The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
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Book Reviews of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Book Review: Nothing Is As It Seems...
Summary: 3 Stars
At first this book seems like a predictable formula thriller complete with brutal murders and violent rape scenes as well as contrived timing of discoveries and life saving feats of heroism...but upon closer examination it appears to be a scathing commentary on the many ills of society.
On the surface...
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist has just learned that he has been convicted for libel against the powerful businessman Hans-Erik Wennerstrom and will be serving time in jail in the near future. But before he begins to serve his time he's hired to look into the mysterious death of a sixteen year old girl. The girl, Harriet Vanger, disappeared forty years ago, her body still hasn't been found. Her aging great uncle has been obsessed with finding out what happened to her. The uncle has offered to pay Blomkvist a ridiculous sum of money as well as giving him incriminating evidence to bring down Hans-Erik Wennerstrom if he will commit to looking into the circumstances of Harriet's death for one year. Blomkvist agrees and with the help of his assistant Lisbeth Salander he grasps the thread that will enable him to unravel the mystery surrounding Harriet's death.
Beyond the obvious...this is a story rich with criticisms of the unethical, corrupt, greedy and opportunistic in society. The corrupt and evil are served what seems like fair and just rewards for their crimes. But what does that say about those serving up the justice. Even our heroes need to be examined, how do they stand up to scrutiny?
For me this was a difficult novel to get into. There were many references that were purely Swedish in nature that I didn't get. There were brand names, government agencies and other references that left me wondering "what the hell are they saying?". I think that the translation could have been done so that it made the Swedish references more clear to the rest of the world (or specifically "ugly-Americans" like myself).
It's not a horrible story, though it is rather graphic and violent. I thought many of the relationships were unrealistic, the character descriptions were conflicting and the dialog was often unbelievable and while I don't think Larson was the worlds best writer, I have to say that I think he tells a decent story that pulls you in and makes you want to find out 'who dunnit'.
I found the most compelling part of the story the character Lisbeth Salander. Larson left us hanging as far as her history is concerned and I will probably read the next installment, 'The Girl Who Played With Fire', just to find out more about her (it's scheduled to be released January 2009).
If you liked this you might want to try Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger, I thought that was very well done and for some reason the character Lisbeth Salander reminds me of Unger's Ridley Jones.
Book Review: My new favorite mystery...
Summary: 5 Stars
For many years, my very favorite mystery has been Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George. But after reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, I now have a new favorite. This book is not just well written, but the plot will haunt you.
Mikael Blomkvist is a Swedish journalist and part owner of the financial magazine, Millennium. Down on his luck, he receives a very lucrative offer from the rich and aging industrialist, Henrik Vanger. Vanger wants to hire Blomkvist for an entire year. First, he wants Blomkvist to write a book about the Vanger family. Henrik believes his relatives to be "for the most part thieves, misers, bullies and incompetents." Henrik claims that "this story will make Shakespeare's tragedies read like light family entertainment." But the real reason for hiring Blomkvist is that Henrik wants the writer to revisit the disappearance and probable murder of his niece, Harriet, 36 years ago. Henrik has conducted his own amateur investigation over the years and "Blomkvist wondered whether this was an unhealthy obsession or whether over the years, it had developed into an intellectual game. What was clear was that the old patriarch had tackled the job with the systematic approach of an amateur archaeologist."
At first, Blomkvist believes there is nothing new to be discovered. But little by little, new light is shed on old clues and a clearer picture emerges. Blomkvist needs the services of a researcher/investigator, and so Lisbeth Salander is hired. Salander (the girl with the dragon tattoo) is young, disturbed, anti-social, and perhaps suffers from Asperger's Syndrome. But she is an incredibly talented investigator with a photographic memory and the ability to hack into computers. The two make a good team. The closer they get to unveiling the truth, the more their lives are at risk. I carried this book around with me for several days until I was done--I just couldn't put it down.
What makes this book even more fascinating are the circumstances surrounding the book and the author. Stieg Larsson was a Swedish journalist who died in 2004 of a massive heart attack at the young age of 50. He had three complete novels written but unpublished at the time of his death. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first of what has become known as the Millennium Trilogy. Originally written in Swedish and published in 2005, the English translation was released in 2008--winning a number of posthumous awards for Larsson. The second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire reunites Blomkvist and Salander and will be released in the United States on July 28, 2009. I have already ordered a copy!
Book Review: Two Distinct Stories, Linked by the Venality of the Adversaries
Summary: 3 Stars
The story itself is quite good, in fact it was a breakaway bestseller, but the author's own story is equally compelling. He was active in the Swedish Communist Worker's Party and he intended to leave all of his assets to that organization. But his will was not witnessed, and therefore not legally enforceable, and at his death of a massive heart attack at 50, his assets, including this book's royalties, went to his father and brother, under Swedish probate law. The original title of the book showed his political leanings, "Men Who Hate Women." Someone had the foresight to re-title it "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" when it was translated into English. I doubt it would have become a bestseller with the original title. He also made no attempt to publish the book, writing it for his own enjoyment. As a committed communist, the acquisition of wealth was unimportant to him. His father published it posthumously.
This book has two distinct plots. There is the story of an investigative journalist who is targeted by the horrible rich capitalists. Of course it turns out that his enemy is not only a capitalist, since readers might not see that as sufficiently venal; he is a drug dealer, a weapons dealer, and runs prostitutes. The second story, completely unrelated to the first, is the investigation of a missing person/possible homicide that turns into the discovery of a serial murderer. If there is a connection, it is that the murderer turns out to be...you guessed it...another horrible rich capitalist.
As the story unfolds it turns out that the husband of the married woman the journalist is sleeping with is just fine with the arrangement. And the journalist's sociopathic partner, a gifted hacker with a dragon tattoo, is truly a fine person, despite her emotional disability. That disability, Asperger's Syndrome, is unfortunately misrepresented in this novel. Asperger's does not confer any advantages, despite our heroine's extraordinary feats; Aspberger's is a severely disabling disease which usually renders its victims perpetually dependent on caregivers and therapy.
Most likely it occurred to Larsson that neither of his two stories had the critical mass required for a full length novel, and he found a way to combine them. But the patching together left seams which are instantly visible and it is tempting to believe that he hadn't attempted to publish because he was not satisfied that the job was done. The book's enormous commercial success is most likely due to the creative vengeance which the heroic journalist and little Miss Aspberger come up with to punish their criminally rich adversaries.
Book Review: From all the reviews I expected it to be phenomenal. It falls well short of that.
Summary: 2 Stars
(Warning-Possible (very small) spoilers)
The writing is, overall, quite disjointed. The first thing that struck me was that I was 85% certain that I knew the identity of the villain as soon as the character was even SPOKEN about, much less introduced. Needless to say, I was 100% certain when the villain does something dumb that shows him to be the bad guy... and no one catches on. Not surprisingly, I had also been able to warrant a very good guess as to what happened with Harriet.
I found the character of Blomkvist kind of a drag. It's hard to pull for someone who is so BLAH. He ruined his marriage by continuing to sleep with Erica, but I'm never sure WHY. She's married, it is clearly NOT the great love of his life, and they have little to no real chemistry. The 'relationship' seems forced, and to be honest it skeeved me out that she would tell her husband when she was going to sleep with Blumkvist. Eww.
Blumkvist is totally dense and doesn't pick up HUGE clues about what happened with Harriet, even though it's pretty obvious who the bad guy was, and the answer to what happened to her (without the details of how) is there the entire time. The answer is so ridiculously in your face, you almost feel let down when it turns out to be what you always knew it was. I figured with the reviews here, the solving of the crime must pack quite a punch! I was wrong.
To top it all off, the writer makes sure to let us know that, on top of being a bad husband & an idiot, Blumkvist is also a crap parent. Woo woo, what a hero. He's an idiot who will (LITERALLY) sleep with anyone and has no emotional depth. WHY were we supposed to be rooting for him??
Salander was (obviously) the more interesting character here. But I feel like the author took a certain joy in having her treated like terribly. Seriously, what else ABSOLUTELY AWFUL could happen to this poor girl? The ending angered me to no end. She finally makes an enormous emotional leap, only to have her hopes smashed by the idiot with NO EMOTIONAL DEPTH!
And of course he remains oblivious to the carnage he has wrought with this ridiculous 'relationship' with Erica.
Seriously, I hated the character of Blumkvist & really feel he ruined the whole book. Lisabeth should have been the main character and the entirety of the book should have been told from her perspective. Of course, had that happened, the book would have been about 200 pages long... because Lisabeth would have figured it out PRONTO.
The writer used the dumber character to try and slow down the 'climax' of the (paper thin) story.
Book Review: Bo-o-o-ring
Summary: 1 Stars
I might have appreciated this book more if it went by its original title, Men Who Hate Women, since that has more resonance to the story inside than simply naming the book after a secondary sidekick character, Lisbeth Salander aka "the girl with the dragon tattoo." Granted, she is about the only thing I found interesting in the entire book, but despite how unique the author tried to make her I found it pretty lame that she, just like every other "beautiful" female character in the book just could not keep her hands off boring Blomkivist, the main character of the story. What a lucky guy that he has three beautiful women to bed whenever he gets bored sifting through the entire Vanger family history to find out where Harriet Vanger disappeared to forty some years ago. That's probably how he didn't die of boredom. I made it through the whole book because I figured, wow, the ending must be pretty good if there's so much hype over the book. I was disappointed. The whole book is basically the main charcter reading papers and researching and looking at photographs. The author goes into an incredible amount of detail into the Vanger family history, but it is just boring facts. Most of it has nothing to do with the missing girl, and is just trivial facts about the Vanger family and its many members. The climax of the book where the truth is revealed and the action takes place should have been the most interesting part of the book, however it is the shortest part of the book, about a chapter. There is almost no details about what actually went on, no descriptions of the evil deeds that happened, which surprises me because there was so much detail about every other aspect of the history, and then the truth is just kind of brushed off. The villain of the story might as well be a silhouette and is not defined at all, therefore not scary or dangerous really and just about as boring as every other part of the book. The author seems sexist since he makes the three main female characters in the book all sex objects for the main character, Blomkvist. No matter who they are they all seem to want him and are all perfectly ok with him sleeping with other women. In fact, that's how they want it! Isn't that awesome?!? That's the real mystery of the book, why they want him, because he seems to have no personality. This book didn't have much personality either. It seems more like a detailed family tree than a mystery novel. I'd recommend it if you are looking for a bunch of family facts, business jargon, money talk and a little mystery on the side. Because the mystery really is on the sidelines with this book.