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급변하는 현대사의 주요 장면마다 본의 아니게 끼어들어 역사의 흐름을 바꿔 놓는 주인공의 활약은 독자로 하여금 역사의 생생한 현장 속으로 빨려 들어가게 한다. 계속되는 우연과 과장스러운 설정이 때로는 황당하게 느껴지기도 하지만, 쉴 새 없이 터지는 웃음 속에서도 어느새 이데올로기란 무엇인지, 종교란 무엇인지, 그리고 우리의 인생이란 무엇인지 곰곰 생각하게 되는, 가볍게 읽히지만 여운은 묵직한 작품이다.
스웨덴의 한 소읍 양로원에서 백 살 생일 파티를 앞둔 알란은 창문을 넘어 화단으로 뛰어내린다. 그는 '이제 그만 죽어야지'라고 되뇌는 대신 덤으로 남은 인생을 즐기기로 한 것이다. 그런 그가 처음 간 곳은 버스 터미널. 그곳에서 그는 한 예의 없는 청년의 트렁크를 충동적으로 훔치고, 사실은 돈다발이 가득 차 있었던 이 트렁크로 인해 큰 말썽이 벌어지게 된다.
노인이 도피 과정에서 겪는 모험과 쌍을 이루는 소설의 다른 한 축은 그가 살아온 백 년의 이야기이다. 어린 시절 아버지를 여의고 일찍이 폭약 회사에 취직했던 알란은 어머니마저 돌아가시자 세상을 한번 둘러보는 것도 좋겠다는 가벼운 마음으로 고향을 떠나간다. 그러나 이후 그는 가는 곳마다 의도치 않게 세계사의 격변에 휘말리게 된다.
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I don't know about you, but reading the title made me believe this book would be a humorous, silly little adventure of an old man running away from the old folks home. It was not humorous and it was not silly. Why is this not listed as historical fiction? Most of the book was spent in the past where the main character interacts with multiple historical figures, all of which was extremely boring and dull. I think it was a mistake to add this to the book rather than focusing on the adventure he takes. Where is the character depth for the group he ends up traveling with? We learn bits and pieces about them, sure, but how are we meant to care anything about them when we rarely see them? Plus, they all go along with the adventure so easily."Hey, here's what happened, wanna join?" "Yeah okay, sure." That's basically what happens. There's no personality for these characters, no reason to care about them at all. And the one character - the main character - that we learn about is told through flashbacks to the past dealing with war, politics and historical figures. It's boring as hell and I was so tempted to skip those parts.I didn't care about what happened in the past. I cared about what he was doing in the present, what his plan was. I wanted funny shenanigans. I wanted to see the main characters interact with each other more than a handful of times. As is stands, I don't have a single fuck to spare for any of them because they weren't sold to me. They were just kind of... there for plot purposes.Maybe if the historical events were mentioned instead of told through more than half the book, it wouldn't have been so boring. It goes in depth, though, telling all the details of his life from the moment he was a child. I feel like the author tried to take two stories and mash them together and it just didn't work. Is this supposed to be a historical fiction about a 100 year old man's life? Or is this supposed to be a quirky, funny story about a 100 year old man who ran away and got up to law-breaking shit?It fails on both ends because it tries too hard to be both. It's like not being sure if you're supposed to go left or right so you choose to go down the middle in the dirt.
