The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
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Book Reviews of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Book Review: Ponderous but splendid
Summary: 4 Stars
Having for several years been enamored with a marvelous, real live Swedish girl, I came to this novel comfortably familiar with Sweden's history, geography, economy, and the general social situation. Many of the things that bothered some critics, like place names and the value of the kronner, are easily overcome, especially with the Internet [one kronner = around 15 cents US].
Stieg Larsson had a first rate talent, and his Lesbeth Salander is a superb example of this. You quickly get a protective ache for this girl's welfare, and applaud when she triumphs over the bullies who try to make her a victim. And it is truly heartbreaking when Lesbeth tends to her mother, who clearly prefers her other daughter, Camilla, who has stopped seeing both her mother and Lesbeth.
The story is heavy going, and at times Larsson himself gets tangled up. At one point, for example, he has old Henrik Vanger describing faimly relationships to Blomkvidt, and instead of using the pronoun 'I', he says "Henrik", just like he is refering to the family chart instead of his own memory.
But the big thing that disturbs me the most with this novel is heavy sexual freedom the good guys/girls have with one another. Blomkvidt, separated from his wife, spends a lot of time hopping in and out of the beds of 3 of the women. Salander is many years younger than Blomkvidt, and Berger, his colleague at the paper, has a husband. James Bond aside, it is simply not plausible that Blomkvidt can get away with the enormous intellectual energy required to do the job he was hired to do, and still be in thrall with obvious lust.
All of these good guys/girls have high standards of what is noble and ethical in man's public morality, but fail miserably in personal sexual responsibilities.
Shakespheare said it best---
"So, oft it chances in particular men,
that from some vicious mole of nature in them...
By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens
The form of plausive manners; that these men,
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect...
His virtues else, be they as pure as grace...
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault.
[Hamlet, Act I, Scene IV, lines 25 - 38}
Book Review: Certainly does not live up to the hype
Summary: 2 Stars
I can't believe all the stellar reviews this book is getting! In all honesty, this novel is brainless. I love to read, I've read a lot of books in my day, and I've got nothing against Swedish people (my mom's from Minnesota), but this book is just plain insensate.
First of all, all the locations and people's are Swedish names (Blomkvist, Henrik, etc) which takes some getting used to used to. In fact, it's painful - they're constantly discussing this family and trying to keep the family members straight is a chore.
Secondly, the book is way too long. One could easily cut out half the pages, with not a bit of important information lost, and it would make for a better, more exciting read. Throughout the book the character's day-to-day activities are discussed in minute detail. This guy Blomkvist (our protagonist) ends up stuck living on an island near a very small community. The story centers around him - what time he gets up, what he has for breakfast, where he goes, when he goes into a coffee shop, what he says to the waitress - all of which has absolutely no bearing on the story.
Third, the story is just plain dumb. The character's reasons for doing things makes you wonder if the author is really a third grader (I may be insulting third-graders. Sorry :). At one point the story discusses this girl leaving after a traumatic experience with huge bags under her eyes because she had been crying, then on THE VERY NEXT PAGE it says "she did not cry"... What? Did Stieg even proofread his own novel?
Lastly, the story is anticlimactic. Towards the end, when they finally figure out who the murderer is, don't expect an exciting sequence. The climax lasts all of about four or five pages, and is poorly written. Then the protagonist goes gallivanting around the world to find this person that did not have much reason to be hiding in the first place and, in all honesty, no reader, by that point, even cares about. Give me a break.
I was very disappointed with this novel. It is NOT exciting. There are a few engrossing portions scattered throughout, but these are few and far between. I honestly believe the author wrote the story, decided it was too short, and went back and watered the whole thing down with minutae that adds nothing to the plot.
In this case, maybe at least the movie will be better than the book.
Book Review: This book is an instant Classic!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Stieg Larsson is a Genius!
Book Review of "The girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
First off, if you cannot stomach reading about graphic sexual abuse, then you should pick a book with some lighter fare. Having said that, this suspense thriller from the late Stieg Larsson will keep you on the edge of your seat. At 600 plus pages, it's a hefty mystery but I finished it in record time, and you know a book is good when you reach the last page and you feel wanting for more.
The story begins with Mikael Blomkvist, a publisher of a magazine titled Millennium who is sentenced to 3 months for libel against a corporate titan. The plot gets going when he is approached by an old retired CEO Henrik Vanger, former head of the Vanger corporation. As he tells Blomkvist, he is officially hired to write the family biography but in actual fact Vanger wants him to try to solve the decades old mystery of his grand niece Harriet Vanger's disappearance. To deepen the mystery, every year after Harriet's disappearance, Vanger receives a flower from an unknown person, a tradition which Harriet had started when she was eight.
The book's title character is perhaps the most intriguing- Lisbeth Salander, a skinny 24 year old 90 pound, pierced and tattooed goth chick with a distaste for authority figures who has Asperger's syndrome and incredible computer hacking skills.
As a murder mystery Tattoo would have been an excellent read but it is so much more. It exposes the dark underbelly of Swedish financial politics, abuse of social services by authority figures (Salander is directly victimized in one scene) and right wing misogynist attitudes towards women in general. After reading this book I can understand why it was originally titled "Men who hate women" although Dragon Tattoo is a catchier title.
Like many other readers worldwide I can't wait to get my hands on the next two books in the series " The Girl who played with Fire" and "The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest". Larsson's untimely death in 2004 was indeed a great loss to the world of literature in general and crime fiction in particular.
He has left a lasting legacy which readers will enjoy and cherish for generations to come.
Well done Stieg. Rest in peace.
Book Review: A gripping murder mystery
Summary: 5 Stars
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from her family's home town during the aftermath of a violent car accident. Ever since then, her grandfather, Henrik, has been obsessed with finding her murderer; now that he is approaching the end of his life, he needs to have the mystery solved once and for all. To that end, he hires recently disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist to re-examine all the evidence and find the answer, under the pretext of writing Henrik's biography. Along the way, Mikael acquires the aid of Lisbeth Salander, a skilled hacker who can find the information that no one else can. As they examine the clues, they find themselves drawn into a mystery that is far more than just the disappearance of Harriet, uncovering deeply buried family secrets and a serial killer that has been creating new victims for more than 50 years. The ending will surprise you!
I had a hard time getting into this book. The beginning deals almost exclusively with the financial shenanigans at Mikael's magazine, Millennium, and it is not particularly interesting to read. There is a lot of necessary character development of Mikael and Lisbeth, as well as of the more major supporting characters, but at times it seems to just drag on. However, once we get into the mystery, and especially when Mikael starts to break new ground, the book gets fantastic. I had a hard time putting it down, and spent a lot of time reading at work when I shouldn't have been. Once the mystery was solved, the book then delved into Lisbeth putting her skills to use in taking down the man who had sued Mikael for libel at the beginning of the book, and then the story gets a little bit tedious again, although still interesting. I was rather disappointed with the ending, until I found out that there will be more in the series.
Be warned that while this is not an exceptionally violent book in general, there is a lot of sadistic violence as a centerpiece of the mystery. Some parts are absolutely brutal to read and may turn your stomach a little. Also, don't forget the family tree that we are given in the beginning of the book; once you get to Mikael's investigation of the Vangers, it will prove to be invaluable. Overall, this was a fantastic book, a real page turner once you get to the meat of the story. Looking forward to the next in the series.
Book Review: Scandinavian Sister in Crime
Summary: 5 Stars
Dysfunctional families often provide great fodder for mystery. Stieg Larsson uses the formulaic "locked room mystery" and instead of ten little Indians populates the crime scene with members of a vast family enterprise who comprise an important part of Sweden's industrial elite.
What happened to Harriet Vanger, beloved niece of the family's patriarch, who disappeared from the face of the earth in 1966? The question has haunted Henrik Vanger for thirty -six years. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist. Blomkqvist facing a short stint in the pen after a conviction for the criminal libel of another Swedish industrialist, has not many other job prospects. He agrees to spend a year writing a family history while looking into the details of the unsolved crime. In his work. Blomkqvist is eventually joined by Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant, tattooed and pierced freelance researcher,whose computer skills give her access to information not generally available to the public, or even the police.
The amateur inquiry into this extended clan quickly focuses on several of the family's black sheep, members with strong political sentiments before and during the Second World War. Could these sentiments have may have triggered an apparent murder a generation later? Perhaps, the journalist wonders, the clusters of insanity with certain branches of the family tree contain homicidal tendencies not previously detected. Or maybe the motive was greed, was young Harriet the natural successor to her uncle Henrik.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the first part of a trilogy delivered by Larsson prior to his untimely death in 2004. It quickly became a huge bestseller, not just in Sweden, but throughout Europe. Originally entitled Men Who Hate Women this part delves deeply into the evils of misogyny.
Throughout the novel, Larsson pays tribute to female mystery writers, among them Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Sue Grafton, Val McDermid, and Sara Paretsky. The late New England writer Al Blanchard once described to me his membership in Sisters in Crime as being an "honorary sister", Larsson honors the craft and production of women writers in the genre.
This book will make you hungry for the sequel.