But for all the intrigue of the above, it is that "girl" –- 24-year-old Lisbeth Salander –- who is the most interesting of Larsson’s universe of characters. A pale, thin young woman with many tattoos and a pierced nose and eyebrows, Salander fits into Milton Security’s conservative image "about as well as a buffalo at a boat show." Eminently difficult and socially distant, she turns out to be Armansky’s best investigator –- and he takes her under his wing and tries, unsuccessfully, to become her friend.
In time we learn that Salander has spent 12 years under the guardianship of the state, including two years institutionalized in a psychiatric children’s clinic. During what Larsson understatedly refers to as not "an easy journey," Salander runs through several foster families, gets arrested repeatedly, and always refuses to participate in psychiatric evaluations, not seeming to care what anyone thinks of her. Only eventually does "a reluctant sense of respect" develop between Salander and her kindly guardian, Holger Palmgren.
But when Palmgren dies, he is replaced by Nils Bjurman, a man who turns out to be even more dangerous than the wary Salander expects. He assaults her twice -– and Salander feels she has no one she can turn to, especially not the state that supposedly cares for her. Instead, she takes revenge, aided by a taser.
Those harrowing scenes are reinforced by the factoids Larsson inserts at the beginning of each part of his book –- "Eighteen percent of the women in Sweden have at one time been threatened by a man," or "Forty-six percent of the women in Sweden have been subjected to violence by a man" –- and by the shocking truth that Salander and Blomkvist discover as they together unravel Harriet’s disappearance. Larsson's message –- on behalf of abused and disappeared women across Sweden –- is unmistakable.
But the over-the-top plot leaves much to be desired, especially as the book drags on, long after the mystery has been solved. For more than 100 pages after Harriet Vanger’s fate is resolved, Larsson continues on with the journalism thriller storyline (as Blomkvist takes aim again at Wennerstrom), an awkward romance, and even wacky disguises. It turns out the world Larsson has created for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is just too big, and there is too much to wrap up –- with declining payoff –- as his novel wanders to its finish.
Article comments