The Hundred-Year-Old Man

A/N: Light spoiler alert. 

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It can be hard to pick a favourite book. Is it the book that makes you laugh until your sides ache, or the book that makes you cry until snot is streaming down your face?

Is it the book full of nostalgia that reminds you of your childhood , or is it the book that taught you something so vital that it changed your entire perspective of life?

There are thousands of different reasons that a book can be considered great, and the Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is (in my subjective opinion) a great book.

It´s the book I recommend to family, friends, and strangers. Especially if they want something funny to read.

And it has two selling points. Two things that truly make it great.

The first is the humour. That Scandinavian, absurd, under-stated humour that is hilarious when it´s done right.

This humour is seen in scenes such as the one where the racist doctor looks at the whitest man in existence and tries to convince himself that he´s black. Because, after all, only a black man would blow his own house up.

Or in the scene where the main character decides that he has to escape the prison camp so he can get some vodka.

The book is funny. It takes some of the worst periods and decisions in human history and it considers them from the point-of-view of the least politically inclined person in the world.

The result is complete absurdity, and (as I mentioned in an earlier post) then there´s something undeniably humorous in absurdity.

The second selling point is tied up with this. The book causes us to look at history and see the countless deaths that are caused because of True Fictions. Ideologies. Religion. Money.

All things that don´t exist in the physical realm (though representations of them might) but which only exist in the human consciousness because we´ve all agreed that it does.

A silly reason for someone to die, isn´t it?

So, we have a book that´s funny, and we have a book with an important message.

And as a little extra bonus – we have Allan.

The main character and his lovely motto. “What is, is, and what will be, will be.”

A motto we might choose to follow when it comes to the small stuff, so that we can focus on the important things in life.

For Allan, this was vodka.

For you, it might be world peace.

Or that chocolate chip cookie you´ve been craving all day.

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