The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a compelling read just as long as the reader is willing to overlook clichés, predictable plot devices and a lot of talk about drinking coffee and shopping trips to IKEA. Steig Larssons’s international best seller (perhaps better described as the international phenomenon) is a lot of things: it is a crime story, missing persons case, murder mystery, revenge tale with more than a bit of financial intrigue and social commentary tossed in. It can even be described as a triumph over adversity.
After being convicted of libel against the mighty business magnate Hans-Erik Wennerström, investigative journalist and financial reporter Mikael Blomkist is asked to solve the mystery behind the 40 year old disappearance of Harriet Vanger, the beloved niece of the aging industrialist, Henrik Vanger. Henrik Vanger is convinced that a member of his family is responsible for his beloved niece’s disappearance. Blomkist enlists the aid of the tortured genius computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (aka the Girl) and together they embark on an almost 500 page journey to solve this crime. Oh yeah and along the way, there are a lot of extremely graphic depictions of sexual violence and brutality against women.
Whether these descriptions of violence are completely necessary to drive the plot is something that each reader will need to individually evaluate. The violence itself is not the central flaw in this book: it is the poorly developed characters with their clichéd motivations. In other words, we have all seen this before. Look at the central characters: Lisbeth Salander is repeatedly described as dangerous and insane but that really doesn’t matter because she is also brilliant. Furthermore as the victim of sexual violence and exploitation, it is perfectly logical and expected that Lisbeth Salander would become a sociopath. Mikael Blomkist, as an investigative journalist, is the crusading righteous voice speaking out against the evils of big business and corporate corruption. And don’t forget: very rich people are always very very bad who will always go to extreme lengths to hide their secrets.
Because we have all met these characters many times before, their actions become predictable and as a result, the story becomes tedious in certain areas. As long as the reader is not distracted by the shallow one-dimensional characters, there is just enough intrigue to keep the audience reading. Only the reader can decide whether the end is worth the effort getting there.
