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annoyingtiger888 's review for:
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
by Jonas Jonasson
slow-paced
I don't know about you, but reading the title made me believe this book would be a humorous, silly little adventure of an old man running away from the old folks home. It was not humorous and it was not silly.
Why is this not listed as historical fiction? Most of the book was spent in the past where the main character interacts with multiple historical figures, all of which was extremely boring and dull. I think it was a mistake to add this to the book rather than focusing on the adventure he takes.
Where is the character depth for the group he ends up traveling with? We learn bits and pieces about them, sure, but how are we meant to care anything about them when we rarely see them? Plus, they all go along with the adventure so easily.
"Hey, here's what happened, wanna join?" "Yeah okay, sure." That's basically what happens. There's no personality for these characters, no reason to care about them at all. And the one character - the main character - that we learn about is told through flashbacks to the past dealing with war, politics and historical figures. It's boring as hell and I was so tempted to skip those parts.
I didn't care about what happened in the past. I cared about what he was doing in the present, what his plan was. I wanted funny shenanigans. I wanted to see the main characters interact with each other more than a handful of times. As is stands, I don't have a single fuck to spare for any of them because they weren't sold to me. They were just kind of... there for plot purposes.
Maybe if the historical events were mentioned instead of told through more than half the book, it wouldn't have been so boring. It goes in depth, though, telling all the details of his life from the moment he was a child. I feel like the author tried to take two stories and mash them together and it just didn't work. Is this supposed to be a historical fiction about a 100 year old man's life? Or is this supposed to be a quirky, funny story about a 100 year old man who ran away and got up to law-breaking shit?
It fails on both ends because it tries too hard to be both. It's like not being sure if you're supposed to go left or right so you choose to go down the middle in the dirt.
Why is this not listed as historical fiction? Most of the book was spent in the past where the main character interacts with multiple historical figures, all of which was extremely boring and dull. I think it was a mistake to add this to the book rather than focusing on the adventure he takes.
Where is the character depth for the group he ends up traveling with? We learn bits and pieces about them, sure, but how are we meant to care anything about them when we rarely see them? Plus, they all go along with the adventure so easily.
"Hey, here's what happened, wanna join?" "Yeah okay, sure." That's basically what happens. There's no personality for these characters, no reason to care about them at all. And the one character - the main character - that we learn about is told through flashbacks to the past dealing with war, politics and historical figures. It's boring as hell and I was so tempted to skip those parts.
I didn't care about what happened in the past. I cared about what he was doing in the present, what his plan was. I wanted funny shenanigans. I wanted to see the main characters interact with each other more than a handful of times. As is stands, I don't have a single fuck to spare for any of them because they weren't sold to me. They were just kind of... there for plot purposes.
Maybe if the historical events were mentioned instead of told through more than half the book, it wouldn't have been so boring. It goes in depth, though, telling all the details of his life from the moment he was a child. I feel like the author tried to take two stories and mash them together and it just didn't work. Is this supposed to be a historical fiction about a 100 year old man's life? Or is this supposed to be a quirky, funny story about a 100 year old man who ran away and got up to law-breaking shit?
It fails on both ends because it tries too hard to be both. It's like not being sure if you're supposed to go left or right so you choose to go down the middle in the dirt.