Ich suchte zwar gerade die Leichtigkeit der Geschichte und den grotesken Humor, der sich auf jeder Seite offenbart. Zugleich vermisste ich auf jeder Seite den Tiefgang. Da hilft es auch nicht, dass Alibi-Bildungskapitelchen über Kunst im Nationalsozialismus oder den Expressionismus der Irma Stern eingefügt werden. Und was einerseits Jonassons Stärke ist, nämlich sich hemmungslos jeder Groteske zu bedienen, die sich bietet, wird andererseits bald inflationär: Wenn alles denkbar ist, überrascht nichts mehr so richtig. Great literature, of course. Perhaps the greatest. If you have not yet read it, I suggest the following: buy two copies and give one to your friend. Read the book separately. Then, sit down to discuss who the Danish Prince Hamlet really is. You’ll never finish, I promise. Hamlet is second on my list because, in terms of revenge, Shakespeare met his match in Dumas. One slowly builds up his revenge for a quarter of a century. The other engages in hasty murders and long procrastination.

Jonas Jonasson’s books are just different. You can tell from just the title of his first novel, “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared,” a book that has sold millions of copies worldwide. To summarise, this book is farcical in EVERY sense of the word. And unless you know and have read Jónasson’s work before, perhaps give it a miss. They say an elephant never forgets. The same goes for the self-proclaimed count in Dumas’ classic adventure novel. Revenge is rarely as beautiful as when the practitioner is not in a hurry. Edmond Dantès waited 24 years. In my new novel, one of the main characters fantasises about planting a hedge next to his neighbour’s plot, with the intention of letting it to grow until it obscures the sun for the neighbour’s carrot bed. He’d have to wait 500 years, but all good things comes to those who wait. fieser schwedischer Kunsth��ndler, naive Jungehefrau, schwarzafrikanischer uneheliche Sohn, der vom Vater in der afrikanischen Savanne zum Sterben ausgesetzt wird, um dort postwendend von einem abgedrehten, hinterwäldlerischen Massai aufgelesen und adoptiert zu werden.... Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri on writing in Italian and the solitude at the centre of her new novelMe gustó la forma en que estaba estructurada la historia, el como partía contando la vida de distintas personas hasta el punto actual, luego pasaba a otra y a otra, una vez que tenía a los personajes los iba conectando poco a poco. Fue interesante y también una manera dinámica de no volver la historia lenta o tediosa. Absolut nichts davon findet sich in diesem Buch...okay...absurd ist er schon, dieser konstruierte Plot: Los personajes son tan caricaturizados como la prosa del autor, ninguno se acerca ni un poco a la realidad, pero el mismo libro y tono de este lo justifica. Como dije antes, no tengo problema con esto, salvo por el detalle de que tampoco me importaron mucho. Es el tipo de historia en la que esperaría encontrar al menos un personaje entrañable o que me hiciera reír, pero no. Quizá el que más se acercaba era Hugo por ser casi un mercenario, pero bastante dulce en el fondo. Nuestros protagonistas principales, Jenny y Kevin, la verdad es que me fueron bastante indiferentes y ni siquiera Ole con su curiosa personalidad logró importarme mucho.

So, do not get me wrong, there are some quality and endearing highlights within the narrative, and I would not want to put anyone off from reading Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd. But for me, the pluses are outweighed by the negatives. Perhaps I was spoiled by the previous novels by the author and was expecting more. It’s an elegant way of saying in one sentence what Great Britain did without sounding too much like a teacher. I’m always happy if you can see a serious message in the one-liner. Tenía muchas ganas de leer al autor, sobre todo por "El viejo que saltó por la ventana y se largó", pero por distintos motivos siempre lo posponía. Así que cuando vi este nuevo libro lo tomé como mi oportunidad. When I had first come across Jonas Jonasson's The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, I absolutely fell in love with his writing style and the subtle humor that so easily gelled up with the world history and character's development. It wasn't much of a surprise when its sequel turned out to be equally entertaining and it didn't make me think twice when I got my hands on his latest one. Dived in immediately with a bit of high expectations and here is my take on whether it was a hit or a miss. This is quite possibly the most long winded, convoluted, mumbo jumbo I’ve read this year so far! And that’s coming from me, the ever rambling female Adam Buxton -she wishes.

Rachel Willson-Broyles

As mentioned earlier, I had a good amount of expectations from this book. The author did deliver on quite a lot of expectations but there were its own shortcomings from this book. For starters, the plot though at best did try to be a streamlined was haphazard in quite a lot of places. Every new character were introduced from the start and was brought to a common point for the story to continue. The characters were pretty limited but they were not portrayed with much shade as they should have been. See on vana hea Jonasson: peadpööritav, tempokas, ülevaatlik ja kokkuvõtlik oma lihtsas sõnastuses, piisavalt vaimukas ja humoorikas. Ja nagu ikka, tõlkija peab suutma paadis püsida (suutis, muidugi suutis!). Jonassoni tegelastegalerii ei ole kunagi kahvatu, nii ka seekord - rahvusromantikust kunstikaupmees, kes elu keerdkäikudes "saab" endale tumedanahalise poja, kelle ta ühel hetkel Aafrikasse lõvidele söödaks läkitab ja kes seepeale taevast sadanud pojana lapsendatakse ühe kohaliku ravitsejamehe poolt. Viimane reisib peagi Rootsi, otsima oma jumalast saadetud poega, kes sooritab kõik masai sõdalase katsumused, väljaarvatud see viimane ümberlõikamise teema, ja kui ravitsejamees külma talvesse saabub, siis alles hakkab juhtuma. Ja siis on veel kunstikaupmehe naine, kellest saab õige ruttu endine abikaasa ja siis üsna varsti hoopis selle sama kunstikaupmehe poja naine... Läks juba segamini? Pole viga, raamatut lugedes on kõik selge ja loogiline, kiirkokkuvõttena kõlab veidi ulmelisena jah. Olgem ausad, ega Oidipuse lugu ju ka kuigi loogiline ole. Cattle (cows and goats), clubs (the fighting kind) and jam. Three items which often appear in this book :-P Ole Mbatian a Maasai medicine man and his chief, Victor an odious so far right politically he should have been named Adolf, his ex-wife Jenny, his son Kevin and artist Irma Stern. How on earth do this disparate bunch connect??? This could only be created in the fertile mind of Jonas Jonasson! Who is out for sweet sweet revenge and why??!!