Jonas Karlsson * Hogarth * July 12, 2016 * 208 Pages
Advanced Reader Copy provided through Amazon Vine.
Our nameless narrator gets an invoice in the mail for a giant, ridiculous amount of kronor. (He lives in Sweden). Surely there must be a mistake! He calls the number for the company and finds out he’s been charged for all the happy (or at least somewhat affirming) moments in his life. But how can that be? He isn’t that happy, he claims. But as he walks through each (boring) life moment with the customer service representative, his eyes are opened and now he sees how blessed he’s been.
Vomit.
Seriously, just no. This book was so boring. So horribly, dreadfully boring. I get the metaphor. I get the allegory. But it was all played out after, like, 30 pages. The only part of the book that was kind of okay for me was about midway through when our nameless narrator finally starts having some slightly meaningful interactions with his customer service rep. At least that provided a bit of story.
But the rest… Oh dear God, the rest was trite and cheesy and so, so heavy-handed. I will owe zero kronor after reading this book. In fact, I feel like Jonas Karlsson owes ME kronor.
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