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Loading... The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005)by Stieg Larsson
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Unpopular opinion, But I think I had built this book up too much. It took me over halfway to really get into it. Mikael and Lisbath is an interesting dynamic. They were able to crack a cold case that ended up being a wild conclusion. ( ![]() After turning the last page of this book, I was a bit dumbfounded -- not by the ending, but by the hype surrounding it. The writing is not particularly compelling, although that may be a function of translation. The characters are believable yet only somewhat likable, as most of them remain at an emotional distance from the reader and from each other. The plot drags on for most of the book, and plods along to an ultimately unsatisfying resolution. Had I not already purchased the second book in the series, I would not continue. About 50 pages too long. It was entertaining enough while I was reading it, but at the end I found that I was not under Larson's spell so much that I felt compelled to read the sequels. It's just a thriller, in the end. Started a little slow but progressively improved until it became a very enjoyable read.
[Richman reviews several Scandinavian novels, including Larsson's.] Why have readers taken to these writers? The novels are not formally innovative: With a few exceptions, these are straightforward whodunits, hewing closely to conventional models from the English tradition. Nor does their appeal depend on a "relentlessly bleak view of the world," as a writer for the London Times has put it. Bleak worldviews are not particularly hard to come by in crime novels, no matter what country they come from. What distinguishes these books is not some element of Nordic grimness but their evocation of an almost sublime tranquility. When a crime occurs, it is shocking exactly because it disrupts a world that, at least to an American reader, seems utopian in its peacefulness, happiness, and orderliness. It’s Mr. Larsson’s two protagonists — Carl Mikael Blomkvist, a reporter filling the role of detective, and his sidekick, Lisbeth Salander, a k a the girl with the dragon tattoo — who make this novel more than your run-of-the-mill mystery: they’re both compelling, conflicted, complicated people, idiosyncratic in the extreme, and interesting enough to compensate for the plot mechanics, which seize up as the book nears its unsatisfying conclusion. The novel offers a thoroughly ugly view of human nature, especially when it comes to the way Swedish men treat Swedish women. In Larsson’s world, sadism, murder and suicide are commonplace — as is lots of casual sex. (Sweden isn’t all bad.) The first-time author's excitement at his creation is palpable, strangely, in the book's sometimes amateurish construction. There are frequent long digressions in this big book (more than 500 pages) in which he laboriously fills in back-story details. Then there is the Vanger family; what might have seemed like a bit of fun gets out of hand as easily more than 20 people with the surname Vanger are mixed into the story. To his credit, though, he always regains control and restores momentum. Belongs to SeriesMillennium (1) Belongs to Publisher SeriesFarfalle Marsilio (130) Heyne Allgemeine Reihe (43245) Áncora y Delfín (1124) Is contained inHas the adaptationIs abridged inIs parodied inHas as a reference guide/companionHas as a studyHas as a student's study guide
The disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, gnaws at her octogenarian uncle, Henrik Vanger. He is determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. He hires crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently at the wrong end of a libel case, to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance. Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age--and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness--assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, an astonishing corruption at the highest echelon of Swedish industrialism--and a surprising connection between themselves.--From publisher description. No library descriptions found.
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)839.738Literature German literature and literatures of related languages Other Germanic literatures Swedish literature Swedish fiction 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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