I always look forward to a book by Jonas Jonasson. He’s a Swedish writer specialising in very funny stories, starting with The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared, a madcap story with a feel-good ending.
Jonasson has a recipe for all his novels. Invent a few loveable characters who are dysfunctional at life, create circumstances in which they meet up and then send them off together on a crazy adventure. In each story the apparently ill-matched characters complement each other and somehow achieve their outlandish objectives.
The Prophet and the Idiot does not disappoint
Meet Johan Löwenhult, (The Idiot), who is not the sharpest tool in the box. After jointly inheriting with his brother Fredrik a 12-room apartment in Stockholm’s most expensive street, Johan is exploited by his smarter elder brother, with whom he spends years playing a game called “gentry and servants”, being thoroughly exploited as the servant.
The story begins in earnest when Fredrik, a diplomat, gets a posting to Rome, and decides to sell the apartment for millions. All Johan gets out of the deal is a recreational vehicle (RV) to become his home and this is where the fun and mishaps begin.
Enter the Prophet – and a road-trip
He soon meets up with Petra (the Prophet), a self-trained astrophysicist, who has been working on a doomsday equation for years and is convinced that the world will end in 12 days’ time. Together they set off on a road-trip into her past in the beat-up RV. I love the interplay between these two characters; Petra obsesses about her doomsday calculations and her mission to convince the scientific community and the world that it is about to end, while Johan, an obsessive foodie and gourmet amateur chef, agonises over what he will cook for lunch and which wine he will pair with the food. They have a great relationship while obsessing in parallel on completely disparate issues.
Off to Rome, with Barack Obama and Ban-ki Moon
They soon team up with Agnes, a 75-year-old widow who has made a fortune from sponsorship deals posing as a young influencer on Instagram, creating fake travels using harvested photographs from the internet. It’s just my opinion, but I think Agnes should have been given a credit in the novel’s title given her key role in the story. The Prophet, The Idiot and The Fake perhaps.
They all decide to spend their final days righting some historical wrongs in their lives. On an odyssey across Europe, they end up at the Swedish Embassy in Rome (to visit Fredrik). In a hilarious scene at a Swedish Embassy party Johan becomes very friendly with President Barack Obama and Ban-Ki Moon no less, having an animated discussion about local Swedish cheeses, and eclipsing his brother in a humiliating way.
Johan, I am your Father
The action shifts to a banana republic, which they choose to flee to after Agnes comes under investigation for fraud. They decide it’s better to go somewhere with no extradition treaty. Once again Johan lands on his feet, meeting the man who is his true father, and in a madcap turn of events getting himself appointed Foreign Secretary there, again eclipsing his evil career diplomat brother.
The twists and turns of the plot – the rest of which I won’t reveal – keep the reader engrossed; you wonder what could possibly happen next on these outrageous travels, and subsequently find that the outcome is more outlandish than your speculation. Jonasson’s skilful plotting demonstrates a wildly creative imagination, yet he is able to keep the plot bizarre though just believable. It’s almost as if the author sets himself the task of defining the next outlandish scrape for his protagonists to get into and then figures out a deft way to make it happen in the story.
The final revelations do not disappoint; suffice it to say that Mr Obama makes a re-appearance, but only after the globetrotting takes us through a few more locations and a massive internet Ponzi scheme. You will also learn a lot about Västerbotten cheese!
A typical Jonasson success that keeps you laughing
The Prophet and the Idiot is very funny. I snorted and belly laughed on numerous occasions. Jonasson’s ability to create characters who are lovable misfits, and devise insane plots, while still creating a just believable story, is matched by very few authors. Jonasson’s art is his ability to create dysfunctional characters you want to love and create scenarios where you really want to see them succeed. The books are unashamedly feel-good, but Jonasson always manages to walk the tightrope between an upbeat plot without becoming mawkish or overly sentimental. I suspect too that a very skilled translator deserves a share of the praise.
Both Jonasson and Fredrik Backman are the masters of the heartwarming feel-good comedy. The Prophet and the Idiot is a highly enjoyable read.
