I'm a little late to the party in most situations; Desperate Housewives, LOST, The Office, Harry Potter, Twilight, and now, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I was given the first two in the 3-book series nearly a year ago but, if you've ever seen my bookshelf, I have a lot of catching-up to do. I suppose somewhere in the back of my ego, I don't always want to jump on the latest bandwagon. At any rate, I finally decided to pick up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and about 150 pages in, I almost put it down for good.
I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, the back cover not necessarily misleading, but not altogether informative, either; it at least didn't even mention the plethora of Swedish financial information I'd have to weed through before the story actually got going. I e-mailed my friend, who I later learned is a big proponent of the series, that this first one was sooooooooooooooooo boring; and that the only reason I was continuing to read was because of my deep desire to have all of my questions answered, my main one being: what does all of this financial mumbo-jumbo have to do with a girl gone missing over 40 years ago? The answer to this question was not as interesting as I would have hoped, and the book eventually morphed from the Swedish Forbes who's who of swindling financiers to a sexually explicit, revolting train-wreck you can't turn away from.
The level of sexual depravity is beyond comprehension. Or maybe I have just led a very sheltered existence. Or maybe I was disheartened with the level of honesty that is presented in this novel. I know people have experienced sexual exploitation, deviance, rape, molestation, torture, and limitless other mind-bogglingly horrific encounters, but having it laid out in print was something I found surprising. But I am one of those naive fools who read for the purpose of escaping reality rather than submerging myself within it.
Once the story moves beyond Sweden's financial troubles - shockingly similar to that of the US, by the by - the premise of the story is revealed: an aging man who has had his hand in every pot of gold all over Europe lost his beloved niece over 40 years ago; and I mean lost in the literal sense. She disappeared like a fart in the wind, leaving in her wake limitless possibilities of what happened, when, where, and why. But first we're introduced to the 2 people who are supposed to ultimately crack the 40+ year-old case that not even the local authorities could solve (although if you've ever watched a soap opera you know that isn't saying much), both of which are highly unexpected sleuths.
For starters, there is Lisbeth Salander who, for some reason - which I've heard is explained in the following 2 books - we get to learn all the details of the sordid past of this "punk prodigy," who is covered in tattoos, piercings, and enough attitude to give all of those Emo kids a run for their money. But she became that way thanks to a past peppered with absentee parents, drug additions, sexual abuse, group homes, and conservators who took advantage of her apparent non-status in society. She spends all of her time - free and otherwise - using her powers to gain access to information on people us mere mortals could only dream of. Her methods are unconventional and could place her among the depravity she inevitably encounters if not for the goods she digs up.
No one saw her coming, nor expected her to, assuming she had been beaten down by the system and preferred to stay there with only her misery to keep her company. Her most recent case worker banked on this assumption and never even considered the possibility of the retaliation she conducted after he brutally rapes her. I, personally, found this aspect of the story very unbearable and only got through it by assuming the reader needed to know her entire story so we could eventually see how awesome a heroin she is. Just learning of her investigative talents was enough for me, thank you very much.
Another aside was learning all about our main character, the hero and Lisbeth's partner both in crime and eventually the sack, Mikael Blomkvist. It's not often someone convicted of libel turns into a hero and, sadly for the first book, he doesn't really amount to much of one in the eyes of his fictional public. Promised with the goods against those who accused him of slander, he hesitantly embarks on the journey to find missing Harriet Vanger; the most likely heir to the Vangar Corporation, Sweden's most prominent of floundering financial firms.
Armed with absolutely nothing but a family of liars, Mikael is introduced to Lisbeth as the last quarter of the book starts. He encounters her work through a lawyer who had the investigative firm run a report on someone who proves to have little significance to the overall story (remember the man who had Mikael convicted of libel? Yeah, him.) Even still, their paths are quite windy and shifty it's amazing they meet in the first place. But meet they do and, of course, solving an old mystery isn't all they get themselves into.
The case seems highly improbably - and the fact that Mikael was personally requested to accomplish the task is even more of a stretch - since all Mikael has to go on is an old photograph taken by a couple visiting the area on their honeymoon. And, lest we forget, any alleged crime took place over 40 years prior. Muddying the waters are members of the Vangar family who span the globe greater than the Kardashian family, and tell just as much of the same truth. It becomes painstakingly obvious that Mikael has inadvertently situated himself amidst a family secret he might have been better off not knowing, with a family hell-bent on keeping it hidden. So the story inevitably evolves into a battle of morals between Blomkvist and the Vangars. What he eventually uncovers, while navigating the bumps of his own personal life, is a level of sexual violence only imagined by those who occupy the most secure of imprisonment institutions.
To say the ending has a twist is an understatement, but I wouldn't lump it in with the twist-master himself, M. Nigh Shyamalan, or that guy who made all of those Bruce Willis movies. The end is shocking and I will not expound further.
As an extremely emotional person, I found this book to be highly intelligent, intriguing, disgusting, shocking, sordid, and just plain crazy. It left me feeling like learning more about Lisbeth would be satisfying but only in the way that eating an entire package of Oreos is satisfying. I'm forced to continue reading the series, however, since it was that in trade for my friend reading her emotionally-scaring equivalent: Marley and Me.
But when I eventually break down and read The Girl Who Played with Fire I'm at least armed with a fresh bottle of antidepressants.
