Book review: The boy with the golden pants (Max Lundgren)

Max Lundgren is according to me the best children's book writer Sweden has produced (Astrid Lindgren? who?) and especially his most famous book in this regard: Åshöjdens BK is somewhat of a masterpiece. In that book the story circling around soccer is merely functioning as a greater setting and a vehicle for a much deeper story about the power tensions in a small society going through major upheavals. The child may majorly interest oneself in all the sports happenings, which is still cared for and well crafted, but the slightly hidden "actual" story gets under the skin in a way the child only truly can reflect on afterwards. In this way the author, who had (diseased 2005) the heart to the left politically, can do some political and societal commentary without being tacky or on the nose in any bothersome way. In any case Lundgren made complex and real characters regardless if they were supposed to be villains (like The Blueberry king), if they propagated the opinion matrix of the author (like Jorma) or had a more rightoid attitude in general (like Edward).

Åshöjden is a book series like no other in the children's literature, I must say. It's truly mature and adult in its subject matters, but sincerely directed to tweens, being able to challenge them while still being highly entertaining and captivating. If you have missed out on Åshöjden, well, get the books and stop missing out, would ya?

*** 

In any case. This particular book, "The boy with the golden pants" I was well aware of as a child - I had seen the TV show from 1975 (which I merely remembered the premise and the finale from) but for some reason I hadn't picked up the novel it was based on even if I loved the author. So when my reading habit returned it was a given to finally fill in this particular gap on my reading list. 

The premise of the novel is quite straight forward: "Mats",  a 12-year old boy lives with his father "Torkel", a middle aged mildly alcoholic editor on Skånes dagblad in Malmö in the south of Sweden. They live a rather poor life together. Torkel puts most of their money in various bottles and Mats misses out on such luxurious things as having a functioning bike or doing any meaningful or fun things during the summer breaks. One day however something remarkable happens to him, or rather to his pants: Every time he puts his hand in his right pocket there is a fresh banknote being there ready to be grabbed. Every time. Suddenly it's no issue at all to pay for the fancy bike he always wanted, no issue at all to go for a spendy fishing trip with his father or even buying his father an actual boat. The world is his oyster all of a sudden, the question is only - so to speak - do Mats like oysters? 

This novel is a light fantasy. We never get an explanation to why the pants suddenly have turned into an ATM machine, it's just a fact and also here the premise of the book is functioning as a setting for Lundgren to discuss with children about real stuff. The idea of having Sapmi as a pair of pants in your possession is undeniably exciting, for every age group I would believe, and the fantasy grabs your attention immediately. But the story then unfolds in the way that Mats quickly get bored with buying stuff for himself. He wants to change the world to the better. He can't for the life of him understand why there are such deep injustices in the world. Why isn't every child 
allowed to have a bike, go to school or, you know, just be well fed even? Why is the world of the grown ups so unfair? He decides to use his pants for the betterment of everyone and begins to start a "money printing" business of sorts. He and his father, who promptly quits his job after (hardly believing it's actually real even at the end of the book) realizing that the "golden pants" is no advanced magic trick but truly happening, starts to pick out as much money they can out of the pants and begins to send them to charity organizations across the world. 

However, the money doesn't come from nowhere, they are still 100% real Swedish bank notes being picked - Robin Hood style - from the vaults of the rich and famous. Soon, the latter groups get tired of losing their spare money and start to look for the "man without finger prints". The walls are coming down for Nilsson money printing ltd. 

**

When I realized that Mats were supposed to be a kindhearted do goodie sort of boy I got a bit vary. Will this only be a book about the urgency of helping out the poor people of the world and of the equal importance of sacrificing your own luxury to be able to help better? A leftoid fairy tale, so to speak? Well, that's undeniably the theme in a way but only the start of it - Lundgren still introduces complexity to the matter and that is the real meat of the book. Can money alone, magic or not, really help people at the end of things? Can money alone, magic or not, really save the world and humanity from being as it is? These are no easy questions, not for a 12-year old and not for readers of various ages and to wrestle with them through the strange adventure of Mats and Torkel is quite worth doing.     

Yeah, I liked the book. It was well worth reading for the first time even as an adult. Lundgren's style of writing is easy going, fun and cute in general and the story is simply intriguing. Even though I'm a tiny bit annoyed there never was an in universe explanation for why and how Robin Hood had incarnated as a pair of pants in the south of Sweden the mystery alone makes the page flipping go pretty darn fast. The book is purely fun too, Torkel is a bumbling blast and if you ever find yourself entering a vehicle called the Blue Flash you might want to reconsider your life choices. All in all - it's a children's book from the 60's at the end of the day - it's a novel I would heartily recommend.

Truly happy myself to finally get it under my belt.