The Invoice by Jonas Karlsson

What’s up, bibliophiles?

I have another wonderful book to share with you!! I just finished reading The Invoice by Jonas Karlsson. Before we jump into my thoughts, here’s a quick summary courtesy of Penguin Random House:

Hilarious, profound, and achingly true-to-life, Jonas Karlsson’s new novel explores the true nature of happiness through the eyes of hero you won’t soon forget. A passionate film buff, our hero’s life revolves around his part-time job at a video store, the company of a few precious friends, and a daily routine that more often than not concludes with pizza and movie in his treasured small space in Stockholm. When he receives an astronomical invoice from a random national bureaucratic agency, everything will tumble into madness as he calls the hotline night and day to find out why he is the recipient of the largest bill in the entire country.

What is the price of a cherished memory? How much would you pay for a beautiful summer day? How will our carefree idealist, who is content with so little and has no chance of paying it back, find a way out of this mess? All these questions pull you through The Invoice and prove once again that Jonas Karlsson is simply a master of entertaining, intelligent, and life-affirming work.Overall, I thought this was a good book. It was an easy read, but with deep undercurrents of meaning. And I don’t mean deep, as in you had to dig for the meaning behind the book. It was pretty obvious. I just mean deep in that it really hit home. Especially in a capitalistic society, life can be taken over by money and it’s so important to take the time to appreciate the real value in experiences. That’s what this whole novel was about!

 

While the premise was simple, it was valuable in making me think about my own life. Lately, I feel as though student loans run my life and I’m constantly stressed about money. But when I look at my own “invoice”, I can see really positive things: happily married, food on the table for every meal, goofy, lovable pets, understanding friends, and close family. That makes life worth it, no matter the cost. Even more than that, different people have different expectations, values, and dreams. What may make one person happy, won’t make another happy. We just have to accept our own happiness and not compare our lives with those of other people. That’s what I hope all other readers take away from this book as well.

On another note, the writing was straightforward and to the point. The story was easy to follow and the narrator was fairly well-developed. You can feel his anxiety building as he attempts to deal with his invoice. It’s both humorous and saddening to explore his basic tastes and low expectations from life and yet, you find that he’s so happy. Again, it makes you re-evaluate your life and your expectations.

The only issue I had with the book was that it began to feel repetitive. As I mentioned already, the point was easy to grasp and I felt that the novel went on just a tad too long. It almost could have been more powerful as a short story.That aside, Jonas Karlsson, the author, did a fantastic job. Be sure to check out his bio here.

All in all, I greatly enjoyed my reading experience and I highly recommend this book. If you like stories that make you feel introspective, but you still want the feel of fiction, this is definitely the book for you!

Just a quick disclaimer, I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. However, I love Blogging for Books, because there’s no requirement to write a positive review. They stress that they want honest reviews, and that’s what I’ve given you here! If you’re a blogger/reader too, check them out!

Until next time, bibliophiles….

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