Jump on the Swedish Bandwagon!
Hej! Jag ar skyldig.
(Translated: Hello! I am guilty.)
“Of what?” you may ask. Of jumping on the Swedish bandwagon. To literary geeks, Swedish is what French represents to couture fashion. How could that be possible? It is all thanks to one author, who unfortunately, died before his dream of literary success could be enjoyed: Stieg Larsson. If you haven’t heard of this man, or at least of his immensely popular trilogy, you may be living under a rock, or at least in the movie theaters (and after this summer’s lackluster blockbusters, that would be a sad place to be living…but that’s another blog all together).
Larsson’s first novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was published in 2008, and it met almost instantaneous success. The book is about Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist who has just met with professional meltdown. He has been found guilty of libel against a major powerhouse, and he takes a leave of absence from his magazine in order to avoid the bad press coming after it. He ends up helping an old man, henrik Vanger, in his 40-year old quest to find his long-lost niece, Harriet, who went missing from a family “board meeting” and hadn’t been heard of since. Unknown to Mikael, he is being closely watched by Lisbeth Salander, a young woman who is my FAVORITE heroine to come along in a long time. Lisbeth is, as Shrek would say, like an onion–she has many layers. None of which are very clearly revealed or explained in this book. We know she survived a very difficult childhood, but she didn’t escape unscathed–she carries heavy emotional trauma, as revealed in her inability to trust, love, or even really get close to any other person. She is brilliant (with a photographic memory), inventive, strong-willed, and a survivor…at any costs. Because of her difficult childhood, she has ended up a ward of the state and must report to a guardian (a man so repulsive we can’t help but root for Lisbeth when she finally gets her revenge against his sadism). Lisbeth works as a researcher for a securities company (did I mention she is also a computer hacker?), and she had been hired to research Mikael, and she never really stopped. So when she notices his recent activities on his laptop, Lisbeth’s attention is captured, and she teams up with Mikael to help solve the mystery.
This book then continues deftly into the second in the series with The Girl Who Played with Fire. I don’t feel like I can reveal as much about this second book with giving away the first, but let me assure you–both of these books are SO worth the read. So give up on Hollywood and give books another chance…or you can rent the Swedish movie version of the first book. I just watched it and really enjoyed it too. However, I always believe you should read the book first, and it won’t take you very long to do so because of how good it is!
You’re probably wondering…you said it’s a trilogy, what about the third book?! It’s entitled The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, and I still need to read it. I’m considering rereading the first two first. I liked them THAT much.
