I initially heard of this book through the reader’s
grapevine. Those who thrive on burying
their bibliophile souls into the next big thing were all abuzz about this
Swedish author, Stieg Larsson, who delivered to his publisher a trilogy of
books - and then mysteriously dies. The
name was unfamiliar; the book cover did nothing to excite with an enticing
tale; but the story of the author caused my ears to prick up and take note.
Since that day I have read all three books, reading books one
and three twice, and attended viewings of the American version of the first
book, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, three times. I still recall my first step into the tale,
knowing nothing of what to expect outside of a ‘girl with a dragon tattoo.’
Such a novice ear left me a bit perplexed, though, as I hear
of a Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist, who is, for some reason sued for libel by
a wealthy financial tycoon, Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Blomkvist, apparently, was given a tip
Wennerstrom abused a government program intended to introduce Western
capitalism into the former Soviet bloc communist countries. The solid information Blomkvist thought he
owned, it failed to pan out, making him an easy target for Wennerstrom’s libel
suit.
The national focus of the suit brings Blomkvist to the
attention of another financial tycoon, the former head of the Vanger
Corporation, Henrik Vanger. The past
forty years have consumed him in a search for the murderer of his sixteen-year-old
niece Harriet. Blomkvist’s fight with
Wennerstrom, whom Vanger knows personally is guilty of all Blomkvist accused
him of, convinces Vanger here is a man who can uncover the truth to what
happened to his niece Harriet.
First though, Vanger enlists the aid of Milton Security for a
background check on the man, done by their top researcher Lisbeth Salander, the
‘girl with the dragon tattoo’.
Salander is an enigma - a punk rock, gothic, anti-social
enigma with her tattoos, piercings, emaciated figure and overt
get-a-way-from-me attitude. On sight,
she is the last person to believe as employed at a highly respected company
like Milton Security; in reality, no one produces more complete reports from
more thorough investigations. She is a
walking contradiction – the original ‘do not judge a book by its cover’.
She is also a ward of the state.
For reasons not explained until the second and third books
(where her story is told), Lisbeth is still responsible to an advocate who
operates in the capacity of a de facto guardian. For the brunt of her life, this person has
been Holmer Palmgren, who treats her with respect and could be considered
somewhat of a “friend” to this friendless young woman. When he suffers a stroke and a new advocate
is assigned, Niles Bjurman, a lawyer who is the exact opposite of Palmgren in
his attitude and treatment, the fight in Lisbeth breaks free.
She is this wild cat of a beast, which leaps out with a
fierceness in attack – yet never wild in her approach. She is dangerous not simply because she is
tough, but more so because she is smart.
She will out think anyone who dares come against her; and though her
appearance says easy prey, she is anything but.
Enter Blomkvist into Salander’s life.
Once assuming the task of ferreting out the truth in Henrik
Vanger’s forty-year-old murder mystery, pieces to this past gradually tumble
into place. At first, Blomkvist saw nothing
as holding any merit to this investigation (acquiescing only after Vanger
promises him Wennerstrom’s head on a platter); then he recognizes his need for
a research assistant, not wanting to repeat the mistakes from the Wennerstrom
Affair.
Enter Salander.
Salander works with no one.
She does her work on her own. Yet,
there is something different about this Mikael Blomkvist. She knows everything about him; even though
his appearance at her apartment that first time, a place no one ever showed,
was not the volatile exchange she would have anticipated from a stranger whose
private life she so thoroughly broke into.
Yet Blomkvist sought her help. He wished to work with her. He wanted her to help him catch a killer of
women.
Once a reader understand Salander’s story, this little click
on the impetus meter makes all the sense in the world.
The story here is Salander’s; Salander is the story. Her yet untold narrative is metaphorically
relayed through the lives of other women; though none of them ever met, and
none of them ever heard the name ‘Lisbeth Salander’, making the girl with the
dragon tattoo the story of every woman.
Such is one of the many treasures to Stieg Larsson’s
writing: he spells out truths without ever explicitly stating them. He trusts his audience to be sharp enough to
figure out what goes without saying; and if they don’t, they still manage to
comprehend something special and unique has just passed before their reader’s
eyes.
One example of this, beyond Lisbeth as the story for every
woman, is the Nazism embraced by two of Henrik Vanger’s brothers. He mentions it, almost as an afterthought,
and Blomkvist touches upon it in his conversations with Salander, and then it
remains to the reader to connect.
Larsson never headlines how one piece of hatred will build upon another
piece of hatred, compounding itself until it destroys a family and murders a
girl with forty years of mystery. He
should never have to; such should be obvious – a truth of life we often pass
over and neglect, making his story even more real and substantive with such
elemental facts life does not change.
A second example rests in the structure of the plot. On the surface, what the publisher might use
to sell the story to the public, one could identify it as the hunt for Harriet
Vanger’s murderer – a compelling enough idea on its own that many books would pursue
as is. Larsson, however, steps beyond
the mere satisfactory and takes the one plot, weaving two additional plots into
it.
First, there is the Wennerstrom affair. It could be claimed, as this opens the book,
it is nothing more than how the characters are introduced to the reader, and
how Blomkvist is introduced to Henrik Vanger.
If not for a revisiting to this plot line at the book’s end, that view
would hold a measure of credibility.
Then there is the mystery of Harriet Vanger. It is what draws everyone’s attention, but it
is not the main plot. It is merely a
vehicle through which the relationship of Blomkvist and Salander is introduced
and developed.
People will disagree with me on this point. They will argue the relationship is a subplot
of the mystery; and such stands as a valid argument. However, when combining the Wennerstrom
affair with the other two plots, it is clear the relationship carries
priority. It is upon what the book ends,
and it is upon what the book’s theme is loosely based – perhaps even entirely
based when considering Larsson’s hands off approach to plot, leaving much to
the reader’s interpretation. This is a
book about relationship; the good: Blomkvist with Erica Berger; the bad: the
Vanger family; and the ugly: Niles Bjurman and the eventual villains of the
tale. Larsson physically depicts this
through the sexual interaction of the characters.
As a Christian, sexual promiscuity is always a difficult
matter to place into proper context.
Initially, I interpreted Blomkvist’s loose morals as indicative of
Swedish society. After reading all three
of the books, and seeing the first movie, I am not so certain of that
view. All the sexual liaisons Blomkvist
engages in are with women about whom he truly cares. There are no one-night stands intent on
satisfying his sexual urges. Whether it
be Erica Berger, or Lisbeth Salander, or even Cecilia Vanger, he cares about
each of these women.
This causes me to wonder if Larsson uses the sexual activity
to illustrate the relationship. When the
sexual activity turns ugly, the relationship is one-sided and non-existent –
the man selfishly seeking his own gratification to a demented and nauseating
end.
Oddly enough, though sexual activity is a central core to
the story here, Larsson never writes of it with any intent to titillate. He paints just enough of a picture for the
reader to understand, but never goes so far with any graphic depictions to make
a soul close the book in disgust. There
are a number of authors today who refrain from this disciplined approach,
opting instead to depict every motion and explicitly reveal every private act.
Larsson’s intent, I believe, is revealed in a conversation
Blomkvist has with Salandar.
Blomkvist is trying to break Salander out of her shell,
asking her questions about herself, working to get her to trust him more. In doing so, he talks to her about what he
believes a friend is. A friend, to
Blomkvist, is someone whom you trust and respect. She answers his challenge, proving she
considers him a friend by answering his questions more fully. Later, she challenges him with the same,
seeing if he ‘trusts and respects’ her – which is where the conclusion of the
Wennerstrom Affair comes into play.
Through Wennerstrom, both finally see they can trust and respect the
other.
Then something interesting happens. Without revealing how the story ends to those
who may have yet to read it, I address this ending only as a curious caveat to
the approach Larsson uses in sexual matters to illustrate proper relationships.
I carry no idea on what kind of man Stieg Larsson was; I
know nothing about what the man may have believed or not believed. Being that I have never heard anything ill
spoken of him, I would presume he was an honorable man of intelligence and
virtue, desiring to live as a benefit to society in whatsoever ways his
abilities and talents could perform.
Thus, I must wonder, if my Christian beliefs of sexual activity outside
of marriage being wrong, is implicitly stated by him through the manner this
book.
There is a bonding that occurs between two people who engage
in that intimate physical level of relating to one another. It is not anything one can blithely take for
granted. ‘The two shall become one’. I firmly believe that, and I wonder if that
is something Larsson himself believed.
With the manner in which he concludes this story, it may stand as a
testament to that truth.
0 comments:
Post a Comment