Book review: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

I found this book at my local library (wait for it) 's  book sale. No, I didn't buy it new. Buying second-hand allowed me to take a risk on an unknown author. I didn't know the author, but I had heard of the book. It was recommended to me--well, not just me. I attended a talk on how-to write humour and during the Q and A, the presenter was asked what book he would recommend.

"Well, beside my own, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared."

The book opens with the 100-year-old man climbing out a window--of course. And I was immediately drawn into the story, because I wanted to know why a 100-year-old man would climb out of a window.

'The 100-year-old man set off in his pee slippers (so called because men of advanced age rarely pee farther than their shoes.)' (p. 4)

Beyond the climbing out of the window part, this story is in no way predictable. A 100-year-old is expected to celebrate his age and die; protagonist Allan doesn't celebrate and lives.

Title:  The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Published by  HarperCollins Publishers

Publishing date:  2012

Translated from the original Swedish by Rod Bradbury

Author:  Jonas Jonasson

Author bio:  Jonas Jonasson is a former journalist and media consultant. He lives in Sweden.

Book blurb:  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 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 alcohol consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey.

It would be the adventure of a life-time 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, he has actually played a key role in them. Quirky and utterly unique, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has charmed readers across the world.


Jonasson doesn't concern himself with convention. He rarely uses quotation marks, preferring hyphens. He takes detours to follow minor characters, whenever he feels so inclined. And he is rather lazy when it comes to crafting transitions...

'The following hours of Bellringer Farm developed as follows' (p. 231)

The story is written in a just-the-facts-ma'am style. After all, Jonasson was a journalist. As a writer, I found it fascinating to read an author whose style is vastly different from my own. As a reader, I found this style frustrating. It was hard to get to the meat of the story--difficult, but not impossible.

This story spans one hundred years and the setting varies from Europe to Asia to North America to the southern hemisphere. The pages are populated with characterized versions of important historical figures. The humour is tightly interwoven into the plot and serves to make this book endearing.

About my next post...
Monday night (February 29th), I (will/am) attending a CWILL (Children's Writers and Illustrators) panel discussion. Here's what I learned last year (link) After attending that discussion, I wrote 15 picture book manuscripts. Who knows what will happen this year.
I'll share what I learn in my next post. (published at approximately 5 PM on Sunday, March 6th) 



Sharing my author journey...

If you don't write, you may be surprised to hear that sitting in a 

Reflections on a writing life by Leanne Dyck

The story comes to me fully formed but barely visible. In order for me to see it (capture the tone, follow the plot) I must become the story. So if I'm writing a children's picture book, I see the world through a child's eyes. The ordinary becomes the unusual. Mushrooms are thrones for frogs. Twigs are boates from fairies. If I'm writing a mystery, I become paranoid. Why did that car drive passed? Where are they headed? What are they doing? 

(Most of the photos that are published on this blog have been taken by me (Leanne Dyck) 

and are of Mayne Island. If they aren't or haven't been, I will tell you so.)

I'm thrilled to be living a writer's life. It fulfills me, even though the process isn't always easy. The dark narratives do effect me. I once shared this with a friend. Her advice was to write something positive. But I knew I couldn't force the story to be something it wasn't. If I tried to do that I knew I would lose sight of it. I knew I had to peer through the fog and record what I saw. I knew that I had to be true to what I found there.

The writing life does come with its share of frustration. It feels like establishing my career is taking so unnecessarily long. If, for example, a publisher had accepted my novel several years ago it could be a bestseller by now. 

But, as I re-write said novel, I'm so glad that acceptance letter didn't come. Sure it was good then but it's so much better now. Sure it flowed then but it flows so much better now. 


Building an author career isn't a race; it's a journey of discovery.

Work with all your heart, because--I promise--if you show up for your work day after day after day after day, you just might get lucky enough some random morning to burst right into bloom. (p. 63 Big Magic:  Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert)

Next post (Monday, February 29th):  Book review:  The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared
How I found this book and what I thought while I was reading it.