Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Steig Larsson Trilogy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; The Girl Who Played with Fire; The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

All the action takes place in Sweden and that alone made reading these character and action-packed novels worth my time. I felt immersed in Swedish culture: coffee drinkers to rival the Dutch; summer chalets and cabins on the water and cold winters. The more general themes were computer hacking, sexual perversion, murders, journalistic integrity, the delicate balance between law enforcement and media, a more relaxed attitude towards sex (quite different from Christine O'Donnell's views), the proximity of Russia and the Baltic countries, and the intrigue of old crimes and modern punishments. I escaped for several days into this world.

The "girl" is Lisbeth Salander, an unlikely protagonist. Pierced and tattooed and socially inept, Lisbeth had been dismissed and discarded by most of society. She is now an adult and her character and her personal history were slowly developed in these novels. I was slightly weary of it all by the time I finished the last book but, for the most part, the plots, the many interesting and believable characters and the immersion into the Swedish landscape held my interest to the end.

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