Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared By Allan Karlsson

Emily Pan
11/3/17
C Block
Free Reading Rumination

The life of Allan Karlsson is just about as wild as a fever dream. In The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, Karlsson, or as introduced, Allan, began his life humbly in Sweden. His mother was loving and affectionate, while in contrast, his father seemed indifferent, deciding to embark on his own political campaigns instead of caring for his family. Allan’s father is killed fighting for the socialist revolution, thus leaving Allan and his mother in rural Sweden to fend for themselves. This is the beginning of Allan’s apathy for all things political. After Allan’s mother dies, Allan begins working and becomes an expert in explosives, thus kickstarting
his insane life. Throughout the novel, there are flashbacks to events in his past, such as befriending President Truman and General Franco, crossing the Himalayas on foot, then accidentally inventing the atom bomb, which, in turn, he inadvertently leaked to both the East and the West. He knew Stalin, Kim Jong-Il, Mao Tse-Tung, and thwarted an attempt to kill Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Somehow, Allan is able to stay alive throughout World War 2 and play a huge role in all parts of the spectrum of politics though coincidences and seemingly sheer luck. However, the novel’s heart is really his adventures starting from his hundredth birthday, where he climbed out of the window of his nursing home. His adventures that bring him to people of all sorts: Julius, who is a professional thief, Benny, a hotdog stand proprietor and almost-expert in nearly everything, Inspector Aronsson, who had actually been trying to hunt him down, and a whole slew of widely varying personalities and ideas. Allan traipses through Sweden with fifty million crowns in a suitcase and an elephant, on the run from the police, yet evades the police every time. His life seems like an ever-growing coincidence, with the chance of everything falling into place the way it did being negligible. I personally loved the book. It combined elements of mystery, historical fiction, and humor into a laugh-out-loud novel. I think the unpredictability of the book had me reaching for the book whenever I had time. However, I think that the book started with more documentation of the current event, which was actively running away from his own birthday party, than his past life, which is what ultimately made Allan such a great protagonist. His vivid past could have been elaborated on more, but more detail may have made it seem unreal more detached from reality. I think that the book is definitely more of a stretch from real life, but the world Allan experiences is something that I would have dreamed up in elementary school. It is similar to the way children say they want to be an astronaut—they know that it will probably never happen, but it is always fun to dream. The mix of different personalities of the characters also kept the book refreshing. Every few chapters there would be a new person, and each one had their very unique character. None of them had vanilla archetypes, and was exciting. Allan’s totally objective view of the political world was also eye-opening. Everyone in the world seems to have bias in some way, shape, or form in every topic, especially politics. Lots of anger is fueled by disagreements about politics, and especially with constant reminders of World War 2 in the book, a story of the world and the war without any political influence forced me to think more rationally and weigh both sides of every story. By dabbling in Communism, Socialism, Democratic parties, and Republican parties, Allan was able to showcase aspects of every group without trying to make any influences. This made me make my own decisions about what I thought was right and wrong, just and unjust. In today’s world, it is often hard to make decisions like this, with social media and people trying to impose their own idea upon everyone else. If I were Allan, I would have honestly been blown to bits by the time I turned twenty.
Allan’s fortune is a highlight of the book, and has somehow allowed him to stay alive until past 100 years old. Despite enduring possibly every imaginable way to die, Allan always comes out alive. Allan has a very specific way of thinking, where he digresses fairly often and thinks about things differently. Somehow, this strange way of thinking has allowed him to stay alive, while I, with my way of thinking, would have probably ended up dead. However, one action I would have taken that Allan also took was climbing out of the window of the nursing home. I have always thought that everybody should have at least one big event in their lifetime that changes them forever, and that by the time you get old, you should live your best life. Allan obviously does not lack any shocking incidences in his life, but being 100 seems pretty close to death, and there’s only so long he has on the world. Because there is such limited time living, I would definitely want to spend my last few years happy, doing what I want, instead of talking to the same people that I hate and living the same monotonous life daily. Running away seems like the logical decision, since the Old People’s Home is essentially Allan’s
prison. All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery and humour. I think that this book is a pretty good book for busy people because it is not too difficult to figure out what is happening, so I was able to read it in between homework and on the bus. I found it funny and not much of a heavy read. The characters were not even that hard to remember, which I often have trouble with, because each character has a quirky, memorable aspect of their personality.