The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – "Men Who Hate Women") is an award-winning crime novel by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the first in his "Millennium Trilogy."

This is Andrew’s review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:

If narrative is the glue of a reading experience, then this is a sticky book. It did keep me turning the pages, I genuinely did have an eagerness to know what happened next. I also like the sense of place which I found strong. Coming from a northern climate myself, I found the setting and its evocation of coldness and seasonality convincing.

However, I did find, overall that this was a sexist book. The three main female characters all leap eagerly into bed with the author. And the girl with the dragon tattoo herself, although the strongest female character, felt more like a man in disguise. I found it interesting, for example, that the author characterises her as a woman suffering from mild autism. (Autism is a condition that some clinicians have gone on record as describing as ‘extreme maleness’ – ie, lack of empathy, extreme rationality rather than emotional approach to interactions).

And I did have a problem with the way the previous victims of the cellar torture room were swept under the narrative carpet with a hefty donation to charity as a thin explanation why.

I also found the missing murder victim’s return at the end of the book, her abandonment of her life in Australia and the family and business she had there, to be completely unconvincing.

Andrew

The scores were

Nat 8.5
Kevin 8.5
Dennis 7
Mark 8
Leanne 7
Andrew 6.5

Total 7.5

Natalie’s comments, from her own experience, about the highly controlling, and very sexist Swedish state shed further light on the overall context of the book. Going to Sweden anytime soon …. not me! Mark

The next book is “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys.