In his first novel, Jonas Jonasson has created a very entertaining
adventure revolving around some of the major international events of the
20th century, many involving espionage and awesome mayhem. The
centenarian hero is Allan Karlsson, a Swede born on May 2, 1905 to a
suffragette and a social activist who died a pointless death defending a
patch of ground he called The Real Russia. Allan became a “miserably
paid errand boy” at Nitroglycerin Ltd.’s factory, where his canny
ability to overhear, understand what he heard and be in the right place
at the right time would serve him well. After he was orphaned at 15, he
began Karlsson Dynamite Company, and his experiments and expertise with
explosives would rock the world for the next 85 years.
On May 2, 2005, Allan’s 100th birthday, the Mayor of Malmköping, the
director of the Old Folks’ home, and other old people are waiting in the
next room to celebrate his longevity. Allan opens the ground-floor
window of his room, steps out into a flowerbed and begins his shuffle
toward freedom. He is wearing his pee-slippers and has only a bit of
money, but he heads for the bus station. A rude young man with
Never Again
stitched on his jacket asks Allan to guard a huge gray suitcase, but
his bus comes while the young man is in the bathroom and Allan chooses
to board the bus
with the suitcase --- “a decision that said ‘yes’ to life.”
The inevitable chase by the rude young man and other
Never Again
cohorts to reclaim the gray suitcase with 50 million worth of crown
notes lasts for a few weeks. Karlsson’s escape entourage includes a
ne’er-do-well cheat, a foul-mouthed redhead, a hot dog vendor, a
four-and-a-half-ton Asian elephant, and a dog named Buster.
The pursuit chapters are balanced with chronicles of Allan’s chaotic
life, each of them highly implausible but oddly possible. In the chapter
1939-1945, for instance, he is a subservient waiter at the Los Alamos
laboratory and listens to the despair of the scientists on controlling a
nuclear reaction after their success in achieving it. He is a voracious
reader in the world of explosives, studies extensively and solves the
problem. While pouring coffee in Robert Oppenheimer’s cup, the solution
just slips out: “Well, if you divide the uranium into two equal parts
and slap them together only when it is time, then they’ll explode when
you want them to.”
The scientists quickly see the sense in his solution, and they are
celebrating success when Harry S. Truman walks in, unannounced as usual.
He praises the good news, invites Allan for a bite to eat, and shares
two bottles of tequila with him. At the conclusion of a convivial
evening, they are interrupted by the news that President Roosevelt is
dead. Allan’s friendship with Harry endures and surfaces again in other
chapters, with Harry once helping Allan obtain a valid Swedish passport
in the early morning hours. Possible? Well, yes.
Allan and Herbert Einstein (Albert’s idiotic half-brother, unknown to
the world) are sentenced to 30 years in a labor camp in Vladivostok,
but after five years, Allan decides he needs a drink. To get that drink,
he must escape. And to escape he needs “Soviet uniforms, and then a
car, which would need keys in the ignition and a full fuel tank, plus no
owner…then the guarded gates would have to open…and nobody would follow
them.” The implausible plan works; this success leads to another, and
another, and he eventually becomes the aide-decamp at the Indonesian
Embassy in Paris.
There is little physical description of Allan: his “hefty fist”
swallowing Kim Jong II’s hand and his appearance as the Wild Man of
Borneo after not shaving for 15 years. It is up to the reader to create
the whole character as the innate likability, philosophical honesty and
genuine attachment to living fully are seen.
Jonasson’s book might be best enjoyed across the sofa from another
reader, over the course of several days, with an ongoing discussion
about the Vietnam War demonstrations, Stalin’s moustache, Mao Tse-tung’s
third wife, or the ineptitude of local authorities. Add a bottle of
excellent vodka.
