The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – by Stieg Larsson

This book was an incredibly satisfying read and a very quick page turner, yet at the same time, I’m not sure if I could recommend it to just anybody. This book is awfully sleazy and queasy with much of its subject matter, and if books were given ratings, this book would definitely receive an NC-17. Such characteristics didn’t necessarily take away from my enjoyment of the book, but I can’t help to wonder if this book could have been toned down a bit where such things are considered and yet have the overall story not suffer.  I didn’t feel that this book needed quite the sensationalism that it demonstrated at times. The author does a great job of never boring his readers, even when we’re reading about boring situations.

Our protagonist is Mikael Blomkvist. Mikael is a middle-aged journalist who breaks a big story of a corrupt big-shot. Problem is the big-shot is pretty big and can afford to not only convince a jury of his innocence but has enough pull to borderline bankrupt Blomkvist and actually get him sent to prison for 3 months. Fortunately, Blomkvist’s efforts catch the attention of retired business mogul Henrik Vanger, and Vanger, who has gobs of money, hires Blomkvist to help solve a crime that happened over 40 years ago.

The “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is Lisbeth Sandler and she eventually teams up with Blomkvist. She probably gets less than 1/3 of the page space as the Blomkvist character, but she’s definitely the center of this story that the plot revolves.  Sandler is a 25-year-old reject of society. Less than 5 feet tall and under 100 pounds with a body covered with piercings and tattoos, Sandler is an incredibly smart talent and she mostly works freelance as an investigator.  Not only is she smart as a whip, but her brutal past and troubled upbringing have caused her to become less of a human and more of a genetic thing.  Men are strangely attracted and fascinated by her, yet she keeps everyone at a remote distance emotionally.  This young woman has just been through too much.

It’s Sandler’s scarred upbringing that makes her an excellent companion to Blomkvist as he begins his caper. Not only is she thorough and meticulous, but the creepy family that she and Blomkvist investigate display shadows of what she has dealt with during her torturous past.  This is where the ‘creepiness’ factor comes into play in this book; at least as far as I’m concerned. Sandler has been sexually mistreated her whole life, and the reader is even forced to endure some of her episodes within this story. Although she’s an adult, her upbringing forces her to be in the care of a ‘guardian’, and the guardian knows that this young woman is completely under his control. So we get some unpleasant episodes of poor Lizbeth being raped.  Fortunately, she ends up getting sexual ‘revenge’ on her rapist-guardian, but that’s a bit of chore to read through as well.  I should point out that this happens fairly early in the story and these episodes are designed to shape Sandler’s character before she begins working with Blomkvist during the “real” story in this book.

Once you take the uncomfortableness of rape and molestation out of the framework, there’s still an awful lot of consensual sex going on here.  One reviewer called this book “sexy”.  I would argue that this book is definitely not “sexy” but rather “sex filled”.  These characters have sex all over the place in such a casual fashion, that they seem to view these episodes as nothing much different then talking about the weather forecast with a complete stranger.  Maybe I’m a bit of a prude, but I’m convinced that such behaviors never do anyone good over time.

Perhaps this behavior is normal in Sweden. I should point out that this book takes place in Sweden and was written by a Swedish author. This is the first time I’ve ever read a “Swedish” book and there were some cultural challenges while reading, although I felt that those same challenges were a bit educational. Some things I learned: Swedish names are awfully long and hard to pronounce, it gets very cold there during the Winter, and people in Sweden drink an awful lot of coffee.  I also consulted Google several times to find out things like what Walpurgis Night is, and what is exactly is the value of a kronor. 

Once you get past all of the sex (consensual and non-consensual), this book really does succeed on multiple levels. Even after the ‘mystery’ is solved, the author keeps going. He not only ties up the loose ends, but he further develops his characters; especially Lisbeth Sandler.  She’s incredibly complex, yet because of her situation, we’re always rooting for her.  At the conclusion of the book, it’s easy to see that she just might turn up in another book, and we hope that this is the case (she does, but sadly the author died before any of his works were published, so maybe Sandler’s life never gets unwound as much as one would like).

This was a wonderful book, and despite the issues that I mentioned, found it very easy to keep turning the pages.