The first book I read in 2011 is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson.
Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist who has been convicted of libel against a very powerful investor. After the trial, he is given an unusual freelance assignment by Henrik Vanger, a billionaire former CEO. Vanger wants him to ghostwrite his autobiography and investigate the murder of his niece-which happened more than 40 years prior.
If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be cumbersome. Having pretty much no experience with Swedish culture, I got very caught up in the names of people and places. It's odd to me how they referred to everyone, including women, by their last names. This includes calling everyone in the Vanger family by "Vanger." Confusing much? The author also spent way too much time describing characters who are utterly unimportant to the story. I found myself distracted by the life stories of random police officers, etc who only appeared once in the story.
The theory presented to me by my brilliant friend Tasha is that this book seems like it was never edited. This is probably because this book was published in 2009, five years after the author's death. Due to the fact that book editing is a give-and-take process, this novel (and presumably the second and third in the series) didn't seem to go through this stage. There is so much filler that looks more like notes & research for the author’s sake than anything else.
The main themes of this book were violence, sex, murder, sex, gender issues, and sex. The main character, Mikael, is sleeping with his business partner Erika, who is married and all parties involved seem to be fine with the arrangement. Lisbeth's guardian (she is a ward of the state as she's been deemed mentally incompetent to care for herself) is sexually abusing her. It took me a while to get used to the idea that in Swedish culture, these casual relationships make sense.
Despite all of my negative comments, I really did enjoy this book. At least enough to start the second one. I'm hoping they get more polished over time in order to keep my attention.
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