The Millennium Trilogy
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
By Stieg Larsson
(Blogger Note: This review was originally published in September, 2010 in "The LAMLight", the physician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine. It is posted here in anticipation of the new American movie based on this book to be released December, 2011.)
Stieg
Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy has become an international publishing phenomenon
over the past five years. The author’s
tragic story adds a dimension to these novels which has played a part in
generating enormous public interest. Stieg
Larsson was a political activist and the editor of a Swedish Trotskyist
journal. He exposed racist and extremist
groups in his role as editor and journalist.
He was also an avid science fiction fan.
He was an admirer of such authors as Val McDermid, Sara Paretsky and
Carol O’Connell and first entertained the idea of writing his own crime novels
in the late 1990s. He proceeded to write
outlines for ten books. He had the first
two written and the third nearly complete before seeking a publisher. After initial rejections he received a
publishing contract in Sweden
The trilogy
really is one moderately long story (contained in Dragon Tattoo) and a second really long story divided between Played with Fire and Hornet’s Nest. I decided to review them that way as well
and so in this blog post I’ll discuss the first book and in the next post I’ll conclude
with the last two.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo introduces
the two main characters who dominate all three books. The first is Lisbeth Salander, a mysterious
and socially awkward young woman in her twenties. She intermittently plays bass in an all girl
alternative rock band and works for a security company doing free-lance work. Her main skill in this arena is her ability
to hack into any computer or server with record speed. She has very little affect, reacts
inappropriately to social cues and, generally, is a misfit. Although the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome
is never used in any of the books, it is apparent that she probably has a
variant of that disorder. Interestingly,
the author created the character after a conversation with some of his
colleagues regarding what characters in children’s literature would be like as
grown-ups. Lisbeth, apparently, is based
on a grown-up Pippi Longstocking as imagined by Stieg Larsson.
It is in her capacity as a computer
hacker that Salander meets Mikael Blomqvist.
Blomqvist is a journalist and co-editor of a monthly political journal (named
“Millennium”) who is investigating a Swedish industrialist. An article regarding this industrialist’s
misappropriation of funds and involvement in international illegal arms
trafficking is eventually published by “Millennium”. Blomqvist is sued for libel and loses his
court case, owing the industrialist reparations and sentenced to three months
in jail. While awaiting incarceration,
Blomqvist is hired by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of one of Sweden
During the investigation Mikael and
Lisbeth become lovers and we learn a lot about both characters. These details play key roles in the plot
lines of the second two novels. We learn
that Lisbeth was confined to a mental institution between the ages of twelve
and fifteen and still must report to a case worker because she is considered
mentally incompetent by the state.
Lisbeth is also revealed as bisexual and completely unpredictable. Mikael has a complicated love life himself,
carrying on a long-term affair with his married co-publisher while having other
lovers (including Lisbeth) at the same time.
This novel is more than just the
introduction of the two main characters.
The plot is fast-moving missing person tale, is surprising and holds the
reader’s interest. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the only novel of the three
which has a plot which “stands alone” and can be read without reading the other
two. The supporting characters are well
developed also and are all interesting.
The descriptions of Swedish cityscapes and the more rural settings of
the Vander estate are rich and reminiscent of the work of another Scandinavian
author, Norwegian Per Petterson (Out
Stealing Horses).
There are some troublesome aspects
to this book, in my opinion. I have
talked to several people who have read The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and steadfastly refuse to even consider reading
the follow-ups. First is the amount of
graphic violent and sexual detail which I mentioned earlier. I think that the most difficult feature,
however, is the general disregard for the female characters in the book. Ironically, Larsson’s original title for
this manuscript was Men Who Hate Women. Just as you wouldn’t judge English culture only
on the writings of Ian Fleming, or American culture on the writings of say, Tom
Clancy, then I don’t think you can judge Swedish culture based only on the
writings of Stieg Larsson. However, in
this novel anyway, women seem to be held in low regard, viewed mainly as sexual
objects and somewhat interchangeable and disposable. The most extreme example of this is the
serial killer who is identified at the conclusion, but some of the other
characters (including Mikael Blomqvist) are guilty of the same tendencies.
The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an intriguing read with a plot that holds
interest and unique characters. The
setting in Sweden
There is an excellent Swedish movie
with the same title based on this book.
The movie follows the plot of the book fairly accurately, although they
simplify Michael Blomqvist’s love life and confine his list of paramours to
Lisbeth Salander. This makes Blomqvist a
bit more of a sympathetic character than in the book. The movie also alludes to Lisbeth’s early
mental illness issues, but the reasons for this are not well laid out and I
think would be difficult to understand without having read the book. Cinematically, the movie is stunning. The movie brings the images from the novel of
modern Stockholm Hollywood studios. It will be interesting to see if the American
movie is nearly as good as the Swedish one.
(Next post I’ll conclude with a review of The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.)
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