Hitman Anders and the Meaning of Joy

I had never heard of Jonas Jonasson until a friend happened to mention how much she'd enjoyed The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

Frankly, with a title like that, she could have said the thing was awful, unreadable, Twilight-esque trash, and I'd still have been compelled to read it.  As it turned out, it was a stunning, hilarious, life-affirming, decade and continent-spanning dual adventure that had me grinning from ear-to-ear from page-to-page.

That was followed by The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden: another decade and continent-spanning romp, though not quite as extensive in either regard as its predecessor.

Though the two stories were very different, they did have two very important things in common: exceptional, breezy writing, and fascinating central and supporting characters it was a joy to spend four-hundred-ish pages with.

So now we get Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it All.

As testament to Jonasson's breezy style, the opening chapter gives us the full life-story (including family history) of our first protagonist; a receptionist lumbered through circumstance with the somewhat silly name of Per Persson - "...not that it's impossible to be named Per Persson or, for that matter, Jonas Jonasson, but some might find it monotonous" - and a brief summary of the life and misfortunes of our titular Hitman, Johan Andersson.  As double biographies go, they're concise, to say the least.

Chapter two brings us protagonist three in the form of Johanna Kjellander, a disgruntled former parish priest, and the unlikely criminal mastermind behind the group's underhanded endeavours.  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.

For me, it is the weakest of the three, owing mostly to a third act that grinds the action to a halt, before rushing somewhat unexpectedly to its ending.  But overall, as with Jonasson's previous novels, Hitman... is a briskly-paced, occasionally bizarre, often hilarious story, with unusually intelligent, though morally questionable protagonists, somewhat less intelligent, bungling antagonists, death, mayhem, oblivious authorities, lashings of karma, and an oddly recurring theme of a briefcase (or two) full of cash.

Most importantly, it kept me smiling throughout.