I had always been curious about this series of books as they
seemed to be a massive hit a few years ago when they were first released. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the
first of Larsson’s millennium trilogy. There have been several film adaptations
of the book, the latest being released last year starring Daniel Craig (another
reason for my curiosity of the trilogy to increase) with the first film being
produced by a Swedish film company (Yellow Brid) as Larsson himself is Swedish
and the English versions of the books have been translated from Swedish.
The book focuses on a journalist called Mikael Blomkvist who
is a part owner of the Millennium magazine alongside his lover Erika Berger. We
start off with the revelation that Blomkvist has just lost a libel case against
billionaire monopolist Hana-Erik Wennerstrom and is therefore sentenced to
three months imprisonment, his career as a journalist in tatters.
We then are taken to surveillance company Milton Security which
is run by Dragan Armansky. We gain an insight into his thoughts and affections
for a rather strange employee by the name of Lisbeth Salander, who, it is overly,
stated that she is different, sticks out from the rest of the employees and would’ve
been sacked from any other company. She is however incredibly skilled at her
job, researching into other people’s lives as a personal investigator. Armansky
is approached by Dirch Frode, a lawyer
acting on behalf of his client, he wants a thorough investigation into Mikael
Blomkvist.
Moving back to Blomkvist we see more of the aftermath of the
court case and realise how he will never be trusted as a journalist again. He is
then approached by Frode to accompany him to meet with his client. His client,
Henrik Vanger is an elderly man who wants Blomkvist to investigate the murder
of his great niece Harriet who went missing 36 years previously. Blomkvist is
offered a substantial sum of money as well as evidence to ruin Wennerstrom, he,
to the upset of Berger, accepts the job and moves to the island with Vanger to
investigate the case.
I will leave it there for describing the plot as I do not
want to spoil the highly gripping story that follows and believe me you don’t
want the rest spoiled for you.
Also, just as a quick warning, the book does contain scenes
of rather brutal rape and torture so if that would make you feel uncomfortable I
would recommend reading with caution, however these scenes are written very
well in a sensitive manner. Interestingly Larsson was inspired to write this
book through a personal feeling of regret as when he was 15 years old he
witnessed a girl getting raped and regretting not helping her, which probably
would explain why the rape scenes are written with sensitivity and affects the
reader so.
One very important part of the book besides the main plot of
Harriet case is the character development a Lisbeth Salander, as you may have
been able to guess, Salander joins Blomkvist on his mission to find out what
happened to Harriet. The pair at first the pair don’t get on too well as
Salander is very cautious and sceptical but she is driven through the pure
curiosity of the case to get an answer to the mystery of Harriet. Salander who
is previously described by the Swedish government to have various mental health
issues and is under the care of a guardian provided by the authorities , speaks
little of her life and doesn’t let anybody into it. However the, to Salander,
remarkable way in which Blomkvist introduces himself to her (he barges into her
house with coffee and breakfast) takes her by surprise and from that point on
her affections steadily grow for him.
This provides a commentary on the possible feminist/misogynistic
reading of this book. The title itself can be translated to men who hate women, which obviously
suggests misogyny and implies violence against women. The book portrays some women as strong, Berger
and Salander but then some women as weak, the women who were murdered. It also
portrays men in a mixed way, for example Blomkvist wouldn’t have been able to
solve the mystery without the help of Salander, on the other hand Salander is
being oppressed by her guardian Nills Bjurman. However Salander breaks
triumphantly breaks free from this oppression, showing the reader how strong
she is personally and how strong women overall can be.
The majority of the book is well written and easy enough to
follow with the inclusion of a family tree
for the Vanger family, which I had to constantly refer back to see how each
character was related. This might’ve been a hassle to some people as there are
so many members of the Vanger family alone it is hard to keep a track of who is
related to who, I personally enjoyed it as it engrossed me further in the story
and helped me to related to Blomkvist as he was trying to solve the mystery at
the same rate the reader is.
As you may have been able to notice, I
thoroughly enjoyed
this book and plan to read the sequels in the millennium trilogy The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and
The Girl who Played with Fire. These two
books also follow Blomkvist and
Salander on other cases and I thoroughly look forward to reading them. I have also watched the 2011 film version of
the book after finishing it. I feel it was a rather accurate version of the
story but doesn’t include some of the vital parts of the story and details of
the characters which made me enjoy the book so much.
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