The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I just finished reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

I had been aware of the book for some time. I'd seen adverts for it on the sides of buses, and I knew that there was a film adaptation that had been made in Sweden. But it had never really appealed to me; from the title, and the front cover, it just didn't seem like the kind of book I'd be interested in.

Then a friend brought it up whilst we were talking about books, and said it was fantastic and I needed to read it. I was a little sceptical, but I said okay. I did a bit of background research, and the book was described as a 'crime thriller', and was apparently written by Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson, who died shortly after handing in the manuscripts to his publishers. That, in itself, was interesting enough to make me want to read the book. A man dies suddenly and unexpectedly, shortly after handing in the manuscripts for three novels to his publisher, and then the novels go on to be best-sellers? You could probably write a crime thriller about that.

So I read it. The basic premise is that Henrik Vanger, an elderly, wealthy businessman, is obsessed with the disappearance of his young relative Harriet, some forty years ago; in a last ditch attempt to solve the case, he hires fianancial journalist Mikael Blomkvist to hunt through the old investigation reports and try and solve the mystery. Lisbeth Salander - a social outcast and private investigator - is soon drawn into the case after Blomkvist hires her as a research assistant.

Review-Type Thing

The big thing that I noticed as I was reading the book is how slowly it kicks off - the real plot concerning Harriet is only introduced around the 100 page mark, with the preceding chapters all dealing with Blomkvist's fall from grace at the hands of Wennerstrom (A powerful Swedish businessman); whilst this opening plot does become relevant later in the book, and provides motivation for Blomkvist, as you're reading you can't help but think 'Hurry up!' It's not just here that the book drags, though - despite being labelled a 'thriller', very little in the way of action occurs until around 350 pages in. Up until that point, the story mostly consists of Blomkvist wandering around having conversations with the various members of the Vanger family, whose names and backgrounds are infodumped on the reader in a big speech from Henrik. Even Salander, who's meant to be the main character, only shows up very late in the game, spending the first half of the novel wrapped up in a sub-plot that has nothing to do with the Harriet mystery.

Of course, this is the first in a series of three novels, so I can't expect every plot strand to be tied up; the subplot involving Bjurman, Salander's guardian, may well come to prominence in book 2. Similarly, the character of Borg (who appears only for a couple of paragraphs, once at the beginning and once near the end) may have a more palpable role in the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire. I don't want to sound like I disliked the book, because overall I did enjoy reading it. For all it's pacing problems, the mystery of Harriet Vanger is one that intrigued me, and kept me reading to the end so I could find out what happened. The dialogue between the characters in the book is also very well written, and Blomkvist is an excellent hero. It's odd, how Salander is treated as the book's main protoganist by the advertising and the cover, because throughout the book Blomkvist is very much our main point of reference. Again, maybe Salander becomes are more central hero in the sequels. I don't know.

The writing of the book is serviceable, and there's certainly nothing bad about it, but it lacks flair or style. I doubt that, if you picked up another book by Larsson, without knowing he had written it, you wouldn't be able to tell that it was one of his. The descriptive sections are the worst, though of course the book is translated from Swedish, so I wonder if some of the author's flair was lost in conversion. The dialogue fares, better, with most of the characters talking believably and entertainingly.

So yeah, overall I thought the characters and plot were interesting, but the writing is only ok and the pace is too slow. I enjoyed it enough to want to read the second one, anyway.

End of review! Whoopedy doo.