Not too long ago I finished reading the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larson, more commonly known by the title of the first book in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
I actually have a reason for not blogging this sooner, in that Sara is still reading the final book. I am especially sensitive about releasing spoilers to her, since while she was in the middle of the first book, I inadvertently revealed a huge plot point ruining the entire mystery of the book. It was roughly equivalent to someone walking up to you in the middle of the Sixth Sense and saying, “Isn’t it crazy that Bruce Willis is a ghost?” So I think this post should be pretty spoiler-free.
The hype about the books was well deserved, they were great. However, at the same time, they were totally not what I was expecting. Even though I’m pretty late to the party (as usual), I really didn’t know much about the books. I think I had seen the movie trailer, so I had some vague notion that it was a shoot-‘um-up action movie. Therefore, I was a little surprised when it turned out to be something of a slow developing financial thriller! In fact, the aforementioned “girl with the dragon tattoo” is not even really the main character for most of the first and last books.
Please don’t take the previous two statements as criticisms of the books, because they are not. I was surprised, but in no way displeased. A slow developing novel can be a really good thing if done right, because it gives you time to really invest in a character, which makes you care about them more. This was done right. And don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of action: over the course of the books there are serial killers (plural), spies, drug running biker gangs, corrupt government officials, prostitution rings, deviant sexual behavior, and plenty of dead bodies, to say nothing of financial misappropriation on a grand scale.
You could say the tone is a little dark.
I had heard there was something bad, or gruesome in the first book, and that some people who read it weren’t sure if their wives would be able to handle it. It is important to note that the literal translation of the title is not “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” but rather, “Men who Hate Women”. Sure enough, I found that to be an appropriate title for the entire trilogy, because the entire series stands as a testament to fighting some pretty extreme violations of women’s rights. In particular there are some extremely uncomfortable moments in the first book that involve a man abusing his position of power over a woman in about the worst way possible. It’s probably worse than you’re imagining, and not for the faint of heart.
Therefore, I was a bit hesitant to recommend this to Sara. Not because I didn’t think she could handle it, and not even because I don’t think she would enjoy reading something so dark (although she doesn’t usually choose such). No, I hesitated because whenever we see anything that involves men being jerks, I seem to take the full responsibility for my gender. (Case in point, she didn’t talk to me for several days after we watched North Country.) Not to worry though, she seems to be enjoying the books well enough.
The first book stands alone from the other two, and is a little different. I preferred the second book to the first. It seemed like it got ramped up a little faster, and was a little more action packed. More Tom Clancy to the first book’s John Grisham.
Overall, highly recommended (but you already knew that, because everybody’s been talking about them since about forever).
I haven’t seen the movies, but everybody says they’re good. I’d probably watch them if I had them here in front of me, but honestly I don’t feel much of a draw to see them. I read the story, enjoyed it, and now it’s kind of done, you know?
One last note, I noticed as I was reading that Mr. Larsson seems to be very meticulous about certain details, particularly product names. There is one section, I think in The Girl Who Played With Fire, involving a very large shopping trip to IKEA in which every product is identified and named. I got a big chuckle out of this, because if you’ve spent as much time at IKEA as I have, then you will absolutely recognize all the product names.
This was also true when it came to meticulous street and neighborhood names. By the end of the 3rd book, I was absolutely sure I could navigate my way around Stockholm with no problem (but just in case you can’t, you can always check out the Millennium Trilogy map on Mr. Larsson’s website).
I did have one problem with the books, though. Has anyone in the history of the earth drank as much coffee? It was central to every scene, someone is always pouring the coffee, drinking coffee, going to a cafe for coffee, or getting up to put the coffee on. Coffee is made in coffee pots, in fancy espresso machines, and boiled directly in a pot on the stove. I don’t know if this was just a tick of Mr. Larsson’s writing style, something he falls back on to set the scene, or if Swedish people just drink a metric ton of coffee.
If you haven’t read the books yet, try not to notice all the coffee drinking now. Good luck with that.
Shane Halbach 
I always thought that the English titles were misleading and really wish they would have directly translated the Swedish titles. I guess it wouldn’t have made such a nice, neat trilogy name, but I think “Men Who Hate Women,” “The Girl Who Played with Fire,” and “The Air Castle that Blew Up” were much more accurate. Of course, it took ages for someone to explain the “air castle” thing, so that one would need to be tweaked to something more English-metaphor-friendly like “The Fall of the House of Cards.”
On a personal note, I also wish they’d stuck with the original titles because it confused the heck out of me. I’d seen so many posters for the first film that even while I was reading “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” I thought he’d written more than three books and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t find an English translation of “Men Who Hate Women!” After all, it seemed even more popular than Dragon Tattoo!
Oh, and as for the coffee? Yeah, I do think that Scandinavians drink that much coffee. In fact, I think I’ll head home now and grab a coffee and a good book!
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I’m so glad you chimed in with the Scandinavian point of view! 🙂
Thank you for explaining the Air Castle metaphor. After I read the books, looking back on the Swedish titles, I guessed something like that, but I didn’t realize it was a Swedish saying. The Fall of the House of Cards would have been an excellent title.
One reason I like the Swedish titles better is because the English titles focus on Lisbeth, who isn’t really the focus of the books. The title leads you to believe the books are going to be all about her, which isn’t the case. In the Swedish titles, only the second book refers directly to Lisbeth, and that is certainly the book that focuses the most on her. The Fall of the House of Cards (which is how I will now refer to the third book) is a *much* more accurate description of the events of that book. (Although to be fair, the English title is somewhat appropriate, since it does technically apply that Lisbeth kicked the hornet’s nest previously, and everything that happens in the 3rd book is the result of that.)
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I did like Hornet’s Nest, although like you I don’t like the Lisbeth-focused title. She didn’t really kick the hornet’s nest as much as everyone else in that book. She was the catalyst that started it all, but I felt like the others really put in the nest-kicking effort! 🙂 But I really like “Men Who Hate Women” better than “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” because that’s absolutely what the book is about. I also think it prepares the reader better for the aforementioned disturbing content.
So it sounds like you like the 2nd book best? My favorite was the 3rd, because I felt it was very Spy vs. Spy and I loved the counter espionage slant to parts of it. Unfortunately, I don’t think the 2nd or 3rd Swedish film worked very well, because there were so many characters (most being of similar demographics – motorcycle thugs in the second, old bureaucratic men in the third), and there wasn’t enough screen time to really introduce them all. Especially with the third, it just felt like a whole bunch of events and people crammed randomly into a film, and it was hard to follow the plot even when you knew what was going on!
One more comment, related to the uber-specific details: I actually made it a point to eat a Billy’s frozen pizza at some point while I was reading the last few books. 🙂 And whenever I see them at the store, I always think of Lisbeth!
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To me there is book 1, and then book 2 as told in two parts. I don’t think you can really separate book 3 from book 2. So yes, I preferred book 2/book 3 better than book 1, but I don’t know if I could really say which was better between 2 and 3.
I will say that I felt like the character of Monica Figuerola figured too prominently into things (she seemed to perfect or one dimensional to me to be anything more than a background character), so I really didn’t like that she was the one person Mikael ends up having a serious relationship with. Even Niedermann is pretty one dimensional, and Zalachenko made a much better villain. But then again, the villain in the 3rd book was really The Section, not really Niedermann.
Good work on the Billy’s pizzas. Sara and I have discussed them as recently as last night. Were they as good as advertised? I bet their business has gone through the roof!
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Haha! No, they’re rubbish! 😉
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I read book one – then read it again. It seemed like I needed to have more information. I have not read book 2 or 3 but hope to read them this summer. I watched the movie of book 1 last Saturday night with Don and I think it was good, but there is so much of the story that is missing in the movie. Don had not read the book and had so many questions. Thanks for your insight on the other books.
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