The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; The Girl who played with Fire; The
Girl who kicked the Hornets' Nest
 Recent crime fiction sales figures released by The Bookseller (May 29th
2010) show that Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy occupies the first four
places in the crime fiction charts (with places 3 and 4 shared between the
novel and the tie-in film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Part
thriller, part mystery, and part serial-killer saga, the trilogy offers an
informed, unnerving and at times harrowing view of the worlds of Swedish journalism
and business. Although the novels have received a mixed critical reception, the
sales figures point to an astonishing commercial success.
In ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', journalist Mikael Blomkvist
(recently disgraced in a libel conviction) is hired to investigate the
disappearance of a young girl, Harriet Vanger, from one of Sweden's foremost
industrialist families. With the assistance of Lisbeth Salander, a secretive
and anti-social computer-hacker, Blomkvist solves the mystery that has haunted
Harriet's uncle for decades. Book two sees radical magazine Millennium, with
Blomkvist back at the helm, on the verge of running a story exposing an
extensive sex trafficking operation. When the two young reporters responsible
for the story are murdered, all the evidence points to Lisbeth Salander.
Convinced of her innocence, Blomkvist investigates the murders. Meanwhile,
Salander finds that facing present and future perils means that she must also
confront her past. The third book in the series finds Salander in a critical
condition in intensive care. If she recovers, she will stand trial for three
murders. Only Blomkvist can help Salander to prove her innocence as well as
identify and denounce those in authority - individuals as well as institutions -
who are responsible for the shocking cycle of violence and abuse that has for
so long dictated the course of her life.
A tattooed and pierced young woman of four foot eleven, weighing forty
pounds, with a spiky temper and prodigious computer-hacking skills,
super-gifted bisexual Goth Lisbeth Salander is an unusual, yet entirely
compelling choice of main protagonist. Larsson has cited Astrid Lindgren's
feisty heroine Pippi Longstocking as inspiration for Lisbeth Salander; a link
which is made explicit with reference to Mikael's nickname (from Lindgren) of
‘Kalle' Blomkvist. Salander has been described variously as "the thinking man's
Lara Croft" "the heroine of a video game" and a "cartoon supergirl". Yet there
is one crucial fact which should not be overlooked. As emerges through the
course of the trilogy, Lisbeth Salander has suffered - and, at times, continues
to suffer - horrendous abuse. Even worse, this occurs at the hands of those in
authority who should be looking after her. However, Salander is never depicted
as a victim. She's a survivor, and if the ways she escapes or deals with her
abusers at times push the limits of credibility, they are only as incredible as
the terrible things that have happened to her.
Crusading investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist is in many ways
Salander's foil. A driven individual, he is determined to deliver stories which
expose the corruption at the core of Swedish institutions. Blomkvist appears
refreshingly normal, yet somehow, miraculously, avoids being dull. Successful
detectives (in fiction at least) often have unsavoury flaws. Blomkvist, in
contrast, seems comfortable in his skin. He eats and drinks in
moderation, doesn't gamble, and has a great deal of success with women. His
first marriage may have failed, and he may have been an absent father to his
now teenage daughter, nevertheless Blomkvist remains infinitely likeable. The
bond he has with Salander is both incongruous and credible, and as their
relationship changes it sustains and drives forward all three novels.
 Alongside these two protagonists, the trilogy offers a varied cast of
supporting characters. Many of those in power are revealed to be grotesque
abusers of women, and so it's a relief to meet figures such as Palmgren, the
aged guardian who treats Salander with humanity. At the same time the antics of
Salander's fellow computer-hackers (the closest she has to friends) open a
window onto a cyber-world that is in turn fascinating and terrifying.
Larsson's prose style has come under fire for being dull and pedantic.
In particular, critics highlight the countless cups of coffee, the painstaking
descriptions of what characters eat and drink, the clothes they select for a
particular occasion, and the electronic gadgets they use. However, these descriptions
are as riveting as they are detailed, fostering a cult of
Larsson-devotees who follow a Millennium Map, consuming coffee, beer and
pickled herring en route. The detail is there for a reason, however. For what
Larsson gives us, above all, is character through action. Through the minutiae
of what characters do and say, we are invited to experience their everyday
lives (which also accounts for the meticulous attention paid to time in the
chapter headings). Moreover, the mundanity of these descriptions creates a
grotesque discrepancy between the civilized, everyday Swedish life that appears
to trundle smoothly along and the horrific (often sexual) violence that lies
just beneath the surface.
The Millennium trilogy looks set to become (yet) another successful
film franchise. First and foremost, however, these books are an incredibly good
and 'unputdownable' read, and there will be few people indeed who read the
first novel and don't look to devour the second and third. In terms of
detective fiction, the UK
seems to be enjoying something of a love-affair with Sweden: a number of other Swedish
crime writers (notably Henning Mankell) are currently riding high in the UK
crime fiction charts. Larsson, however, has made a very special contribution to
this phenomenon.
Larsson's Sweden
is a calm, civilized, even slightly dull society with a very dark underbelly.
But the power exercised by this contradiction is spellbinding, and we can't
turn the pages quickly enough to delve deeper into it.
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