The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy)
by Stieg Larsson
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Book Reviews of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy)
Book Review: "And I would have gotten away with it if weren't for you coffee-drinking, meddling punks!!!"
Summary: 2 Stars
Hype sells: it is obvious. The marketing for this book has included not only local bookstores going out of their way to push this book on respective readers, but setting up a campaign for three blockbuster movies for the trilogy. This seems to beg the question: If we are told something is good enough times, do we actually start to believe it? Apparently so.
I guess I was like everyone else. I "had" to read this novel to see what all the fuss was. What I found wasn't unexpected, or anything out of the ordinary really: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the poster child for bestsellers that are sometimes mediocre, cliché, ho-hum, ordinary reads. I appreciate anyone who can write a novel with the best of them, and so it takes quite a bit for me to dislike a novel enough to give a negative review. The lowest review I've ever given has been The Da Vinci Code, which was 2 stars. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is pretty close to this in both its marketability and its style and publicity over substance, and there are times when the novel gets "all Da Vinci Code" on us (particularly toward the end). Still, I thought it was slightly above this, which is slightly above mediocrity.
So, what makes a bestseller these days? Sleaze, gratuitous violence a la Hostel style torture chamber, incest, dysfunctional family secrets, and lots and lots of coffee. If that isn't enough, then add a good deal of hacker, computer lingo or some nifty corporate cliché dialogue with some revenge thrown in. If you aren't drinking vast amounts of coffee, sleeping casually with strangers (to give a "complex" angle to the story), hacking into others private information, exhibiting major revenge on someone who has in some way hurt you, or generally causing malicious harm to society (which may or may not include a torture dungeon that would have Hannibal Lecter licking his chops), then you probably aren't really with it, are you? Well, this is the world of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to many degrees. It seems to boast about its above the edge shockability (the back cover describes as it as"sexy"), but this doesn't mean it's memorable, especially when you get through the flat, uninspired writing. I understand that it could be translation, but the prose was just very mediocre.
Don't get me wrong. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, despite all my banter, does have some intrigue and mystery and interest attached to its plot. I was interested when the mystery unfolded, and I did care when Mikael Blomkvist took the case, at the urging of Henrik Vangar, of Harriet's disappearance. The problem was that it took a good deal of computer and technical lingo just to arrive to this point. Then we meet our female protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, who is this goth-alternative-hacker-antisocial type who helps Blomkvist along with the case. We are given some back story about her, and feel a certain amount of pity for her. She seems to have had a rough life, and we feel a genuine interest in her. Together they work on the case of Harriet's disappearance. We will learn that the story takes off into another direction though.
However, while the story contains some amount of fascination, it is absorbed in protagonists who aren't really worthy of being protagonists, a "twist" towards the conclusion that is aggravating on the nerves, and a plot that finally spirals out control into some ludicrous ending that would satisfy Hollywood. Both "protagonists", while not as dirty as most characters, are hardly worthy to root for in this book, proving ultimately that looking out for oneself is the most important thing, as they essentially serve their own needs whatever way possible. Mikael sleeps around more than Austin Powers, and Lizbeth, for all problems in life, is just a stage below psychotic herself. The cute little "twist" that the author throws at us seems to be more publicity stunt than anything else; personally, I thought it was a cheesy ploy, and rendered much of the book "meaningless.". Not only that, but when we finally understand the antagonist's motives, it comes to us via Scooby Doo reasoning and plotting. Finally, the last part of the book (about the last one hundred pages) was the most unnerving, ingratiating, ludicrous, ill-logical, far-fetched tripe I've read. I literally wanted to throw the book against the wall. I couldn't decide whether to shout out protests, slam the book down in disgust, or just laugh at the lameness. It just seemed like everything fit so nicely into a little, convenient box. To me, this is where the book went really downhill, and pretty much solidified its place with the likes of overrated books such as The Da Vinci Code.
By the end of the six hundred and whatever pages, I was tired of the main characters and just wanted it done with. Does The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo have some intrigue? Sure, it does. But, many weaknesses in this book don't make up for that. It is just another "bestseller" type that is overrated, and builds itself on word of mouth, publicity, hype, Hollywood blockbuster films, and is designed to make the masses go gaga over it. It's not horrible--but very average--pretty much as good as anything you might randomly pick up in the mystery or fiction section at your local bookstore.
On a side note, I found out that that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo actually translates in Sweden as "A refill of coffee, please." Honest. I researched it.
2 ½ stars
Book Review: If you like mysteries there are much better books out there.
Summary: 2 Stars
My thoughts; "Eh."
I don't know, where does one start? I picked this book up after hearing how it was a best seller in Europe. A complex murder mystery that gripped the continent and if not for his unfortunate early demise would bring forth a novelist who would take the publishing world by storm.
After reading the five star reviews on Amazon and watching the QuickTime advertisement that provided stats that any author would envy, I sat back with a large cup of cocoa and prepared myself for a literary experience. I was excited.
***THERE BE SPOILERS BELOW***
The prologue didn't disappoint. I was immediately hooked. A tired elderly old man, Henrik Vagner, is ravaged by the disappearance of his niece and the gift he has received for his eighty-second birthday, a pressed framed flower. He has been receiving this same gift, mailed from different parts of the world, on the first day of November for the past forty-three years.
The book does a great job setting itself up. We go from the prologue to the main character Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist for the muckraker magazine, Millennium. The story opens with Mikael being disgraced in the courts for libel against the Wennerstrom corporation and sentenced to a few months prison. Before he is to go to prison, he is summoned to the Vangner residence where he is hired to perform one last investigation into the disappearance of Henrik's niece, Harriet Vagner.
We are also introduced to Lisbeth Salander, a physically and emotionally abused women who is under state controlled child custody at the age of twenty-four. In the Swedish court system, Salander has been uncooperative through her life's traumas and thus perceived as not fit to take care of herself. She finds herself going from one legal guardian to the next. Secretly though, she turns out to be a brilliant computer hacker and quite capable of handling herself.
It is after the set-up where the book strays from its strengths. The author attempts to bring to light the suffering and abuse of women in Sweden as well as the courts and law enforcements failure to keep them protected. The introduction of this story element almost feels like an afterthought and is too important of a topic to use for subtext.
There is a completely unnecessary rape scene that the author handles abhorrently. I am not one who believes that male author's are unable to accurately portray female characters in their story's, but Stieg Larsson is a shining example of why that perception exist.
To have one of the main characters suffer a rape and then handle it with a quick revenge sequence, followed by no real emotional impact to the character in question demonstrates a man's inability to understand just what impact rape has on women. The story didn't need this element and the credibility of the character was completely lost for me.
It was at this point where the excitement to read on, was replaced by the urge to close the book. Yet, I continued on.
Mikael can't seem to keep his "manhood" in his pants for very long and we find that he strolls into one sexual relationship after another. Again, there is no consequence for this behavior. Thus, there is no reason for it in the story other than to fulfill the author's sexual fantasies, unless of course it's perfectly normal in Sweden to go around screwing your neighbor, married or not.
The author sets up corporate corruption, but really it's never delved into and has absolutely nothing to do with main mystery of the story. As a matter of fact, most plot elements don't intertwine at all. The author has a lot he wants to tell, but he keeps all these elements separate. Again, he takes you out of one story and puts you into another. This left me frustrated as a reader.
It is while writing the mystery the Larsson is at his best. I found myself really captured by Mikael's quest to find out what happened to Harriet. It was fun going on the journey of discovery as he tracks down the clues that lead him to the conclusion. Unfortunately Mikael isn't the prime mover of the story and, as in many failed mysteries, the villain has to reveal himself to the protagonist in order to be discovered and taken down, which by the way is a very depraved plot line. Disturbing and odd in its truth, this plot line did not fit into the overall feel of the book. It was as if Hannibal Lecter took over for a couple of chapters. A sexually deviant Hannibal Lecter.
What is odd, is that the Antagonist (if you want to call him that) is taken down almost one hundred and fifty pages before the end of the novel. I found myself asking, is the mystery over? There is so much book left, what twist is going to come out of this? What curve ball is the author going to give that makes me say, "Of course, how didn't I see that coming?"
But that never happens. Instead the last hundred and fifty pages covers a caper plot that redeems Mikael against the Wennerstrom Corporation. A man we never really see and of whom we know nothing about. I found myself skimming through the last pages uninterested and just waiting for it to end.
If you like mysteries there are much better books out there. If you like stories about double cross, go read another.
Just skip this one.
Book Review: Don't be fooled by the hype; just because it sells well doesn't mean it reads well
Summary: 2 Stars
Like many others, I was drawn to read the late Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by all the media buzz; you can only hear the words "literary sensation" and "international bestseller" so many times without getting a little bit curious. I haven't read much in the crime fiction or mystery genres (unless you can count the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter), but if the first book in Larsson's "Millenium Trilogy" is typical of these types of books, it seems I haven't been missing anything.
The book follows financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and private investigator/hacker Lizbeth Salander. Blomkvist is reeling from a libel case he has lost against a CEO of a large financial firm when he is recruited by an aging industrialist named Henrik Vanger to investigate the mysterious death of his great-niece from nearly 40 years earlier. Blomkvist is only convinced to take on the case because Vanger claims to have information that will help him appeal his libel case verdict. Salander is brought in later to assist in research and to use her photographic memory and phenomenal investigative skills to help Blomkvist. Through different methods, they come to the conclusion that the great-niece's brother, Martin, was somehow involved. The mild-mannered Martin proves to be an active serial kidnapper, rapist and murderer so meticulous in the execution of his crimes that he is only discovered by the pair because of leftover evidence of ritualistic murders Martin's father had committed many years earlier. Salander saves Blomkvist from being murdered by Martin and the pair surmise that his sister wasn't dead at all: she had run away to escape from her demented brother. With the conclusion of the mystery, Blomkvist learns that Vanger never had information that was useful for his appeal. Salander, however, hacks into the personal hard drives of the guilty party. Armed with damning evidence, Blomkvist writes an article and a book proving the claims he had no sources for in the previous year.
One striking but unflattering detail about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the unnecessary exposition. Larsson spends a lot of words describing details that are not necessary to the plot. One might argue that exposition is necessary to set the stage and flesh-out the details for a more believable story, but in most cases Larsson's excessive description adds little. There are too many instances in the book where he describes the temperature, the furniture of a room, and the technical specs of hardware when it adds nothing to understanding or appreciating the characters, the setting or the storyline. Why is it important to know about the handmade furniture in Blomkvist's cabin, especially when this tidbit is offered in the last 10% of the novel? How does it help the reader's understanding to name the speed, memory and storage of a laptop when saying "Powerbook" would have sufficed? I found my eyes glazing over during unnecessarily descriptive paragraphs.
Larsson's style and character development is clunky. The text alternated between plain language and particularly dense descriptions of complex financial sector operations. Perhaps this was an issue of translation, but plain writing can be forgiven when the plot and characters are rich. The plot wasn't dull, but it wasn't surprising either. Blomkvist, as described in a report by Salandar, is something of a lothario, yet it is never clear what it is about him that women find so engaging. He is a smart reporter, but he is rarely charming and there is little to go on in terms of physical description to explain why women are so attracted to him. In effect, we are told he is a lothario instead of being shown that he is one.
Salander is a more interesting character than Blomkvist, but also more frustrating. It is alluded to that she has Asperger's Syndrome and Larsson's portrayal of her misunderstanding of the world, mistrust of authority figures and aversion to close social and physical contact are well-portrayed. Where Larsson failed concerning Salander is the reaction she elicits from nearly everyone else due to her goth/punk look. Even though this book was published in 2005, the way Salander draws the attention (and prejudice) of others because of her tattoos and dyed hair makes the novel seem dated. The development of her sexual relationship with Blomkvist is both too obvious and unnecessary. It's not surprising that she would be attracted to the one person that accepts her at face value, but it seems odd that Blomkvist takes an interest in her sexually; he has two sexual partners and is working on a third before he ever meets Salander. They seem to have no chemistry with each other, outside of their work, and their relationship adds next to nothing to the narrative and very little to their characters.
Despite Salander and her delightful anti-establishment attitude and complex revenge schemes, it is not enough to redeem this book. A dull, plodding story, overly complicated discussions of financial dealings, too many Vanger family members to keep track of, boring characters and clunky execution make The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo one to skip.
[This review also appears on FingerFlow.com, a site for review and discussion of creative works.]
Book Review: Nazi's, Incest, Murder, Sex, Serial Killers, What More Can You Ask For?
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm skeptical of "libris populi," books that suddenly wash over society to public and critical acclaim. I was really burned by "The DaVinci Code" (we all were), about how new and exciting and different the writing was, and you have to give Dan Brown credit; he took an idea that was floating around for years and brought it to the public's attention. But the book itself was nothing but a whole chase novel and it wasn't a surprise that it was quickly made into a movie. Recently "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" has been creating the same sort of public reaction. Fortunately, there's a little more in "Girl" to hold a readers attention and worth the price of the trip that author Stieg Larsson takes you on.
"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" is the dual story of Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading financial reporter in Stockholm, and Lisbeth Salander (a play on salamander?), an anti-social possibly mentally ill but gifted private investigator.
As "The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo" starts Mikael Blomkvist has been found guilty of Swedish libel laws because he wrote a story about a prominent industrialist that he couldn't back up with documentation. Mikael takes a leave of absence from his magazine, Millennium, until the heat is off. Mikael accepts a position from Henrik Vanger, the head of another prominent industrialist family to ostensibly write a chronicle of the Vanger family history. Mikael's actual assignment is find the killer of Harriet Vanger who disappeared off an island at a family gathering while the island was cut off from the mainland. The classic murder in a locked room scenario. As Mikael crawls through the Vanger family history he discovers a family that put the dysfunction in dysfunctional. There are Nazi's in the family, religious zealotry, abusive parents, promiscuous children, relatives who embrace the family and relatives trying to disavow the family connection at all costs. A little bit of something for everybody.
The parallel story is, of course, Lisbeth Salander's. Lisbeth is literally "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Lisbeth is a ward of the state, although in her mid 20's, her life has been held in check because of a mysterious childhood incident that has put her at the mercy of a failed system and corrupt guardians. Lisbeth has a very subjective moral code that deals mostly in black and white assumptions of people. Her saving grace is her abilities to find information via computer (a hacker) and her job as a freelance private detective.
I don't read a lot of mystery's, but I found a lot of the plot points to be pretty transparent that details seemingly mentioned off handedly by characters are going to be important in the solution to the mystery, almost like having it highlighted IMPORTANT POINT HERE! The motivating reason for Mikael to move to Hedeby, to solve the mystery of the missing and presumed dead Harriet is predicated on an obvious bit of misdirection in a basic misunderstanding of motives. I think it is assumed by the author that the reader will assume the interpretation of the characters is correct.
The title of the book when it was published in Sweden was "Men Who Hate Women." I read an interview with the U.S. publisher of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and the title and cover design were made more intriguing for the U.S. audience. But "Men Who Hate Women" (if not as catchy and intriguing) is a more apt and descriptive title of what the book is about. Early on Lisbeth is given very little to do with the main plot of finding the murderer of Harriet Vanger, but she runs into her own man who hates women. The development of Lisbeth's character is slow in coming, the bits and pieces of her back story are intriguing and develop a mystique around her; Larsson is slow to get her into the central mystery of the story.
You're probably thinking that with all those shortcomings this is an unfavorable review. No, despite these shortcomings "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" works. The story is simple but elegantly constructed and I found it to be entertaining and readable. The main characters are sympathetic despite their flaws. The bits and pieces we're given of Lisbeth at the beginning are intriguing, like lightning flashes in the dark, we want to see more than her silhouette. Mikael for his faults is a sympathetic character and as he lurches about in the Vanger family history we learn he's basically a decent person, but compared to the Vanger family, most other families would be considered normal. We're also given villains to be shocked at, and not one, but at least three love stories. As all the threads of the mystery are pulled together they seem natural and organic to the characters, no details of the mystery are obscured from the reader, there's no left field revelation that appears out of no where in the solution of the mystery and there's no dues ex machina in it's solution.
The proof of the success of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is, is the reader interested in the characters enough to go along and see what happens in the next book of the trilogy? I am.
The DVD for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" comes out July 6th.
Book Review: Good...until it turned into a cliched Se7en knock-off
Summary: 2 Stars
You know that cliched scene in superhero comics, when the villain has our hero tied to a chair and is about to kill him...then stops to explain at length how and why he committed his crimes? And as this scene goes on and on and on, you're thinking the whole time, "Stop talking and kill him! He's Batman! He's going to escape!"
This is lazy, cliched writing at its worst, and when this exact moment occurred in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I realized I've gotta stop believing that "International Bestseller" translates to any sort of quality.
First, let's talk about the positive. Larsson's researcher-turned-detective, Lisbeth Salander, is a fantastic anti-hero. She's that classic underdog character we love to root for, the one society judges for her unusual looks and behavior, only to underestimate her vast intellect. And nothing is better than when a kid like Salander gets her comeuppance.
Second, Larrson is very talented at describing his locales, so much so that reading this book is like taking a vacation to Sweden, from wind-swept Stockholm to a snow-covered island.
Third, Larrson is really, really imaginative at creating back story. The book concerns the disappearance of a girl named Harriet Vanger, and the family history you learn could fill a book all in itself, almost as extensive as all those notebooks Tolkien filled with Middleearth lore. You learn about fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews, and you can't help but get overwhelmed by the information. Protagonist Blomkvist remarks as such numerous times throughout the book. In a way, this tightly knit tapestry creates a vivid backdrop for the story.
In another way, however, it ultimately leads to a VERY disappointing second half. There are INFINITE amounts of disparate threads of information, so much so that either 1) this had all better amount to something greater, or 2) we're basically reading unnecessary color, like if Tolkien had included The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
The book starts off as a cold case historical mystery, in which Blomkvist must research the mysterious disappearance of one Harriet Vanger back in 1966. He settles into his cottage on the Vanger property and delves into photos and newspaper archives. It's not action packed, but it's certainly very enjoyable and exciting in its slow but intelligent build.
And then, out of nowhere, the novel takes a major right turn into B-movie silliness. All that family history? Out the window, except for a few choice bits. The killer? Cribbed from Se7en, more accurately, every Se7en knock-off movie that has since come out. The motivation? Off the charts. The setting? Silly Dan Brown-esque places.
This is what most disappointed me - that entire slow build, that rich tapestry of characters, that progression of historical information - is all for not. When you find out whodunnit, you're sort of like "Oh. Is that all?" And when our hero finds himself trapped in a situation like the Batman scenario described above, I nearly tossed the book in the garbage.
Look, I have NO problem with a Hannibal Lechter-style killer, or a biblically-motivated Se7en-esque serial killer...But you can't plunk Hannibal Lechter down in a Poirot novel, at least not without making sure the pieces all gel together. The fact that this book is used to explore the issue of female abuse goes from interesting to tacky and unbelievable.
What could have been a tightly written yet epic mystery ultimately felt insanely bloated - why did I have to know so much detail about the Vanger family? One thing Larrson is pretty terrible at is hinting, either overtly or subtly, at things to come. It's not that he's above it - he tries push a red herring or two, but (and maybe this is the translation), you're never really given anything to go "Ohhhhhhh, maybe this person could be involved," or "Hmmm, now that I know that, X seems like a likely suspect." I'm not talking about something as obvious as a game of Clue, but a good mystery/thriller author can weave this sort of storytelling without the reader even being aware of it, a way of keeping what would otherwise be a slow narrative moving. Larrson fails here, and it seriously hurts the book.
When the final mystery is outed, the book goes into Hollywood b-movie territory for a long stretch. Then, when it should end, it goes on...and on...and on...and on...There's a subplot involving a corrupt investor, who Blomkvist is seeking revenge on for shaming him before the country. It'd dealt with early on, then tangentially throughout, then returns to finish the book...and wow, it literally won't end. Larrson eventually races through it with a series of emails, a coda that could have been written in about five pages stretched to ridiculous lengths.
I'll reiterate the positive: great character in Salander, fantastic settings, rich backstory. The actual plot/mystery/story? Not worth your time. I think a lot of people enjoy being in this world, and I certainly did...for a couple hundred pages. After than, I'd like to actually get somewhere worthwhile with it all.