Allan Karlsson is centenarian who decides he is bored with his nursing home life, and absconds just before a party to celebrate his 100th birthday. What follows is a crime-thriller farce, interspersed with extracts from Allan’s life where it transpires he was something of a Forrest Gump-style character, meeting and influencing a number of political leaders across the world.
This book is likeable and charming and I think if it hadn’t struck me as so obviously being a Scandinavian Forrest Gump then I would have enjoyed it more. The translation is pretty good, which is something I’ve felt has suffered in other Scandinavian novels recently (The Steg Larrson Millennium books as an example) and even though most of the characters have the exact same pragmatic approach to life, I still found it a bit of fun.
It’s not a great book though, and the sections set in the modern day tend to drag. Thankfully, the chapters that recount Allan’s life and his unbelievable encounters and influence over famous people and events of the 20th Century grow longer as the book progresses.
The novel is primarily a comedy, but even though the historical events are only lightly touched upon, they are well researched. There is a hint of a theme that runs through the book, warning the reader not to take politics too seriously.
But that is it really. It is not a book of great substance, and does not inspire any great feeling or emotion. The writing style is very light-hearted and easy to get on with, but I didn’t find it laugh-out-loud funny. A nice book if you want a gentle read, without having to think too hard.
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