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Loading... The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original 2005; edition 2009)by Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland (Translator)
Work InformationThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (2005)
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Crackerjack suspense from the late Swedish author and rabble rouser http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4...
[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 SeriesColumna (762) Farfalle [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 guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
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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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)839.738Literature German and related languages Other Germanic literatures Swedish literature Swedish fiction 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Henrik Vanger, an industrialist with a vast business empire hires Mikhael to look into the murder of his niece. The catch - the murder happened nearly forty years ago, and the body of the girl was never found.
Mikhael has to work through evidence, that has long been poured over upon by investigators and Henrik, but no satisfying conclusion has been derived from any investigations. The day Harriet Vanger vanished, was also a day of a family reunion and the scene of a terrible accident. With people who had been present that fateful day four decades ago, either being dead now or too young then to have committed a crime, Mikhael must work through a diminishing list of suspects with hardly any new leads to solve a mystery that has remained under wraps for long. And Mikhael must do all this within a year, for he has a deal with Henrik, where in return for services rendered, Henrik would give Mikhael ammunition to destroy Wennerstrom, the businessman because of whom Mikahel's reputation took a hit.
While chasing ghosts everywhere, the question is, who should Mikhael trust? What deeper horrors lurk beneath the disappearance of Harriet? And who will survive once the truth is out of the closet?
As much as the central hero of this book seems to be Mikhael, it is Lisbeth Salander, the tattooed, socially awkward, and brilliant researcher, who is central to the story. She may be small for her age, not exhibit emotions and have her own abuses to deal with, but she can kick ass (literally) when shove comes to push. She can get any information about any person, and chances are that she will get into her subject even deeper and compile a hundred more pages than was asked for. But Lisbeth has her own secrets that she wants to escape from and is known to be exploited at the hands of the very institution which should be safeguarding her. The blooming of the relationship between Mikhael and Lisbeth is almost a redemption in an otherwise hurtful life of Lisbeth's.
This book has all the suspense and intrigue that you expect a first-class thriller to have. The climax to the Harriet mystery is excellent, and I wish that this book had ended with that episode. Of course, then we wouldn't have had matter for the remainder of the series, and with this really being about the girl with the dragon tattoo, I imagine readers can expect more horrors from her past to be revealed in the next two books.
I've watched the Swedish version of the movie, and enjoyed it almost as much as the book. Don't know about the Daniel Craig-starred English version, but I expect it to be done nicely as well.
A recommended read for lovers of suspense. Beware of slightly vulgar scenes. ( )