It's hard to sort out feelings on a book that so many people, from Nora Ephron to Entertainment Weekly, have written about. I have no idea whether my feelings would be different if I had read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2004. And it's not like Larsson can answer the howls of feminists, given that he died shortly after handing in the manuscripts for his trilogy.
So, the parts of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I loved: the atmosphere and descriptions of the Swedish towns, the central murder mystery, Larsson's passion for journalism and his creation of a world where financial journalists are heroes. It does this recovering journalist's heart good to read how Mikael Blomkvist is going to take down an evil financier. You go, odd Swedish man.
The parts of the book I am ambivalent about: Lisbeth Salandar (more on that later), the casual sex, the idea that journalists should always publish the truth, and damn the torpedos.
The parts of the book I hated: the violence against women and animals, the awkward prose (maybe the translation?), and the weird feeling of how many people, from your boss to your mom,are reading the same graphic sex torture scenes that you're reading.
Bizarrely, there were parts of Girl that reminded me of Between Here and April ; a novel with a terrific premise that I hated largely because of a gang rape that occurs for no good reason other than shock and awe, and arguably to move along the plot's back story. I feel the same way about rape as a plot point as I do about scenes depicting nuns having sex: sure, you can go there as a writer, but the far more accomplished author, like Tana French, creates far more fear and mystery by what she leaves out.
Where does that leave us? The central mystery in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , the disappearance over 40 years ago of Harriet Vanger and the creepy little family from whence she originated, is quite satisfying in its development and twists and turns. Because of that, I could accept Larsson's weird world of violence if he wasn't so sanctimonious about it - his chapters often start out with statistics about violence against women. You're meant to be appalled, but there's so much details in some of the more graphic murders - a woman is tortured by being slowly burned to death; a cat is tortured as a way to send Blomkvist a message - that there's a lot of creepy titillation buried within.
And, oh, Lisbeth, in many ways a heroine for our times in her brilliant, ass-kicking way. But even when she's taking down the bad guys, the sadism is just not my cup of tea. Whether The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is up your alley largely depends on whether you can filter out or not be bothered by any of the above and simply want to lose yourself in a mystery for several hours. In the meantime, might I recommend In the Woods ?
