As with many books in the past, I avoided ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ because of the extraordinary amount of hype surrounding it. How could it possibly be any good if it needed that much publicity?
It was my sisters who persuaded me to pull myself together and read them. They both went to see the Swedish films, having loved the books and, I surmised that if Sister the Second was prepared to sit through a film with subtitles, there had to be something there worth looking in to.
It took me a while to get into the first one, mainly, I think, because of all the unfamiliar words, names and geography, but once I did, I was absolutely hooked. Lisbeth Salander is one of the most extraordinary heroines ever written. She is bad tempered, hostile, uncommunicative, brilliantly clever, hard as nails, aggressive, introverted, socially ill at ease – need I go on?
And yet you are on her side from the moment you’re reeled into the plot. You get the sneaking suspicion that all is not as it seems and you give her the benefit of the doubt without a second thought. One becomes like a doting parent who can forgive their child anything ‘ well if she DID murder someone, then I’m sure she had a jolly good reason for doing it’ you convince yourself.
The other characters are just as strong, whether you find yourself liking them or not. Blomkvist the journalist is clearly a ‘good guy’ and brilliant at what he does, not to mention his unwavering support of Salander, but I found that I couldn’t engage with him to any depth; if he’d been a real person, he would probably have been a pleasant acquaintance but you wouldn’t know any more about him after ten years then you did when you first met.
The plot is astonishing in its complexity and I continually found myself marvelling at the brain that had thought it all up and then managed to knit a story that is as intricate as the pattern for a Fairisle jumper. Then, just as you think you’re about to cast off, there’s a further twist that makes you shout ‘NO!!’ to an empty room as your heart beats slightly faster and you forget to breathe.
I finished the ‘The Girl who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest’ on Sunday night and found that I couldn’t bring myself to start a new book as the characters and plot were still swirling round in my head. I didn’t want to let go of Lisbeth, I wanted to stick with her and see what she did next. I wanted to see her character develop and blossom and to know that she was alright and that her life wouldn’t be too hard.
The last time I felt like that about a character was reading ‘A Suitable Boy’ by Vikram Seth. It took me ages to read the book because I didn’t want to miss a single word, and as I drew near the end, I was torn between wanting to finish the story but not wanting to lose the closeness I felt to the main characters – I was among friends.
If a friend is defined by someone you care about, then Stieg Larsson’s characters are friends because you can’t help but be engaged by their every action, however, marginal they seem.
I heard it rumoured that, had Larsson lived, he was planning more books in the series. Tragedy on all fronts.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl who Played with Fire
The Girl who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest
Wartime Housewife 