Read it in: maybe a little over two weeks

So this was a bit of a random choice, picked up in the bookshop for no apparent reason and waiting to be read so that I could finally add the ‘fiction alphabetical order J’ category to the list.  Also, to tell the truth I haven’t really read a comedy before.  It was an interesting experience.

Would I recommend it?  Sure, if you like books written almost entirely in exposition.  An example is called for:

Allan asked Julius if he had any ideas which, unlike previous attempts, would not make The Beauty even angrier.  Julius answered that the only way they could save the situation was by inviting The Beauty to partake in some sort of part ownership of the suitcase.  Allan agreed, although he pointed out that no good would come of telling a new person each day that they had stolen someone’s suitcase, killed that person when he wanted to get it back, and sent the corpse to Africa packed neatly in a steel cylinder. (pg 96-97)

At first it really bothered me.  Really, really bothered me.  I thought maybe it was something funny with the translation (the author is Swedish, after all), but then I realised that it hadn’t been translated.  Was that the problem?  Needless to say, I did get used to it, and the whole book isn’t written in exposition anyway.  Only the vast majority of it.

It follows the strange and intriguing life of Allan Karlsson, who managed to mix him up in just about every important world event of the 20th Century, and is currently, at the age of one-hundred, on the run.  So the book jumps between the past and the present, which got a little confusing towards the end, but was helped by the dates at the top of the chapters.  So Mr. Karlsson goes from Sweden at the beginning of the century to the Spanish Civil War, to Los Alamos in 1945, to China during the revolution, to the Himalayas and Iran, then back to Sweden and then shortly to Soviet Russia, mainly Vladivostok, to North Korea, to Bali and then finally back to Sweden.  Along the way he manages to meet with just about every major policy-maker of the times.  This is the history scholar’s dream, the international relations major’s greatest desire, to see all these factors come together for comment.  Unfortunately for us all, Mr. Karlsson isn’t particularly fond of politics and tends to try to change the subject quickly.  Now, that is unfortunate.

Well, this book was a little crazy, and maybe a little ambitious in that sense.  Mr. Karlsson with his incredible luck but apathy for politics got on the nerves a little, which is unfortunate because the entire thing is narrated from his expositional perspective.  And, though this may be a flaw with the comedy genre as a whole, the entire narrative seemed completely devoid of emotion.  Characters died, that’s right, died, and our protagonist seemed hardly phased, just continued on with his crazy journey.  Incredible things happened that, if given to another author, could have been laden with heart-wrenching descriptions and really milked for all it was worth.  We had labour camps in Vladivostok.  We had bombs going off during the Spanish Civil War.  We had interrogations with the top dog of the Iranian secret police.  In another writer’s hands, I could see this being an emotionally charged adventure novel.  This one, however, seemed to skirt the emotional bits and toddle along with the plot regardless of what the character was experiencing, in the same way, I suppose, that a one-hundred year old man would climb out the window and disappear – slowly but surely with no regard for anyone and no emotion whatsoever.

So it was a little irritating, but blame it on my inability to stand the comedy genre.  DeLillo and Mishima have made me into a cynical and pedantic literary hermit.  I will stay in my depressing genre-niche and reject everything whenever I emerge.

I am trying to broaden my tastes.  My attempts just haven’t been successful yet.

Read it if you: are an experienced adventurer in the comedy genre and know what to expect, are interested in world history, think coincidence and good luck are amusing.

While reading listen to: oh, lord, I don’t know.  Don’t ask me right now, I’m too busy being cynical.