The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a review
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
With all of my new-found time (aka, I am back to having only one job) and a book that I haven’t read (aka, I got bored in the Houston airport back in August and needed something to keep me entertained), I picked up The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I purchased it in mass market paperback, which means its been out for at least two years, so I know that I’m more than a little behind on the craze.
Here’s some history on this book for your pleasure:
The author, Steig Larsson, wrote three manuscripts: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. He turned these into a publisher in 2004 and shortly afterward was found dead in his apartment from a myocardial infarction. The first, Tattoo, was published in Sweden in 2005 and Fire was published immediately after in 2006. The first novel was released as a movie in Sweden just this past February, with plans for each of the novels to be split into two episodes for television.
Something I have found very interesting is the change in titles between Swedish and English. The first novel was originally titled Men Who Hate Women, the second book is the same and the third was originally titled The Castle in the Sky That Blew Up. That makes me wonder what was changed as far as content for the English translation.
Now, for a review:
Normally, I’m not usually for mystery novels. They’re pretty typical, with the answers obvious from the beginning or the author leaves one minuscule detail at the beginning and then it gets pointed to at the end as the tipping point or evidence of the logical progression of the story. This isn’t that kind of story. The reveal is slow, methodical and with thorough evidence. It’s very obvious that the writer was a journalist.
The book opens with Henrik Vanger, a former CEO of the Vanger Corporation, receiving dried flowers in a frame and calling a former police officer to let him know another one has arrived. It then switches over to the completion of the trial of Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist convicted of libel for publishing an article about a head of business by the name of Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Blomkvist is then approached by Dirch Frode to work for Vanger. Vanger wants Blomkvist to write a biography and specifically, to solve the disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vanger.
Before Frode approached Blomkvist, he had the journalist followed by Milton Security to get more information about his life and what kind of person he is. The employee who followed and gathered information is a young woman named Lisbeth Salander. She dresses like a goth punk, with a nose ring and tattoos. She’s brilliant at gaining information for money and is unwilling to share anything with anyone.
The two eventually come together in order to solve the mystery of Harriet’s disappearance. The development of the two characters is enjoyable and natural, though how natural Salander can be is up to debate. She’s an interesting character, whose thoughts are pretty hidden from the reader in order to create distance. It is very well-done, actually. As little as you know about Salander as a person, I couldn’t help but care about her.
Without revealing too much, I have to say that the original title should have remained; it was fantastically accurate. Each split of the section listed facts about Swedish society: a certain percentage of women have been assaulted by men, most won’t tell the police and on and on. The atrocities that are committed against women in this novel are impressive. Larsson uses the worst possible situations that a man could put a woman (or anyone, for that matter) in; there is torture, rape and horrible deaths. But their good deeds don’t go unpunished. There is a particularly violent scene of revenge on an attacker.
It was cathartic to see a woman take control of her own life in such a way. She so thoroughly and decidedly took care of her attacker that one could not help but cheer for her.
Granted, Blomkvist proves to be a bit of a man-whore. He sleeps with three women in the novel, has an ex-wife and a daughter who make an appearance. It seems like an unnecessary detail, but there it is. Salander pokes fun at it at one point. It seems more like a requirement of an adult novel than a part of the plot.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It took a great deal to get into, though I blame that mostly on being tired and traveling at the time. But once Salander and Blomkvist were established, they were great. I particularly liked Salander, though I think that’s because Blomkvist was completely immersed in research and that wasn’t as interesting as Salander’s interactions with her legal guardian. I would recommend it if you’re looking to be challenged as far as your views on society and women.
Grade: B
