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: Great characters; a wandering and predictable story
Summary: 3 Stars
I had heard a ton of good things about this novel and I found the idea intriguing, so I decided to give it a read. I am not a huge thriller reader, but I do like great books that have a thriller element to them. I listened to this on audio book and the audio book was very well done.
Mikael Blomkvist watches his career as a journalist go down the tube when he takes on a major financial entity, who he believes is unlawful, and looses. He is sentenced to a short jail sentence and his journalistic career is potentially in ruins. Then he gets a strange call from old-school industrialist Henrik Vanger; Henrik wants Blomkvist to investigate the decades old disappearance of his niece Harriet. He wants Blomkvist to do it under the pretense of writing a history of the Vanger family. Entwining with this story is the story of Lisbeth Salander who is a crazy punk girl who has been declared mentally unfit. In reality she is an incredibly smart person, with top notch computer hacking skills, and an excellent research ability. She is hired to research Blomkvist before Vanger hires him. We learn both about Lisbeth's struggles within the Swedish legal system and, we watch as she is drawn deep into the Harriet Vanger case with Blomkvist.
As I stated overall I don't read a ton of thrillers; so keep this in mind as you read my perspective on this book. There were some things I liked about this book. I liked how Larsson goes into the detail describing the characters actions. I liked how the author fit many small pieces of evidence into a whole. Larsson also did a good job keeping the multitude of characters organized and easy to recognize for the readers. Overall Larsson did an excellent job on characterization too; both Salander and Blomkvist are believable and complex characters that are interesting to read about.
There were many things I didn't like about this book. It takes forever to get to the actual thriller part of the book. Almost half the book deals with setting up the Vanger family tree and I found this to be a tedious and boring to read. I think this could have been done much more efficiently. There were some things with Salader that I didn't understand; for example there is a particularly viscous sexual scene between Salander and her appointed guardian. It is gone into in grisly detail. I understand that this scene shows some things about Salander's character, but I think that this could have been depicted in a more efficient way without so much detail.
I also found it interesting that a good portion of the book is dedicated to who is sleeping with who, or who has slept with who. The amount of time dedicated to casual sex in this book was odd. I don't mind reading about sex; I've read a number of books with oodles of sex. I just thought it was odd in context to the rest of the story. I realize the story was about sexual violence; but that doesn't mean we needed to read about every single time Blomkvist decides to sleep with another woman..I just don't understand how it was relevant.
That brings me to another point...if you don't like to read about violence, torture, and sex skip this book. The majority of this book focuses around torture, rape, sexual abuse, and serial killers. Again, I don't mind some of that but reading about rape and torture of women is not something I am really all that into. So just a heads up.
The biggest thing that bugged me about this book was how predictable it was. After the first third or so of the book I had guessed what happened to Harriet, I also made some guesses about the torture/killings, and I was right. So, I was very disappointed that I was able to correctly predict the outcome of this lengthy novel. I was hoping for some surprises and all I got was a wandering and lengthy read. The novel does tie up nicely, so you don't need to read the next book to get a fairly complete story.
Overall it was okay. The mystery was fairly well put together, the characters were well done, and it was an interesting read; but I can't honestly say I really liked it. The drawn out set-up, excessive sex/violence and predictability turned me off this series. I won't be reading anymore of Larsson's books. If you are big into thrillers and serial killer-type novels then this book may be a good match for you. It just wasn't something I personally enjoyed.
Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Summary: 5 Stars
I guess it's taken me quite a while to write this review, but now that I've just finished The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second book in the Millennium trilogy, I want to write this before I forget. I've never read a book quite like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. What drew me in was first, the popularity. I was curious as to what made this book attract so many readers. When I bought it at Costco, one of the employees actually told me how great it is. Second, was the mystery and suspense. I've always been a sucker for mystery, and this book had quite a lot of it. It was unpredictable, and I had to use every ounce of my willpower to not glance towards the ending of the book to see what happened (I have a problem with this.) And when I finished it, I went back to Costco the next day and bought The Girl Who Played with Fire.
The themes of this book are quite strong. Sexual violence was the big one, and even though it could be gruesome at times, I have an appreciation for Larsson's unwillingness to tone it down. Because in truth, sexual violence DOES happen, and it shouldn't be disguised or altered for the faint of heart. The Swedish title of Larsson's book is Men Who Hate Women, and after reading it I can see how entirely appropriate that title is. It contains every form of abuse against women, by men.
The characters were the best part. Mikael Blomkvist is an investigative journalist, and co-founder of the magazine Millennium. After being convicted and charged with libel against Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom, he takes a break from the magazine, and moves out to the island of Hedeby for a year, working for the former CEO of Vanger Enterprises, Henrik Vanger. Vanger made a proposition to him, that if he wrote a biography of the Vanger family, and worked on solving the mysterious disappearance of his niece forty years earlier, then at the end of the year he would receive a ridiculously large salary and valid information that could ruin Wennerstrom's career. I'm very fond of Mikael. He has good moral values; he's reasonable, and intelligent, but also sympathetic towards people who've been through difficult situations. He realizes, to an extent, that there are reasons people do the things they do.
Lisbeth Salander is a private investigator who works at Milton Security and initially did the report on Mikael Blomkvist for Henrik Vanger, before he hired him. Later on, she ends up working with Blomkvist on Harriet Vanger's disappearance. Lisbeth is most definitely my kind of character. She's a genius with computers and math, and generally every other academic subject. She has a photographic memory, and incredible hacker skills. She's not preoccupied with social customs and she doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. She has a mysterious past, and has been declared incompetent, and therefore has to have her finances and other various aspects of her life looked over by a guardian. Lisbeth is such a strong person, and she won't make excuses for people. To her, everyone is responsible for their actions, regardless of what they've been through in their past, they have a choice; and I really admire that outlook. Not only does she defend herself, but she stands up for all women who are abused by men.
Lastly, I just have to mention the Vanger family. I love stories about upper class families with dark ominous pasts and plenty of secrets, and the Vangers are exactly that. The centuries of animosity between them are so palpable. And what makes it even more interesting is the fact that a lot of them live on the same island; so close to each other. I loved reading about each of the Vanger generation, and finding out how truly screwed up they are. And if they didn't hate each other enough already, Harriet's disappearance in 1966 overshadows the family too.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read. Stieg Larsson is a fantastic author, and from what I've learned about him, he was a very interesting person too. There were supposed to be ten books in the Millennium trilogy, but unfortunately Stieg Larsson was only able to write three before his death in 2004. His books were published posthumously, and it's truly sad that he never got to see his books rise to popularity, or read all the positive things most readers have to say about them.
Reviewed at: [...]
Book Review: One read only - from the library if you must
Summary: 2 Stars
Note: I should say at the outset that I enjoy mystery fiction, and have read a great deal of it. My favorite authors are the likes of Chandler, Cain, Jim Thompson, Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, and Michael Connelly. If you know those folks, you know where I'm coming from.
While on a recent business trip, and desperate for some reading material to while away time, I foolishly spent money on this bestseller, largely on reported sales alone ("5 million Europeans can't be wrong!") While it's not trash, I found its only real attraction to be the "whodunit" aspect of the mystery presented. After one read, I have no interest in picking it up again (better to have checked it out from the library - thus the wasted money).
I found the writing leaden (I doubt this can be blamed solely on the translator), the characterization shallow, and the narrative glacially slow. It's not that I don't have the patience or intellectual acuity to follow a long, finely developed plot with multiple characters - but this stuff was frankly dull. As many other reviewers have noted, I found myself skimming ahead just to find out what was going to happen, muttering "get on with it already". I wouldn't have done this if the characters or subplots were of anything more than marginal interest, or the writing had enough style to be enjoyable in its own right.
As I've said, the one attraction was the whodunit - essentially the classic "locked room" mystery. What happened to the girl who disappeared 40 years in the past? The story of these events and their solution is the core of the novel. Although this author is being compared to numerous top American mystery writers, most of the latter (certainly any of those mentioned above) could have told this core story in half as many pages, with a style I'd actually enjoy reading - perhaps more than once!
Of the two main characters, I found only the female computer hacker interesting, although very sketchily described. (Presumably her character is more fully fleshed out in the later books). The male protagonist is a pompous ass - almost a mirror caricature of the Mike Hammer-style tough guys from the 50's. Those detectives in the past were right-wing he-men, hard drinking, who would "love em' and leave em'" without a second thought. Here we have an investigative journalist in the world of finance - virtually an archetypal left-wing role model - who seems to exude an aura that leads any woman within 5 miles - married, single, whatever - to crawl into his bed and seduce him. Later, so he doesn't have to face any potentially disturbing commitment issues, the woman breaks off the relationship, all the while maintaining a seemingly noble attitude of detached sophistication. Yawn.
Although there is a goodly amount of sex in the narrative, it is emotionless and is described so blandly as to resemble a medical chart of a patient's bowel movements. The descriptions of the historical crimes of sexual violence also seem to be taken from a news report - there's no compelling tie-in to the psychology of the killer, or the back stories those crimes represent. Finally the climax of the mystery - the discovery of the murderer - falls completely flat, as he obligingly commits suicide immediately (those Swedes are nothing if not well-mannered!)
The only final loose end is the fate of the missing girl, which is tied up in another couple of chapters. A tightly written mystery would have stopped there. Here we are dragged onward through chapter after chapter concerning the investigative crusade the male protagonist is undertaking against the archetypal Evil Capitalist (he rapes women! he sells guns to terrorists!) until through the deus ex machina of the female hacker's apparent ability to infiltrate and control virtually anything on the internet with the click of a mouse the villain is brought down. Since the book opens with the first round of this confrontation, we are lead to conclude that this is the real subject of the novel, and the whodunit story gradually evaporates into thin air.
Part legitimate mystery, part sociology term paper, and part screed in appreciation of European leftist sophistication, this book lacks focus, cohesion, and style. I doubt I'll be looking at its successors.
Book Review: Pippy Longstocking and Kalle Blomkvist
Summary: 5 Stars
Stieg Larsson was born in 1954, was a journalist and an expert on anti-democratic and far-right organisations. He died suddenly in November 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscripts for three crime novels - known together as the Millennium Trilogy - to a Swedish publisher. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is the first part of this trilogy.
Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist based in Stockholm. As well as writing for the current affairs magazine, Millennium, he's also the publisher and part owner - alongside Christer Malm and Erika Berger. (Christer acts as the magazine's art director and designer while Erika - the magazine's majority partner - is the editor in chief. She and Mikael first met at journalism school twenty years previously and have always had a hard time keeping their hands off each other. Mikael's marriage eventually failed because of his feelings for her. Erika's is still intact, though her husband knows and can apparently live with what's happening).
Millennium isn't yet a big player, but things had been moving along nicely - the magazine's circulation and its advertising revenue had both been rising steadily. However, trouble is looming thanks to an article written by Blomkvist where he claimed Hans-Erik Wennerström - a very wealthy financier - had used state funds for shady arms deals. At the time of writing, he was certain his story was good and his sources were solid - in fairness, it does seem clear that Wennerström was up to something very shady. However, things haven't worked out the way they should have : when we first meet him, Blomkvist has just lost a libel action brought by Wennerström. In order to protect Millennium from Wennerström and his circling lawyers, Blomkvist decides to step down from the roster and take a good, long break.
As he's clearing his desk on Christmas Eve, Blomkvist takes a telephone call from Dirch Frode - an aging lawyer, acting for Henrik Vanger. The name alone is enough to grab Blomkvist's attention - although now retired, Vanger is well known as an honourable `old-school' businessman whose name still carries a great deal of clout. (Vanger's nephew is now in control of the Vanger Corporation - it's not quite the elite company it once was, but it's still more than respectable). It appears there's a freelance assignment on offer, though Blomkvist has to travel to Vanger's place for the details. Officially, he'll be writing the history of the Vanger family; unofficially, he'll be investigating the disappearance of his Vanger's niece, Harriet - who Henrik is convinced was murdered nearly forty years previously. In return, Blomkvist will not only be very well paid - but Vanger will hand over evidence that Wennerström is a swindler and a crook.
Unknown to Blomkvist, he has already been thoroughly checked out. Frode had approached Milton Security to run a little background check on Blomkvist. The check had been carried out by Lisbeth Salander, who - despite having a very difficult background - is probably the company's most thorough investigator. It would be easy - and foolish - to dismiss her based on first impressions : she didn't finish high school and has no formal qualifications, has several piercings and tattoos and is barely five feet tall. However, she is highly intelligent, resourceful and knows exactly how to handle herself in a dangerous situation. She also comes across as being rather cold and detached and - when Blomkvist finally meets her - he suspects she may actually have Asperger's syndrome. Fortunately for Blomkvist, when they meet they're working together as allies....
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is comfortably the best thriller I've read in a long time. It can, at times, make for uncomfortable reading - Salander's had a very tough life, and she continues to be badly treated by her current guardian Nils Bjurman. (What happens between the pair isn't exactly pleasant). I did find a little odd was that Blomkvist was really the book's lead character - I'd have thought, given the book's name, it would have been Salander who played that role. Hopefully, I'll learn a bit more about her in the next instalment. A cracking read, totally recommended.
Book Review: A hard edged novel
Summary: 5 Stars
Stieg Larsson, as I understand it, planned a 10 novel series. Unfortunately, he died after completing three. One can only imagine what the arc of a full series might have been. The original title for this was "Men Who Hate Women." And that describes key themes running throughout the "Millennium Series" (the three volumes that have been published). For instance, in this book, note the brief statements at the outset of each part of the book; they speak to men hating women and gender politics, in one way or another. For instance (Page 9), "Eighteen percent of the women in Sweden have at one time been threatened by a man" or (Page 139) "Forty-six percent of the women in Sweden have been subjected to violence by a man."
At one level, from the characters' point of view, this is an analysis of the developing relationship between investigative reporter Mikael Blomkvist and an investigator for a security firm, Lisbeth Salander. He is a sensible, sober-sided, properly moral person; she is introverted, a loner, someone described throughout the book as suffering from something like Asperger's Syndrome (probably completely off-the-mark). She also does mathematical equations in her head (and appears to have solved Fermat's mathematical riddle as the second volume begins to close out), may be the best hacker in Sweden, and has a photographic memory (and, oh yes, she can take apart and put together a motorcycle).
Blomkvist has what he thinks as a slam-dunk report about the improprieties of an industrialist, Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He is conned by his prey and ends up spending time in jail for slander. Upon his release, he is given an opportunity by a wealthy industrialist to find out what happened to Harriet Vanger, who was assumed to have died many years before--but no final evidence had ever been found. Before Henrik Vanger hired him, he asked Salander's security firm to analyze him, to see if he would be a good "hire" to discover what had happened. The person who investigated Blomkvist? Salander.
Thereafter, we get a roller coaster ride, as, in due course, Salander joins Blomkvist to find out what happened. Horrible secrets are discovered; Salander saves Blomkvist's life in a riveting scene; against all odds, the four foot eleven inch, ninety pound Salander (complete with tattoos, jewelry in her nose and other body parts, skinny as all get out, smoking too much, incommunicative, hot tempered) and Mikael develop an improbable relationship.
After having solved the case of the missing Vanger (Harriet), Lisbeth helps Mikael return to the Wennerstrom case, to resolve it in a more positive manner. In the process, she discovers a route to financial security.
There are a number of rich characters here, from Erika Berger (Mikael's on and off lover, although married) to Dragan Armansky (head of Milton Security and Lisbeth's boss) to "Advocat" Bjurman (Salander has been declared incompetent and was assigned a person to supervise her)--whose brutal treatment of her led to harsh consequences that she inflicted upon him in return; the Vangers; and so on.
Salander, I think, has been mischaracterized in many treatments of this book as afflicted with some sort of impairment (autism is mentioned as well as Asperger's). I'm inclined to think that the travails that she experienced over time could easily explain her peculiarities. Why should she trust people, given her experiences? Why should she communicate (when she was often not listened to)? Blomqvist? Salander described him in her report as "Practical Pig" (after one of the three little pigs). Not a bad description! I think that Mikael, whose charm to women seems beyond comprehension, has a blind spot, where he thinks himself beyond criticism for his "dumping" of women, by arguing that he is open and transparent etc. (we've all know guys like that).
This is a compelling novel, pulling one into the plot and not allowing one to "let up." The three novel series as a whole is very powerful. We can only regret that Larsson died before bringing the projected series to a close. . . .