EVERYONE, has been raving about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I ordered a copy from amazon a while back, and I started to read it a couple of times and I toted it up to Boston and just wasn't loving it. It starts out with a great hook about a mysterious disapearance and then the receipt of a framed flower each year from the person involved in the mysterious disappearance.
So, that is such a great mystery hook. Unfortunately, it then jumps into this whole doldrum of business journalism. I couldn't figure out where it was going, and then the story loops back around to the hook at the beginning. At this point the story became so interesting that it was reminiscent to me of The Davinci Code when I was in graduate school and I completely dropped out of life for a couple of days to finish reading it.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ran the same way once I got past the business journalism slump. I thought the business journalism bit would come back around and be more tied to the story, but no. I guess it was necessary for the story line, which I will now explain:
Disgraced business journalist Mikael Blomkvist reluctantly accepts a job with a relatively retired media mogul (Vanger) to live at his family compound, solve the mystery of who killed his beloved niece, and write a history of his family. Mikael finds some interesting information, and asks Elizabeth Salander to work with him to find the missing pieces.
The mystery is unraveled, but not before the Vanger saga becomes much worse that anyone expected and lives are threatened in the strangest ways. The original title of the book in Swedish was Man Som Hattar Kvinnor or Men Who Hate Women. When you read the book, you will immediately understand this first title. There are many things in this book that are hard to read in terms of sexual assault and cruelty.
Overall, I encourage reading the book. There is a triumphant ending, many exciting plot twists, and a good bit of action. I caution you about the disturbing sexual nature of the book. It is not the best book I have ever read, but it is by far one of the most intriguing. I was sad to see it end, as it was just fascinating.
I will also warn you of this one more time: It takes a good while to get interesting. The whole business journalism description is endlessly dull. If you stay in it, however, it snowballs into a really interesting read. If I play my cards right, I may make it the theatre to see it on film!!
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