Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All

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It's not a heavyweight book by any means, but it was a nice way to while away a few cold evenings here in this goddamn THIRD pandemic winter. But these are people who don’t feel they have many positive options for pulling themselves out of the mire.

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. This time a recently freed hitman who refuses to kill any more teams up with a homeless receptionist and an athiest priest to make their fortune only maiming people. I started with The 100 Year Old Man, followed by Hitman Anders and finished with The Girl who Saved The King of Sweden.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. I don’t have a problem with this: anyone who took Per Persson’s genetic heritage into account could find, if not an excuse, at least an explanation. As wildly funny and unexpected as Jonasson's previous bestselling novels, Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All is a zany, feel-good adventure story, tenderly and hilariously exploring belief, redemption, and the fact that it's never too late to start again. Unlike Jonas Jonasson's other novel, this one didn't manage to impress me and I even thought about DNFing it at some points.

The characters are all so morally corrupt, that no matter how much good they try to do, it always left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The three get together and put together a very unusual business plan that is supposed to make them all very rich.

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. Hitman Anders isn’t reflective literary fiction, or a textbook on psychology and social problems: it's a silly comic novel with [anti-]heroes readers need more reasons to root for. Funny, witty and just when you think you know where he's going he throws in a twist that keeps you flipping the page. Conniving, imaginative, quick-witted and vindictive, the priest is easily the most fascinating and enjoyable of the trio - with the Hitman a simple foil, and the receptionist an out-of-his-depth sidekick for the bulk of the story - but this is nevertheless an ensemble piece: the very traits that make the priest the stand-out, and most proactive character of the group are also what make her incapable of coping on her own. Overall: diverting enough if you want a well-written farce to dip in and out of and don’t mind the lack of a strong linear plot.

A story of God, organised crime and faith in which Hitman Anders, Sweden's most tattooed assassin finds God after meeting an atheist protestant priest and the receptionist of an hotel cum brothel. They even learn to be more environmentally friendly, as well as more frugal and less grasping without practical justification. I’d not previously read any of Jonasson’s books, but as this was on offer on Kindle I thought I’d dive in. If that sounds odd then that's because the book is odd, wonderfully so with quirky characters and a plot that despite its absurdities carries the reader from page to page, a smile never far from his/her face. 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.Anyway it's the story of a hitman (duh), a quick-witted lapsed lady priest, and a misanthropist male receptionist. However, towards the end of the story, I found it a little difficult to follow all the characters as there were too many gangsters.

While it starts well, and Jonasson’s third novel is perhaps a slight improvement on the second, the formula of zany characters in absurd situations has worn rather thin.

I’d heard good things about this author’s previous books but I was very disappointed with his latest, pitiful effort – I won’t be looking for more novels from the hacky Jonas Jonasson and his dull writing. She’s actually a near-genius intellect, it’s just that at the start of the book she hadn’t been to school). But, whilst Johanna and Per both crave material wealth as a substitute for emotionally nurturing parents, I’m damned if I can see what any character other than Johanna is meant to symbolise individually - and besides, that sounds a bit high-concept for a Jonasson novel.