The Wild Eyed Bibliomaniac - The Girl who did or had something-something

 Image courtesy of halfpricedbooksonline

I love reading. There is probably no greater joy for me in the world (it contends with drugs, sex, alcohol, all the standards) and I have often sworn that the day I stop reading is the day I die. Books, magazines, blogs, news sites even those archaic flaps of thin paper called newspapers, none can escape my grasp. This is why I will from now on write about those books that either particularly impress, annoy or distress me.

A word of warning for the unaware: this "review" will likely contain spoilers and may be unintelligible for those people who haven't read the books. My purpose here isn't so much to inform or recommend, but to document my thoughts about the book as I was reading it or after I finished it. It really should be viewed as something of a ill-informed diatribe by something akin to the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.So bewared unwary traveler, here may be spoilers. And rantings.

So...here we go.

Stieg Larssons Millennium trilogy, which are individually titled "The Girl Who possessed body art/did something dangerously stupid", is the thriller genre's version of the Twilight series, though without the implied approval of abusive teenage relations and pussification of vampires.The series has two primary protagonists: the super journalist Mikael Blomkist and the hacker goth chick Lisbeth Salander. Blomkist is your proto-typical author insertion fantasy persona, the type of hard-charging, crusading idealist stick-it-to-the-man corespondent woman magnet that every young journalist has wet dreams about being before they need to cover the local mud pie eating competition for the Backwoods Podunk Gazette. The black clad, body art sporting and asocially inclined Lisbeth Salander is a bit more of a rarity. She is a truly unique character. At least at first.

The first book in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (originally titled Men who don't like Women) is a tightly written, exquisitely paced thriller set in Swedish countryside. It is a prime example of the inherent ability Scandinavian thriller writers seem to have to transmit the dark and foreboding atmosphere of their countries on to the page and populate it terse, driven, compelling characters. Must have something to down with living in a country that become dark like the abyss for 4 months out of the year. At times shockingly violent, TGwtDT rolls along through several hundred pages at a slow suspenseful burn, presenting us with an intriguing plot and intriguing characters.

Blomkist, while also being a preposterous caricature author insertion fantasy persona, is written as a man gifted with piercing self-awareness. Smarting from being publicly slapped down when he allowed his zeal to get the better of his professionalism. He knows he was probably set up and he can't forgive himself for not having done his due diligence and put his friends careers on the line. It is interesting to see the effects of this experience fuel his skepticism and how the development of the Vanger Case revitalizes his "journalistic fervor", for lack of a better phrase. Salander meanwhile is a rare bird in that is intriguing while not necessarily being all that likable.While obviously a product of a traumatic childhood, Salander operates on a binary, black-white morality system that allows her to regularly violate the rights and privacy of other, including those who would want to help her or be her friends. Her computing hacking skills and photographic memory are balanced out by an Aspergers level inability to connect with other emotionally and a worryingly self-righteous violent streak. The energy of these two contra distinctive characters drives us thought the story, first separately, the together. 

What is more impressive than these two stand-out protagonists, is the high level of quality and characterization embedded in the supporting characters. A story is only as food as the characters that surround the protagonists. No much how much effort the author has put into creating real people rather than groan inducing Author Avatars, the real challenge for any writer is to write what he doesn't know, namely other people. If a compelling protagonist is surrounded by a herd of wafer thin berks whose only reason for existence is to deliver exposition like a malfunctioning theater robot purpose built to push the reader along the plot railroad, you will be in for a poor experience. The Vangers, Armansky, Berger, almost all secondary characters, no matter hos minor, have their own voice and mind, contending and challenging the protagonists. They are all possessed by their own motivations, particularly the villain, whose raison d'etre is chillingly simple and unquestionably evil. The thought of this character having walked amongst his extensive family, the monster hiding beneath the facade of congenial harmlessness is the most frightening aspect of the entire novel.

I read the novel like a man possessed, tearing through the last 300 or so pages in a 2 am reading frenzy. I couldn't wait to read the next book: The Girl who played with Fire, It's a pity it all went so horribly wrong.

From the word 'go' The Girl who played with Fire, manages to effectively and almost gleefully dismantle everything that made the previous novel gripping. Lisbeth Salander, once a unique character with her child-like stature, extensive tattoos and piercing had used her new, ill-gotten wealth from the last novel to erase everything about herself that made her compelling. Body art is quickly removed and breast implants are added. Her edectic memory has been upgrade to full on Reed Richard crossed with Doc Brown level genius intellect, she now reads quantum mathematics books for fun and it is suddenly revealed she was the favored pupil of a championship winning boxer. Throughout the novel, Salander engages in a laundry list of incongruous heroics. breaking and entering into a police station and hacking the police mainframe, beating up men three times her size and surviving being shot in the head to name a few. Larsson even calls down impossible tornado-hurricanes to visit biblical vengeance on her enemies. All her criminal misdeeds are portrayed as just and necessary, her Batman-can-breath-in-space heroics described as matter-of-fact and the reader is meant to swallow that the world has turned against Lisbeth Salander simply because she is Made of Awesome.

Seemingly aware that their creator has just punched in the God Mode cheat code for his favored character, secondary character immediately fall into three camps: those that fall into idolatrous worship the protagonist, the aforementioned exposition theater robots and rapists. Primary example of the first is our favorite author-insertion-fantasy-person Mikael Blomkist. Blomkist, once a lover and friend of Salander, is now obsessed with the girl even though she disappeared out of his life for two years and blocks his emails. His repeated claims that he doesn't mind being cast aside and that Salander must live her own life have a Edward Cullen-esque hollow ring to them given he camps out in front of her apartment regularly like a wet, beaten dog. We are never provided with a satisfying explanation for this sudden shift in behavior, so i guess it falls under "She's so AWESOME!". This inexplicable shift from human being to dogs-body happens to several other supporting characters, as they all bend over backwards, put their lives, careers and reputations on the line and violating every moral code they hold dear to prove Salanders innocence when she is brought up on a murder charge. Their logic, despite all their internal monologues telling us they don't know the girl that well, is that "they just can't believe that she did it" no matter her previous behavior. Then they turn around and boldly state they would stick by her even if she did go out and commit premeditated murder. 
...
*sigh*

The second category of supporting characters seem to exist solely to prove to us how incompetent the police is and provide meaningless page filling and exposition delivery. In fact they are so inconsequential to the larger plot, that I really, can't find much more to say about them.

The last group of characters is could be subtitled "The Bad Guys" whose credentials are proved by the fact that they are to a man, rapist, pedophiles, misogynist and masochists. Larsson seems to be intent on wringing out the All Men are Evil/Rapist/Misogynist trope for all its worth until it is barely a dessicated husk of it's former self. The personality of those characters we are meant to dislike range from virulent misogynist to sadistic, BDSM practicing, pedophile rapist serial killer. Larsson then uses this justification to gleefully visit physical harm and public humiliation on all of these individuals using Salander as his Dark Avenger and Blomkist as the Silver Era, short-shorts wearing Robin to her Batman.  He even goes so far as to give the impression that the ENTIRE SWEDISH GOVERNMENT is trying to put down Salander and is run by nothing but women haters who regularly visit underage prostitutes.

For a book that seems to have raised its banners in support of downtrodden and mistreated women, TGwpwF is largely bereft of strong or even memorable female characters. Aside from a murder victim and a cop who does a whole lot of nothing, there are only two supporting female characters that in any way stick out. The purpose of these two characters seems to be to convince us that the protagonists are irresistible sex machines. In fact their thoughts seem to revolve exclusively around the two protagonists. Erika Berger, who in the previous novel was an impressive example of a ambitious woman who had achieved the balance of success in both her professional and personal lives, gets to reduced to fretting incessantly about if Blomkist will get angry at her for taking a job that will be a huge boost for her career, and spelling out for us that while Blomkist (who is her lover) makes her wetter than a visit to Sea World she still loves her husband more than any man in the world. The Message seems "Hey! She's no slut! She just can't withstand Blomkists (re: Larsson) animal magnetism!" The other is Miriam Wu, a woman who has a fuck buddy relationship with Salander and subsequently has the shit kicked out of her. Then when she is in the hospital recovering from the beating, the blame for which can be justly laid directly at her lovers feet her sole thought it "I hope Salander is ok." It all makes you wonder if Larsson knows or even likes women, or if he just likes to rain fiery vengeance on his characters and uses rape and misogyny as a pretext.

As a whole I am not sure how to best recommend this series. While the first book is every bit the great thriller and deserving of the accolades it has received, the latter so efficiently destroys the formers work that you are left with nothing more than a bad taste in your mouth. For the moment now I have put aside the Millennium trilogy. Maybe I will eventually pick it up again, but if it keeps on slipping into Clive Cussler territory I may not be able to contain my disappointment. At least the cover art is great!