The Accidental Further Adventures Of The Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson- Book Review

 

The Accidental Further Adventures Of The Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson- Book Review

Title: The Accidental Further Adventures Of The Hundred-Year-Old Man

Author: Jonas Jonasson

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publish Date: July 2018

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): 

It all begins with that pesky lever in the hot air balloon. Allan is sitting quietly with his friend Julius, waiting for his 101st birthday party to begin, when someone manages to break the lever, and before they know it, up they go, far above the Indian Ocean... 

But what goes up must come down, and after they are rescued from the water by a North Korean ship, it's only a matter of time before the pair are entangled in a global diplomatic crisis involving a briefcase full of contraband uranium. Everyone seems quite interested in this briefcase - from President Trump and Kim Jong-un to Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel - and from then on it's just one accidental adventure after another. There's a vital government message scribbled on the back of a napkin (after numerous glasses of apple vodka), a disastrous case of swapped coffins, a far-too-close encounter with a very angry Nazi, at least one séance, and plenty of illegal asparagus ...

**This book review may contain spoilers**

Allan Karlsson strikes again-- Now having just turned 101, he accidentally sets out on another world tour with his friend Julius, thanks to a broken lever. This time, the cenarian explosives expert meets another array of world leaders including Kim Jong-Un, Trump, Angela Merkel, the Swedish minister for foreign affairs, and more. Now armed with a tablet that tells him the wonders of current news, Allan holds some pretty darn strong opinions on these leaders. And once again, the novel is hilarious and witty (although not as much as the first book). 

This time, it all starts on Allan's 101st birthday, when the lever breaks on Allan and Julius's celebratory hot air balloon, forcing the two to soar through the sky and eventually settle down on the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, they're picked up by a North Korean bulk carrier (that also carries four kilos of uranium), and Allan soon goes through three countries (North Korea, the US, Germany) after an incident involving day-old museli and milk, another incident involving a very mad Trump, and another involving a German ambassador, six apple vodkas, and three napkins. The four kilos of uranium is on its way to a safe place after Allan smuggles it out of North Korea. 

Allan and Julius then meet Sabine, a Swedish entrepreneur selling both food and coffins (food for the living, and coffins for the dead). They hit it off with a custom coffins business, and even receive an order from a neo-Nazi. Unfortunately they confuse the order and send a light blue clouds-and-bunnies coffin instead, which leads the neoNazi to try and kill them. He sadly gets accidentally killed in the process. Meanwhile, the trio Allan-Julius-Sabine decides to start a seance/mythic healing treatments business in Africa, and while there they meet a German agent obviously trailing Allan. And quite by accident they intercept another 400 kilos of uranium heading to North Korea. 

The book was intended to be a critique of the modern world, similar to how the Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared was meant to be a general critique of the 20th century, what Jonasson (the author) described as 'perhaps the most miserable century ever'. Jonasson tells us in the foreword that there never was meant to be a sequel to the Hundred Year Old Man, but recent modern craziness has prompted his inner Allan to knock around in his brain again. Compared with the previous novel, this book is similarly witty but for some reason didn't make me laugh out loud as much.  Also, the book was much more political content, targeting many existing world leaders and countries. 

While this book doesn't have two storylines proceeding at once like the Hundred Year Old Man did with the past and the present, Allan still meets many notable figures in a short amount of time. His interactions with Trump, Merkel, Kim Jong-un, and Swedish officials are humorous, with Allan having strong opinions about many of them. However, the shorter time period explored definitely has an impact on the book's level of humor. It meant that this was a book with less than half the amount of historical figures to critique, and as such there was a lot of pages used for the buildup of the story. Especially, the middle part of the adventure felt like an overly long buildup process for the journey to Africa-- the happenings with the Neonazi and the coffin company were funny, but did not contribute much to the story besides providing a motivation for traveling to Africa. Sabine wasn't even a major character in the final third of the book, instead featuring predominantly in the middle third. 

Another aspect of the book that reduced the fun a little was the omission of many characters from the previous novel. Although Allan and Julius were included in the novel, other characters such as Benny, Gunilla, Sonya, and more were sorely missed. Even Julius did not play much of a role, it was mostly Allan talking while Julius was waiting for Allan or occasionally worrying about his asparagus operation. Instead of introducing Sabine, a character from the first book may have worked well in her place (as in, being the motivation for flying to Africa). 

 

All in all, The Accidental Further Adventures (sorry the title's too long) is a sequel to The Hundred Year Old Man, with this second installment instead focusing on issues from the 21st century. Although decidedly less funny than the first book, Allan's new adventures are still filled with humor and wit, and still worth a read. 

Rating: I would give this a 4/5 - The first book is much more humorous compared to this one, and the much shorter time period brings down the fun a bit. Also, the middle part feels slightly unnecessary for Jonasson's purposes, with the beginning and end being much funnier.