Book me fail... The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

[byslantedlight]

I'm not doing very well with this one, I'm afraid - I'm not particularly enjoying it at all, which is odd, cos two people recced it, and someone else said it was on their to-read list! So what's gone wrong...

I think, for me, it's the writing style - I feel as if the story is being explained to me, rather than told in a way that makes me imagine it, makes me feel like I'm watching it, or a part of it, which is really why I read at all... For example:
Blomkvist regretted his decision before even he left for home, but by then it was too awkward to call and cancel. So on the morning of 26 December he was on the train heading north. He had a driver's licence but he had never felt the need to own a car.

or
Instead of giving Salander the boot, he summoned her for a meeting in which he tried to work out what made the difficult girl tick. His impression was confirmed that she suffered from some serious emotional problem, but he also discovered that behind her sullen facade there was an unusual intelligence. He found her prickly and irksome, but much to his surprise he began to like her.

It doesn't sound too bad in isolation like that, but page after page of it leaves me feeling kind of tired rather than interested to find out next... Why do I need to know the thing about the driving license? It just makes me stop and think you told me this because...? And I'd like to see the meeting with Salander, rather than be told about it, if you know what I mean...

Also, so far the characters are all absolutely perfect - Blomkvist has fallen for some trap, but he's a fine, upstanding man, has money, enough charisma to be on tv, is almost certainly good-looking. Salander is pretty but quirky, incredibly clever but rebellious, again charismatic "despite" being sullen and teenager-like. She's young, and turns up to work only when she wants to, is brilliant enough that she earns enough to do whatever she wants (including only working when she wants) and she also has time to visit sick mother in hospital and treat her with patience and tender care... Gaaargh! I'm waiting for the bad guy to be seen kicking a puppy, to be honest...

But there has to be a reason this book - trilogy in fact - is so well thought of. Does the plot turn out to be fabulous? Or...?

I might have to put this one down (I didn't say I had to finish every book on the list - and life's too short to be that bored... *g*) but I'd still like to know why other people like it so much?

Comments

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

I am so happy you don't like this :) It was one of my Book Club's reads a few months ago and I loathed it (I did finish it but under sufferance). Everyone else adored it and has read the whole series. There seemed to have been a point in the first book where it just suddenly grabbed them, even when they'd been a bit meh to begin with. I never got grabbed, although I was not in a good book-reading frame of mind at the time for some reason. Also I tend not to like thriller/whodunnits much. But unfortunately I didn't like Salander either, which is a bit key ... Overall, if I really think about it, I didn't enjoy Larsson's style. It was too much hard work, didn't give me enough emotional light and shade, and I agree with your thought that the story was being over-explained. It made me not care about the plot (which was a bit complex for a lightweight like me). But oh well. There's a film upcoming, I believe? Any idea who's going to be in it? Chuck the book on the epic fail pile and get on to the next one, love :) (the voice of a very flaky literature student here) *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, not just me then... I was sure I must be missing something, or... you know, something. *g* Hmmn - I wonder where they got grabbed, maybe I'm not far enough in yet... except that I did flick ahead to see if the style stayed the same, and it absolutely did, so...

I guess I don't mind Salander, I just... I don't believe in her. Although actually I'm not keen on Blomkvist if I think about him, but again - Larssen hasn't convinced me it's worth the trouble of properly believing in him either, mind. But he seems to be a womaniser in general, who is remarkably cold about the fact that he betrayed his wife, is separated from her and his daughter - and he's always let his daughter decide how much she sees him? I know that's supposed to be very understanding and caring and all, but... I don't get the impression that he's fussed about whether he wants to or not...

Yeah - emotional light and shade, that's good... so far at least it's all very... even... I'm not sure I care about the plot either...

But you're right - flakiness rules if it means I can put this down! Maybe some other day...

[erushi.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this is a cultural style thing? I read this other English-translated work by another Swedish writer, and the syntax/style was closely similar to what you've quoted above. And I know, for example, that reading English-translated works by Japanese (or even Chinese, though the Chinese aren't quite as bad) works are usually really heavy on dramatic imagery and setting, so much so that when compared to native English works, the story often seems bogged down. I wonder if we're all influenced in the way we right by the societies we grew up in. Hm!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

You know I wondered about that too - I adored Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow, but of course that was Danish, not Swedish... I didn't get on with Inkheart (German) though I adored the film and I thought it should have been wonderful. It might just be a cultural thing... To be sure I'd need to read another Swedish writer in translation, I guess!

Hmmn - I've read some Haruki Murakami, and wasn't desperately keen, although I don't remember it all that clearly... that was a style thing for me too though, quite sparse somehow, despite the dramatic imagery? I think - I might be misremembering! But I prefer that style to Larsson's, in this case, anyway...

I mean, we must be influenced by the societies we grow up in, reading-wise - nuances of thought and speech, and cultural references that can be gathered from a single word if you know - but need alot of explaining, if you don't... I wonder if that has anything to do with it too, simply the translation - you know, some languages having a single word for something that other languages need whole sentences to describe or explain...

Interesting, innit! *g*

[scherwood]

I love the three movies, but I don't like the books that much. It might have been part translation - part story - part characters. Salander is so much cooler in the movies. And Larsson have this weird way of writing, that I don't like, I'm much more into Jan Guillou. :)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh there are movies that are already out? For some reason I got the impression that there was one being produced now... oh, maybe it's a translation one too, and the others were actually Swedish?! I don't know Jan Guillou at all...oh, but I see his book covers... *g* Interesting!

Also - awww, cute icon... *g*

[scherwood]

well, in Sweden at least. :P
yeah - maybe they're translating into english/whatever. I dunno, sorry.
I like his way of writing very much. *hugs Guillou*

*g* thanks~

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

I rate the trilogy very highly. I read a lot of crime fiction, and often feel burned out. What I liked about Larsson was the wider view of a nation and its corruptions -- something that you see much more of in the later books. I liked Salander, so that made a difference for me.

There is, though, an issue with the translation of the first book in the trilogy. I *think* I'm right in saying that the translator wasn't happy with some of the changes made to his translation later on. I've read other stuff he's translated, and he's usually pretty reliable.

Swedish crime fiction, though, is never what you'd call sprightly and a laugh a minute *g*.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I know! And you know, I was really expecting to like it, I really liked the sound of what you said about it... I like the idea of a wider view of a nation and its corruptions - I guess I just don't take it in as well if it's explained to me, as I do if I'm shown it in sweeping colours and tears and sighs...

I didn't mind Salander, to be honest I don't have much expectation of her at the moment - I think she's going to fall exactly where I expect her to fall, rather than surprising me with unexpected humanity... Maybe she won't, maybe I'm totally wrong, but that's the impression Larsson's given me so far...

Interesting about the translator - I did wonder if that might have something to do with it, except that it seems to have had as much adulation in the translation as it presumably did in the original...

Swedish crime fiction, though, is never what you'd call sprightly and a laugh a minute
Heeee! See, that's totally not what I was expecting. I adore dark, melancholic fic, and slow atmospheric fic - stories where you can wade through the emotion... and that doesn't mean that the emotions have to be described in great swathes of words, or detail, but... I've got to be able to feel it... I'm just not feeling Larsson, even though I want to! Or... maybe what I'm feeling is so even, as Jojo said above, that it's just not moving me as I want a story to move me...

Come to think of it, I'm absolutely the same with fanfic - I don't care if a story is clever, or a plot idea is shiny new and twist-y - I want to be moved by it...

I'm quite curious to read something by another Swedish author though, just to see if it's a cultural view thing, or specific to Larsson... Interestingly enough, I can absolutely imagine this made into a Hollywood blockbuster, a la The Pelican Brief etc....

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

This probably sounds odd, but I didn't care about it moving me. It *grabbed* me instead. I adored the attention to detail with all the three parts of the series interlinking. It's slow, it needs editing with a pick-axe, but I didn't care *g*.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's interesting, the difference between moving and grabbing... So - how do you feel when you're grabbed? Like - your attention is grabbed, you're interested, you want to find out more? Or...?

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Yes *g*. I have to keep reading, I desperately want to know what happens next, and how it will all be resolved. Being moved is more of an emotional thing. Books often *do* move me, but not as often as they grab me *g*.

A crap book might move me, but it might not necessarily grab me!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, see I think I'm the other way around - a book somehow needs to "move" me, I think, in order to "grab me". I've got to have some reason to be interested, some... visceral place where a connection is made in order to find a common interest and thus a desire to keep reading... *g*

A crap book never moves me - and it rarely grabs me!

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

Actually, the being "grabbed" was what my book club folks nearly all said ... even if they weren't into it in other ways, or weren't moved or whatever. Strange isn't it that you can be grabbed by something that's also, as you say, slow. I can relate to that bigtime, although the earth just didn't move for me with this one :)

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

It's really interesting how varied reactions are to the book! The third one is painfully slow, but by then I was so desperate to know how Larsson was going to resolve it, that I forgave him a lot.

I think, as well, that I read too much formulaic or frankly downright ropey crime fic. So something a tad different tends to perk me up no end *g*.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

See, that's probably why I often avoid the genre at the moment - random fic is often formulaic... I had a phase of really enjoying Alaskan-set crime stories (before and just as I went to Alaska, of course... *g*) but I think before that it was probably Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and all, way back when... Those babes did it so well that the more stereotyped stuff is kind of a let down, there's got to be something else to it that grabs me...

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

I'm interested in writers doing something different with the genre. John Morgan Wilson, who has an alcoholic, HIV+ gay journalist as his hero, restored my faith in crime fic *g*. I'd done an MPhil on gay and lesbian crime fic, and boy, did I read some dross!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Wow - sounds quite the combination! Worth taking a look then, you reckon?

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Yep! It's an awesome series. Last one is a touch weak, but the rest are outstanding.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hmmn, d'you have a link? I'm not getting anything when I search for that author at Amazon.co.uk...

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

That's odd -- he's showing up for me when I type his name in!

Two links for the first in the series (in print and on Marketplace) here and here .

Series in the correct order is:
Simple Justice (1996)
Revision of Justice (1997)
Justice at Risk (1999)
The Limits of Justice (2000)
Blind Eye (2003)
Moth and Flame (2005)
Rhapsody in Blood (2006)
Spider Season (2008)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh interesting... so there was something that made them want to read more, even if they weren't into it with any kind of connection... Hmmn, I'm trying to think of a book that grabbed me without moving me - and ooh, actually, The Naked Civil Servant is probably a good example - I was absolutely interested to find out what happened to Crisp, but his writing didn't move me at all...

Maybe I just don't have enough interest in crime books these days to be that interested in how-they-did-it, whereas how someone survived a particular period of their life does...

[phantomas.livejournal.com]

Haven't read the books yet...but on a completely OT note, I seem to have lost all the info/links for the Pros gathering...there was going to be one, right? Forgive me if I remember incorrectly, I don't retain info well these days!

[phantomas.livejournal.com]

Found it! Just ignore me ;)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Never! I shall never ignore you! *g* And it's nice to see you around!

You found the details? Weekend Fri 5th March - Sun 7th? A Thames Barge in Maldon, Essex? Oooh - can you come?! I know you've been frantic, so I figured that was why we hadn't heard from you, but it'd be lovely if you could make it - there's still room!