Friday, February 18, 2011

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo


I don't have much to say about this book. Sara and I listened to it on a couple of trips to and from Durango, and it filled the time quite nicely. I don't normally care for crime or mystery novels, but it fit the bill as a book that both of us might enjoy, and it worked that way, much as a Dan Brown novel. It reminded me a lot of Brown, as a matter of fact, and had some interesting plot twists as Mikael and Salander uncover the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Vanger 40 years ago.

There are a number of interesting characters that play throughout the book, especially as Mikael uncovers the Vanger family past and some of its ties with Nazism. Lisbeth Salander was undoubtedly my favorite character in the book as she continually stands up to her abusers--the scenes with the sadistic Bjurman would border on funny if they weren't so brutal and graphic in their depiction of his sadism and her revenge--and I was pretty disappointed at the very end of the book when she looks forward to hooking up with Mikael only to see him walking away with Erika Berger, his longtime lover.

But in the end, the book wraps up a little too neatly, too tidily, and outside of Salander's disappointment, too happily, I guess. It's also kind of amazing how prominently computer hacking skills play into the plot of the novel and in solving the crimes of the book, kind of the same phenomenon on current television crime shows like NCIS or Criminal Minds where computer specialists--also somewhat social outcasts--play major roles.

Author: Larsson, Steig
Date Published: 2005
Length: 16 hr 20 min
Narrator: Vance, Simon

No comments:

Post a Comment