named Julius and a suitcase full of money that is rapidly running out due to the rate at which they are spending it.This book focuses on Allan and Julius and their interaction with current events.  My husband wandered in at one point when I was reading and asked what the book was about.  That's a hard question.  Here's what I told him."A hot air balloon ride goes wrong which leads to them being picked up by a North Korean ship smuggling uranium.  They convince the captain they have the ability to fix the North Korean nuclear program but actually escape with the uranium and head to New York.  There they meet Donald Trump but decide not to give him the uranium because he seems unhinged.  So they give it to the German ambassador under false pretenses along with a note to Angela Merkel written on three napkins telling her not to be too mad that they tricked the ambassador."He just nodded and walked away.That was before they started dealing in coffins caskets.  If you like books full of absurdity, this is for you.  If you like books that work in lots of anti-Trump rhetoric, you'll love this one extra.  There is a joke very early on about how polar bears should start walking south to stay ahead of the ice caps melting but not all the way to the U.S. because although they are white, they are still foreigners.  That made me laugh hard and settle in for the ride.

















About Jonas Jonasson

Jonas Jonasson is the author of the international bestseller The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, now a major motion picture. Prior to his success as a novelist, Jonas was a journalist for the Swedish newspaper Expressen for many years, and later became a media consultant and founded a production company specializing in sporting events for Swedish television, which he sold before moving abroad to work on his first novel. He is the author of the internationally successful novels The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden and Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All. He lives on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.Find out more about Jonas at his website, and connect with him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

Tour schedule:

Tuesday, January 15th: A Bookish Way of Life
Wednesday, January 16th: Instagram: @rendezvous_with_reading
Thursday, January 17th: Iwriteinbooks's blog
Friday, January 18th: A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall
Monday, January 21st: Dwell in Possibility

Tuesday, January 22nd: Instagram: @mrsmurphyreads

Tuesday, January 22nd: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books

Wednesday, January 23rd: What Is That Book About

Thursday, January 24th: 5 Minutes For Books
Monday, January 28th: Laura's Reviews
Tuesday, January 29th: Based on a True Story
Wednesday, January 30th: Helen's Book Blog
Thursday, January 31st: Man of La Book
Monday, February 4th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Tuesday, February 5th: Instagram: @theunreadshelf
Wednesday, February 6th: Write - Read - Life
Thursday, February 7th: Stacy's Books
Friday, February 8th: Read Till Dawn
Friday, February 8th: Lit and Life

This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is one of my favourite books ever, it was a laugh a minute, Allan is a fantastic bloke and has the past that we all crave. So when I spotted this sequel I grabbed a copy and started reading right away.

In the intro Jonas Jonasson explains that he never planned a sequel but with the way the world seems to be falling apart with crazy political leaders the Hundred-Year-Old Man was jumping at the chance to speak out.

The book is incredibly political, Trump and Kim Jong-un receive a lot of abuse, I assume if they could read then they might have put a stop to this book. It was great to read about Allan again and to witness his care-free adventures, but this time around it is missing something. I eventually figured out what, the first book had his current adventure but also had his past, together they balanced each other out. This time though there is nothing about his past and things end up not being as interesting, the parts that would have had a scene from the past were very bland. The plot is pretty tight and the characters were good as expected, it was also great to see well known people included. The treatment of Trump had me laughing each time.

It was a good effort, it's just a shame it suffers from the sequel syndrome.

Blog post is here> felcherman.wordpress.com/2018/08/27/the-accidental-further-adventures-of-the-hundred-year-old-man-by-jonas-jonasson/