Posted by geemiz | Posted in Geemiz Thoughts | Posted on 10-08-2013
Tags: Best seller book
First, I want everybody to know that I am no expert about the technicalities of writing a novel nor I have a special knowledge of books. I am simply sharing to you my thoughts, realizations and anything in between during the time I read this book. Another thing I want all of you to know is that, I enjoy all books I read so probably most things here are positive.
About the book
The story is about what the title intends the reader to understand. A hundred year old man from a home for the aged decided on his 100th birthday to run away from the facility. There were two periods in the story, the present and the past.
The present time is set in Sweden. It tells about the present journey of the centenarian. It shows how he jumped out in the window; walk to the bus station; get possession to a bag with 50 million dollars; befriend with a thief, and together accidentally refrigerated a young member of a notorious gang. Then hired a know it all hotdog vendor to be a chauffeur for 100,000 dollars; meet a red head woman who owned an elephant and a dog, and they all together with the animals traveled in a yellow bus to a farm owned by the brother of the hotdog vendor and on the way meet an accident to the leader of the notorious gang who happened to be the long lost best friend of the brother of the hotdog vendor then everyone ended up flying to Bali Indonesia for a vacation of a lifetime together with the deputy officer in charge of the case of the hundred year old man who jumped in the window and disappeared .
The past period narrates the story of the centenarian Allan Emmanuel Karlsson and his great knowledge about explosives and how this help him and save him in his entire life. It describes about his contribution to the creation of the atomic bomb and even outsmarted Robert Oppenheimer. It shows his closeness to several US Presidents to name a few Pres. Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. His conversations and affiliations with World War II icons Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Kim Jong-il and his father Kim Il-sung and why the great Mao Tse Tung is deeply in debted to him. It also tells about how the wife of his good friend Herbert Einstein the younger brother of Albert Einstein a very opposite to the latter made Bali Indonesia number one in tourism.
My Thoughts
I enjoyed a lot reading the book and at the same time recalling history. If only history books are presented this way, it would be much fun and easier to learn the subject. It would be convenient to remember all the dates and names and who are allies and not during the World War II. The story has similarity with the 1986 novel later on 1994 movie “Forest Gump”, where in the protagonist is present in a historical event and is not politically engaged and in case of this book Alan has something to do with historical figures mentioned above and does not want to talk about politics. I have good laughs throughout the story and I am impressed on how the author connected Alan in all those people just mentioned.
My realization
– Life is not that short after all if we just recall the entire journey we had in the past years.
– Live for today and not for tomorrow because we do not know if there is still tomorrow but that does not mean that we must lose hope because to live today means to be hopeful for tomorrow.
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