Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I resisted reading this book when it was the rage. I am glad I did. It was unpublished at the time of Stieg Larsen's death and was translated by Steven Murray under the pen name Reg Keland. It won awards in Sweden and Great Britain, including Best First Novel. Originally titled “Men Who Hate Women,” in Swedish, I waded through 600 pages waiting for a shock that never came. Not a bad story mind you, but the “twists and turns” reviewers gushed about simply weren’t there. More importantly, the combination of translation from Swedish to English and a hesitation by the editor to take a knife to the first novel of a man who has passed-on, really hurt what would have been an okay story.

Larsen’s gift was his ability to create three-dimensional characters, particularly the book’s namesake, Lisbeth Salander, a pierced, inked waif with Asperger’s Syndrome. Their quirks came through the translation unblemished and were the best part of the story. The book needed to be pared-down from 600 pages to perhaps 400. The old writer’s axiom of “Get it written and then get it right,” kept coming to mind. I won’t be reading books 2 and 3 of the trilogy. I fear they have probably suffered the same production failures, which is a shame.

The work of Greg Iles kept coming to mind as I read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Iles takes his readers to the same dark side of human nature as Larsen-- with the benefit of an editor with a sharp pen. I give Girl with the Dragon Tattoo it 3 out of 5 stars-- not a bad book, but certainly not up to all the hype.


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