The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
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Book Reviews of The Girl Who Played with Fire
Book Review: The dynamic return of Solander and Calle Bloody Blomquist
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the extraodinary second novel in the Millenium series by Larsson. To really understand what is going on and why you need to read the Girl who Played with Fire. This second novel is just as explosive as the first, and I am really hanging out for the final book in the series. While this book is not without one minor flaw (in my opiion) in the plot, it is so well written and with such a powerful theme that it flows easily to a stunning conclusion.
Mikhail Blomquist, journalist and publisher has hired an independent writer who has an explosive story he is going to sell to the magazine, but suddenly he and his girlfriend are found shot to death in their apartment. There is a gun on the stairs with fingerprints on it. These belong to Lisbeth Solander - one time lover and partner of Blomquist, and a singular child like woman. She had been committed to children's homes in the past for her anti-social behaviour and violence, and had been committed by the court to be permanantly monitered. When the gun is found to belong to her appointed guardian and he is found dead - shot as well in his apartment. All evidence points to Solander.
However Solander has gone to ground, as only she can. She is the master of computers, hacking, and of disguise. She has other identities to live under, and has been. She is also able to hack into various computers to find out what the investigation against her is up to and what leads they have.
Blomquist has been unable to contact Solander for 2 years, and he doesn't understand why. She suddenly cut off contact, however knowing her from the past he knows that she is not capable of the crimes, the one thing that Solander really hates is Men who hate women. She wouldn't shoot the journalist who was writing to expose that crime.
Independently Blomquist sets off to investigate the crimes, to find Solander and to help her.
It turns out that Solander has made a number of friends in the past as well as some enemies and it seems everyone is determined to find her. One of the most hilarious scenes in this is when the two members of the motorcycle gang do find her, alone, in an isolated cabin.
The only minor flaws I found in the book is the fact that in the past Solander has been touted as the person who can find out all kinds of information on the internet, including a lot of other stuff that isn't there. Yet she never found the link between her guardian and the people in this book? Also, she vows revenge on the men who were responsible for her incarceration, or at least says she will kill them - so why didn't she? Why didn't she wreck their lives like she could easily do? Like I said, these were minor flaws which didn't really affect the reading of the novel. I am interested if there are any comments from others on this.
I still give this book a 5 because it is such a fabulous read and so well written. I am definitely going to be buying the last book in the trilogy as soon as it comes out.
Book Review: A Psychotherapist Point of View on Steig Larsson
Summary: 5 Stars
Psychology uses the words symptoms, defenses or resistance to describe the kooky things we all do. Too often what gets overlooked is how kooky things make sense. So a woman who has the caretaker role in a family becomes depressed and distant because she is drowning in other people's needs and has lost track of herself. A man flirts with someone at work because he is in a nonsexual marriage (10 times or less a year is considered nonsexual). A salesman begins to have panic attacks because a new manager has assigned unrealistic quotas. A pre-teen is struck by stammering every time the boy she secretly likes is nearby. Someone begins to drink too much because they feel invisible in their marriage.
There is a trilogy of Swedish crime novels by Steig Larsson that really captures this theme in the central character of Lisbeth Salander. His international bestseller The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo gives hints that Salander is untrusting, hypervigilant and a hermit because of childhood trauma. It is easy for others to misjudge her as simply weird, her psychiatric records label her as mentally challenged while we know without a shadow of a doubt that she is brilliant with a fierce moral courage. His second book The Girl Who Played With Fire (not available in the U.S. until July 28) adds many more layers to her character by revealing her past trauma which has defined her strengths. So often we are quick to judge and think we know who people are.
In my office there is the opportunity for people to be fearlessly honest about their pain and take ownership of their strengths, to acknowledge mistakes and what was learned and to face choices with greater self-awareness. Where else in the culture at large is there a place to explore terrible things? Everything Salander does makes sense. When a beautiful young girl becomes obese it makes sense whether we understand it or not. When an adolescent is ANGRY, ANGRY, ANGRY it makes sense. When a cancer patient wants to flaunt their baldness to remind all those non-sick people it could happen to you it makes sense. When a kid at school becomes a bully something bad is happening to them and they want to make somebody else feel as bad as they do. We all make sense even when we're kooky. We don't learn how to make pain and disappointment bearable in school, so we reach our own survival conclusions. Whether you nibble on your fingers or toes have enough respect to consider it may be a way to comfort yourself. You can't change until you honor how kooky things work in your favor.
Read about Salander in Steig Larsson's thrilling novels. Larsson was a heavy smoker who died at 50 of a heart attack just after he completed the three novels. He has created a remarkable character who will stay in your memory for years to come. In understanding Salander the extreme introvert it is possible to gain greater understanding of yourself. What more can we ask of a novel?
Book Review: Salander Returns, Better & More Lethal Than Ever!
Summary: 5 Stars
I read Larsson's second book in one day as well. It is summer time and it is a fabulous book to have poolside.
Larsson goes even further with his heroine Salander this time and uncovers more in Swedish sex crimes. Although the victims often end up murdered too, it is the depravity of the sex crimes in modern Sweden which is truly awful and thus the linchpin of Larsson's interest.
Salander is once again the girl in the title. It is she who literally put someone on fire. But it is also a metaphor because Salander cannot walk away from anyone who is being victimized and most especially women who are being victimized. She risks everything every time she takes up the gauntlet but she can't even begin to stop herself from doing so. In this book we find out why this is so.
Blomkvist returns too and it is his magazine MILLENIUM which sets the story in motion. He has a young male journalist working for him who is just about to publish a searing article and book with MILLENIUM on the sex trade in Sweden. His girlfriend is a criminologist from the university who has provided him with all of the technical expertise. Just before he can finish both works, he and his girlfriend are gunned down. It turns out that Salander's guardian is executed the same night. Worst of all, the same gun is used on all three victims and Salander's prints are on the gun.
One would think therefore that this book is all about clearing Salander and finding the real murderer. Well, the book does go about doing that. However, it is so well layered and developed that we find out so much more. The best part of all is that we find out about the entire childhood of Salander which led her to becoming who she is today. This also fits perfectly with the case she must solve.
There is an interesting thing that Larsson does in this book and the prior one. Blomkvist at 45 has led a sexually open existence. He does not abuse anyone nor is he part of the sex trade. However, he and his female partners are so casual, open and tolerant in their affairs that it is fairly eye popping to Americans. For one, he continues to have an on and off again affair for over twenty years with his editor in chief even though she is happily and long term married. Her husband knows of the affair and is ok with it. What I find so fascinating about this is that I would not expect to find this level of sexual depravity and sexual crime in a culture which is otherwise so open and tolerant about sexuality.
In some ways I am sad there are only three books and the next will be my last. If all three are this good though, maybe it is best to go out on the highest note possible.
Book Review: Excellent, even better than the first
Summary: 5 Stars
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
After reading last year's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I could not wait for Larsson's second in the millenium trilogy. I think I liked this one even better. We again meet with journalist Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander, one of the greatest new characters in fiction. She has a photographic memory, serious computer skills, and her own version of morality.
It is a year later and we start with Lisbeth travelling around the world and Blomkvist meeting with a journalist to publish a series of explosive articles and a book on the sex trade in Sweden, one that will expose many high profile people involved. When Lisbeth returns to Sweden, though she isn't speaking to Blomkvist, as she is upset at the end of an affair they had, she keeps track of what he's up to by hacking into his computer. She reads the research that has been done on the sex trade and recognizes a name. She contacts the journalist and his girlfriend, who's graduate thesis started the investigations, and then they turn up murdered. Lisbeth's prints are on the murder weapon, she is the prime suspect and her life is played out on the front pages of every newspaper.
In The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the story was mostly Blomkvist's, though we met and got to know a bit about Lisbeth Salander. But The Girl Who Played With Fire is most definitely Salander's story. Things we learn about Lisbeth in the first book, her psychiatric history, mysterious past, her expert computer hacking skills, and her barely existent social skills, are front and center in this sequel. Salander's slimy legal guadian from the first novel is back and wants revenge against her. Salander frequently refers to a period in her past as "All the Evil " which is not explained until near the end. Many questions raised in the first book about Salander are answered in this one. Blomkvist is determined to help Salander and she is determined to do things on her own.
Larsson crafts a great plot, though I felt the middle slowed a bit, when it is focused on the investigation by the police and Salander is absent from the story during this period. But then it picks up fast, as we follow the seperate investigations, one by the police, another by Blomkvist and other allies of Salanders, and the one by Lisbeth herself. The intricate story keeps the reader intrigued until the very end when they all merge together. This book was well worth what seemed to be an incredibly long wait, and now I am again waiting, this time for The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I highly recommend this book but you need to have read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo to fully appreciate this sequel. Enjoy!
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Book Review: Impossibly better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!
Summary: 5 Stars
First things first. If you haven't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, don't even think about buying this book. Don't even read the reviews. One small bit of information will ruin the entire plot for you. If have read the first novel, then prepare yourself because The Girl Who Played with Fire will blow you away.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo focused on the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, but this novel focuses on Lisbeth Salander. Who she is. Where she came from, and more importantly why she was declared incompetent and placed in a mental institution.
The novel picks up a year after the Vanger events. Lisbeth decided to travel around the world for a while. Mikael Blomkvist tries to contact her, but it's like Lisbeth has fallen off the face of the earth. So it seems!
Meanwhile, Mikael is back at Millennium when a scoop that involves corruption at the highest levels of government is offered to him. However, before Mikael can publish a book exposing a sex scandal that involves, police officers, judges, lawyers, and goverment officials, two shocking murders take place. The main suspect is Lisbeth Salander. The Girl with Dragon Tattoo becomes the most wanted woman in Sweden. Her fingerprints were found on the weapon, and everyone believes she is guilty of murder, except for Mikael.
I read The Girl who Played with Fire with bated breath. I expected to be slightly disappointed because I didn't think it was possible for a sequel to top The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was wrong! I actually think this novel is slightly better than the previous novel. In the first book, I had a strong suspicion about what happened to Harriet Vanger. In this novel, I didn't have the slightest clue how or why Lisbeth Salander was mixed up the double murders.
As in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there are many characters in this book. This is usually a strike against a book. Too many characters usually takes away from the main storyline, but Stieg Larsson made it work his first novel and did it again in The Girl who Played with Fire. Prepare to meet many police officers, detectives, journalists, and criminals.
The author's untimely death is so tragic. He was a gifted writer and would have become one of my favorite authors of all time. If you haven't already, you must read both books written by this author. I understand that there is a third book called The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Unfortunately, it has not been translated into English yet. I plan to purchase it the day it is released. Amazing author and amazing books!