The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder – and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family.
He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.
Lisbeth Salander is unlike any girl you’ve ever met. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was originally meant to be called Men Who Hate Women, which is certainly a major theme of the mystery. However, the now-famous title is much more fitting, and gives credit to one of the most original and interesting characters in recent times. Lisbeth has what so many authors try but just don’t quite manage to give their more individual female characters: she’s not just angry, she has bite. Just how many classified mentally unstable, expert computer-hacking private investigators with a penchant for t-shirts with offensive slogans do you meet, even in fiction? I dare you not to find her fascinating.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo opens with the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Vanger, who vanished from her family’s remote village over forty years ago. Harriet’s vanishing act baffled the police, her family and her billionaire Uncle who has been trying to keep the investigation alive ever since.
The protagonist, middle aged investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist holds a curious sex appeal over most of the novel’s female population that really made me wonder how good looking Larsson must have intended for him to be. As much as I hate to compare books to their Hollywood counterparts, I think the American version of the adaptation has to have hit the nail right on its head to have cast Daniel Craig in the part. However, as much appeal Mikael and Lisbeth held, and as highly coloured and tangible their characters were, they were almost the only characters in the novel which were properly explored and fleshed out, with perhaps the only exception being Blomkvist’s business partner, best friend and sometimes lover Erica Berger.
Mikael and Lisbeth uncover a series of horrible and shocking murders which will repulse and shock you, and make you really dread and yearn finding out what happened to Harriet. That, and what critics have called the ‘gratuitous’ rape, sex and scenes of excessive violence that pepper the novel makes for a book I was really glad I read on a long car journey – not last thing at night before I went to bed or totally alone in the house.
As far as the resolution of the investigation is concerned, fans of crime stories may find the crux of it it rather predicable. I certainly guessed it. However, the way the ending was arrived at I could never have guessed, which still made the ending surprising and highly enjoyable.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a crime novel for people who don’t really ‘do’ crime novels. For months almost everyone I knew told me to read it. Now I can see why, and now here I am I’m telling you to read it too.
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5 Comments
It’s interesting that you think the “Girl…” titles are more apt. It really annoys me that they changed this, and instead chose a title that describes Lisbeth by a minor physical trait and calls her a girl instead of a woman. I think it detracts from the themes throughout that take a pro-feminist stance. I’m nit-picking though, I did enjoy this books. Even if Blomkvist is a *total* Mary-Sue for Steig Larsson. I suspended my disbelief for some of the ridiculous climactic scenes, but ever female character he comes into contact with just discarding her knickers in the blink of an eye? PLEASE.
Sarah, when I wrote that I was referring to the fact that the title had made Lisbeth the focal point of the books and as a character she deserved that recognition. I have yet to write my reviews for the other two books in the trilogy but I do believe that the titles are more apt because they centralize her. I do agree with your woman point, but at the same time on the whole it is socially acceptable for a woman under the age of 30 still to be called a girl in the areas where the ‘Girl…’ titles are marketed in, and, also, compared to many of the other characters in the book Lisbeth is still a ‘girl’ in comparison. I think the publishers did it because it sounded better to be honest.
Like I said, I was nit-picking. My personal opinion is that the original title was a powerful statement, and it seems cynical to change it to sell more books. But then, obviously that is what publishers want to do! I also take your point about the “girl” thing, I just felt it was a shame. I also don’t think the books are just about Lisbeth and there are plenty of other social issues that Larsson is angry about and some of those stem from misogyny too. I really was just being pedantic though. I enjoyed the book, and I enjoyed your review! I’ll look forward to reading what you have to say about the next 2!
It took me 300 pages before I finally enjoyed this book, it got to the point where I was dreading picking it up but glad I managed to stay with it!
While I’m not surprised that critics have called the rape scenes gratuitous, I disagree. I think the misogyny still apparent in Sweden and Sweden’s justice system with regard to rape really shocked Larsoon, as evident by his original title and his journalistic work, and that this is his way of exposing the brutality of the sex crime scene.