Readers' Review: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-07-21/readers-review-girl-dragon-tattoo-stieg-larsson
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" features a middle-aged investigative journalist and a youthful computer hacker struggling with personal demons. It is the first book of a Scandinavian crime fiction trilogy by Stieg Larsson. He died four years ago, before seeing his novels rise to the top of best-seller lists around the world. Diane invites listeners to join her and a panel for this month's Readers' Review.
Guests
Deirdre Donahue
book critic for "USA Today"
Anna Westerstahl Stenport
director of the Scandinavian Program at the University of Illinois and Affiliate Associate Professor of Literature at Gothenburg Univerversity, Sweden,
Edward Kastenmeier
Vice President/Executive Editor of Vintage/Anchor books where he oversees Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, including their Stieg Larsson program.
Comments
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Readers,
Whom in this story is considered the primary protagonist? Lisbeth or Blomkvist? I realize that there are several stories going on at the same time. I wondered who others found themselves rooting for or identifying with the most.
-Yo
The publisher's comments regarding the year or so delay in publishing the book here in the USA were not very convincing. After reading the first book, I couldn't wait until the second and third were published in the US. I found a book store on the web, Book Depository, that offered the European translation with free shipping anywhere in the world. It' s absurd to have to wait until the US publisher positions themselves to publish it. Typical US company nonsense.
I enjoyed this book and the first film. Lisbeth Salander is victimized by a predator, Advokat Bjurman, but exacts her revenge and ultimately her freedom. Her revenge, raping and blackmailing a sadist who raped and blackmailed her, is " An eye for an eye, " and Larsson depicts the violence of these acts graphically. He is portraying life, and life is often violent, though obviously " The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is a much more complex novel, the characters and their histories are developed. I was struck by Dierdre's description of Salander as " So Damaged. " As a child who experienced terrible abuse, are we to expect her to be unscarred ? Diedre made her sound like she was " broken" in the manner of a teapot, rather than a human being. Lisbeth Salander is abused but she fights back with the considerable skills she has. She's a survivor, and readers are drawn into her struggle. Larson created the story about Sweden's invisible members of society, a ward of the state, and made us look at her reality
When I read the first book I thought it started out rather slow but then built up the graphic and crime ridden story that it is. I of course continued on and have read all 3. I do think calling it crime fiction though is almost to nice...I think this is more in the noir thriller genre which is why I'm loving the series by http://www.bonniekozek.com/index.html Threshold and now Just Before The Dawn. They are both haunting and extremely graphic and if you're a fan of the Tattoo trilogy you'll be immersed in not time.