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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
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By Stieg Larsson
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1 review
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone in her own family – the deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan.
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A cleverly written book intertwining characters, plots and timelines keeping us hooked right until the end. Much more than a thriller, Larsson examines the extent to which Swedish authorities allow the mistreatment of women and how far violence towards women is normalised in its society. Looks like his books are a way of addressing what had affected him as a 15 year old.
Interestingly the book was originally titled ‘Men Who Hate Women’. Larsson is actually talking about the characters here (and not his own view of women) but later the name of the book was changed and rightly so. Our female protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, the heroine of the story, does not allow her misfortunes to get in the way of her surviving and really knows how to ensure justice is served for the male perpetrators in her life- she knows how to get this (knowing that the authorities will fail in their responsibilities) and boy do these men get their comeuppances. The reader finds her attitudes and actions simultaneously shocking and admirable. We love her to bits.
Mikael Blomkvist, the male protagonist, is a likeable character although perhaps it wasn’t necesary to make him into a ‘ladies’ man which was a little disappointing.
Larsson looks at various characters who have been abused and allows them to react in different ways - one runs away without reporting the abuse, one stays and gets revenge herself and one becomes the abuser. Larsson addresses the justifications for each course of action through the characters themselves without ever condemning any of them. We as the reader are forced to balance up which course of action is justified or not.
A slow start to the story but well worth the wait. We liked how Larsson also took this opportunity to delve into business ethics and corporate corruption and we loved how Lisbeth was the brains behind uncovering much of this too. Some needless details included but can be excused as the various plots that are unwinding keep us on the edge of our seats. Despite it being a dark book with some horrific crimes towards women we are rewarded with a satisfying ending and cannot wait to read the second and third books in this trilogy.
