Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All

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Events were rolling along nicely until about half way through when the plot began to run in circles. Hitman Anders is fresh out of prison and trying to keep his head down when he meets a female Protestant vicar (who happens to be an atheist), and a receptionist at a 1-star hotel (who happens to be currently homeless). The authorial voice mysteriously backing Per and Johanna, regardless of their actions, kept me on side to an extent, but this sort of beach read novel needs a touch more outright likeability; the second, more nefarious scheme is short on that: After a business strategy based on the assault of people who were, in the best case, not entirely innocent, the priest and the receptionist had steered onto the new track of swindling money out of those whose hearts were full of faith, hope, love and generosity, and whose circulatory systems, just to be safe, had been filled with wine.

Seriously, the plot just doesn't make any sense and the religious elements really started to get on my nerves. Jonasson’s worlds may not contain elves, but they are still fantastical and require some suspension of disbelief; Johanna required too much and was more plot device than person. I was expecting a farce and so didn’t have any issues with the ludicrousness of events, but I can imagine some readers may find the continued and escalating daftness annoying. Perhaps she, sometimes reminiscent of pre-Counter-Reformation indulgence-sellers, or fraudulent televangelists, is meant to symbolise negative aspects of the church in a country where people still pay taxes to it, and where freedom of religion was made legal much later than in Britain. Kupiłam tę książkę lata temu na fali zachwytu „Stulatkiem, który wyskoczył przez okno i zniknął”, ale nie ma ona do tamtej porównania.Together they cook up an idea for a very unusual business that's going to make them all a fortune - but then all of a sudden, and to everyone's surprise, Anders finds Jesus .

It may not win the author many new fans, but has enough of the formula to satisfy those who really liked both his earlier novels. I felt no connection whatsoever for the characters and the only reason I was able to finish this book is because I skim-read the last 40% of the book. Hitman Anders becomes a celebrity for breaking people’s arms and legs – really, why would the public venerate an ordinary gangster? In fact, I have been considering a DNF at various points in the story and decided to skim-read the last part because I just couldn't take it any longer.Maybe that’s the satirical element – is Jonas Jonasson saying that Swedish gangsters get away with blatant crimes? Later on, Hitman Anders, the receptionist and the priest are on the run from a group of mobsters they’ve swindled out of millions of kroner. Then his life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a female Protestant vicar (who also happens to be an atheist), and a homeless receptionist at a former brothel which is now a one-star hotel. But when their money-making scheme targets well-meaning churchgoers, they become much less appealing. I don’t think I couldn't make sense of her just because she’s so far from the modern CofE type, like the lead character in Rev (who’s also similar to a couple of friends of friends who had thought of becoming clergy, though they also had a quietly donnish side).

In writing this review, I don't really have any thoughts to share on the characters or the plot -- they were just kind of there, and I read about what they did, and then the book was done.Together they cook up an idea for a very unusual business that’s going to make them all a fortune – but then all of a sudden, and to everyone’s surprise, Anders finds Jesus . I’d been apprehensive about Jonasson’s previous book, The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, with its heroine from Soweto, and a title in several European languages that translated as “The Illiterate Who Saved the King of Sweden”. Desperate to save the money machine they've built, The Priest and The Receptionist devise an audacious plan utilizing Killer-Anders' newfound and decidedly fervent faith. As wildly funny and unexpected as The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared and The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, this is a madcap, feel-good adventure about belief, the media - and the fact that it's never too late to start again.

But when Killer-Anders begins asking deeper questions about purpose and meaning, his curiosity leads him to an unexpected discovery: he finds Jesus. The honour within the book is at times laugh out loud funny and is certainly having a go at the Catholic religion.As a reader open to the explanation of their backgrounds, and wanting to laugh at the book I still kept wishing they would stop, even if I didn’t want them to get shot or arrested or any of the other things one sees pissed off Goodreads reviewers say about characters who annoyed them. In addition to these baffling decisions, our characters don’t seem to have any actual obstacles – things tend to work out really well for them whatever they do which doesn’t make for a very exciting read. e clar ca fiind pe placul meu, am numai cuvinte de laudă la adresa ei, asa ca nu voi mai zice nimic si voi lasa pe fiecare sa descopere "lumea pe înțelesul tuturor".