I remember finding this book when I was spending the night at my grandma's as a kid. I was bored as I wasn't really ready to go to bed at 9 pm so I decided to give this book a go. I didn't get far. It was just too boring and weird for a young me. When my jar of books gave me this one to read I hesitated a bit as I remembered the struggle I had with it before. But I gave in as I didn't want to cheat and get another book.
The main plot I guess you can say, follows 12 year old Norwegian boy, Hans Thomas, and his father on their journey from Norway to Greece to find Hans' mother. She had left years ago to find herself. Only clue the guys have is a cover of a magazine with the mom's face on it as she seems to work as a model. During the journey the dad likes to drink and talk about philosophy and make his son think in a way he hasn't before. Dad also collects jokers from playing cards which Hans is used to be but embarrassed by when dad asks strangers for them. Hans acquires a magnifying glass from a dwarf and a tiny book that was baked inside a bun. The story inside this book is amazing and weird and addictive to young boy and he reads the book in secret while his dad is sleeping or off drinking.
I'm surprised by how much I actually liked this book. Dad's philosophical thinking took me back to high school classes and I actually enjoyed it. His theory of how he himself is a joker and how those are rare in this world intrigued me. If joker is someone like a child, who still thinks this Earth is amazing and full of wonders and actually has philosophical thoughts about simple things, then yes I can see how they can be rare. I also know that I'm not one of them. In almost 30 years on this planet I've gotten used to it. It is a shame how granted we take everything just because we aren't surprised by nature anymore.
I can also relate to Hans Thomas when it comes to that tiny book. Just last night I was up late to finish a book I was reading. That tiny book has a whole new world inside it. Tiny dwarves that have no names like we do but are named after playing cards. There is the beautiful and blonde hearts, hard working spades and so on. Everything in that book really happens in an island and everything in that island has something to do with playing cards. I loved finding out why that was the way and why event hough these cards can speak they are rather slow and can't say a lot. Also who is the master they talk about? Will Hans Thomas and his dad find the mom and actually bring her home? This book was about 350 pages of delightful reading and I can see myself reading it again in the future. After I've finished all those unread books in my shelves...
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