The Girl with the dragon tattoo is a suspense thriller written by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. The plot revolves around Mikael Blomkvist, a publisher at a Swedish Magazine called “Millennium”. Blomkvist is hired by a retried CEO, Henrik Vanger, to investigate the missing case of his then 16 year old niece who went missing 36 years ago. Henrik had been ruminating over her missing which developed into an obsession, was hoping to find a solution through Blomkvist. Blomkvist reluctantly accepts the accepts the case and steps into the world of Vanger.
The book came under my radar after seeing it under the “books you cannot put down” recommendation lists. True to where I found it, it is in fact a captivating novel with well connected story line and a suspenseful thriller. Although am not an aggressive reader who could finish books within hours, the book still falls under my shortest read times. I knew that the movie existed but completely forgot the fact that it was played by my favorite 007 star, Daniel Craig before he become the Bond Boy. As with all my novel readings, I eagerly watched the movie as soon as I completed the book and David Fincher really did justice to the book. Definitely check out the movie too if you have already read the book.
It seems counter intuitive that the book is called ‘girl with the dragon tattoo’ representing the side kick character, Lisbeth Salander and not our protagonist Mikael Blomkvist. After doing some background reading, I learnt that the novel was written in Swedish and translated to English. I also came to know that the story was inspired from the real life incident of Stieg Larsson. When he was 16, he stood by in shock when a three men gang raped an acquittance of Larsson who was also called Lisbeth. Larsson tried asking for forgiveness from the real life Lisbeth which was never given. The book’s title and the character are homages for Lisbeth, the real life rape victim whom Larsson could never save.
The parallels of real life and fiction doesn’t stop there. Stieg Larsson was himself a journalist, working at a Swedish Magazine form called ‘Expo’ which was similar to the novel’s fictional magazine company, the Millennium. Much of the diplomatic problems and financial difficulties around Millennium where based on real life incidents that happened at Expo. Many instances like these are the reason why reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo feels as if we are living through a real life incident. Another sad fact was that this book become a national seller in 2005, only after Stieg Larsson’s death in 2004. The poor guy faced a fate similar to Van Gogh, in that, he didn’t live to see the glory of his successful work.
Hedstad was a fictional town in Sweden where the Vanger Family was setup. Though fictional, the writing is so descriptive, that it really feels like a small Swedish town up in the Alps where generations of a family lived. For a person like me who has never been to Sweden, let alone Europe, the writing teleports me to Sweden and I could feel the snowy cold rural village around me.
The book shows the importance of photographs that I could personally relate with. In the books’ plot, the main character, Mikael Blomkvist makes a breakthrough after going through the old photographs. This plot affected me personally as I feel a photograph is a ‘snapshot’ of a specific time in the past. Though the videos can provide a ‘slice’ of time, the process of taking a photograph is not as hectic as shooting a video. The photos in your phone or computer may not make any sense now but it would be worth a lot of sweet memories and nostalgia after about a decade.
The only downside to this book is that some readers may find it a tad long. That is because, it doesn’t follow the traditional three act structure, but it follows the unconventional five act structure where the story continues to fall over the climax as the plot needed to wrap up plenty of other loose ends.
Many would say that the movie is cliched with so many traditional. I did find many similarities with movies or books from present and the past. The arrival at an island to investigate the case of missing person reminded me of the movie “Shutter Island” in which a Teddy Daniels arrives at an Island to investigate the missing person, Rachel Solando. Another interesting parallel I found after watching the movie version of the book where Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist was that Craig again stars In the “Knives Out” movie where he investigates the murder mystery at a British Family Estate. However, well known the book may seem like, even in 2020, the novel is extremely gripping and the incidents feel like real life. The book truly deserves the category, “Books You Can Never Put Down”!
CognitiveScrawl’s Rating: 5/5
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