The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I know, I know, I'm INCREDIBLY late to this party. But I just don't really like reading trendy books, so this was not on my list when everyone else was diving in. I only read it now because there was no waiting list to get it on my Kindle from the public library. It was too easy. Also, after I read The Red Breast, I was intrigued by the Scandinavian murder mystery genre (is that a real thing? Guess it is now.)

It seems to me that a huge amount has already been said about this book, and its two sequels, and its two movie versions.  I haven't even seen the movie and yet I pictured Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig as the main characters. But still, with all the hype, I wasn't exactly sure what the book was about when I started it. I had heard there's a lot of financial stuff to follow (there is) and a lot of violence (yep) and a really messed up girl (that too). So I was sort of surprised that the plot is in many ways straightforward: Mikael Blomvkist is an investigative financial reporter who experiences a professional humiliation, takes a year long job investigating a family murder mystery on a fictional island in north Sweden, meets up with the very disturbed but very smart PI/hacker Lisbeth Salander, and solves the mystery. Check.

So really, what's the big deal? Two words... Lisbeth Salander. I think she is the most interesting, multifaceted character I have ever read.  I'm struggling here to even put it into words. Bear with me: she is a genius who was labeled mentally deficient by the legal system at a young age, had a mysterious but obviously horrifying childhood, is confused by and refuses to adhere to societal norms, is mostly silent on the outside but very contemplative, and wouldn't hesitate to kill someone but is so endearingly innocent in some ways.  I think the psychology of Lisbeth makes the book. The wrongs that are done to her match the horrors of the outcome of the murder mystery--it sets the tone for the book. In fact, I read that the Swedish title for the book translates as "Men Who Hate Women." Lisbeth and the object of the murder mystery are like case studies--really the book is about why society lets men get away with hurting women. And there are real answers to that question.

Here's the thing about the violence, though--it was so much the focus of everything I've heard about this book and the movie, that even though it is truly awful, it didn't faze me. I don't know what more horrifying acts I could have been expecting. These are really terrible things that seemingly normal people are willing to do to another human being. It's unspeakable. Yet. We speak of it. We read about it, in fiction and in the news. And I didn't find it so bad that I wouldn't read the sequel or see the movie. I guess millions of other readers agree, so I don't know what I expected. I mean, my mom liked this book. But it's a harsh reality for me. I'm so accustomed to hearing about violence against adult women (children are a different soft spot for me) that I'm not disturbed by one of the most violent books of the decade.