Book Review: The girl with the dragon tattoo.
Authored by:- Steig Larrson
This is one of those books that I will remember for a long time, and believe me, not for its story but for the characters. They are so intelligently created and aesthetically described that you will just love them. ‘Lisbeth Salander’ and ‘Michael Blomkvist’, the two protagonist of the book have now been added in my favorite character list, and that already includes Robert Langdon of Dan Brown, Forrest Gump of Winston Groom, Kader Bhai and Lin Ford of Gregory David Roberts, The great Veto Corleone of Mario Puzo, and the idealist Howard Roark of Ayn Rand.
The story is about Michael Blomkvist, a dedicated journalist of his own magazine Millenium, co founded with his colleague and part time lover Erica Berger(you will enjoy reading author’s thoughts of a part time lover). In his journey of journalism, he comes across a story about ‘Eric Wennerstrom’,a henchman, who runs his business so smartly that nobody can ever challenge his wrong ways of earning money. Blomkvist in the same attempt fails, and consequently also becomes the reason for his magazine’s downfall. There enter Henrik Vanger in the story, the legend in himself, and the biggest corporate man of his time. He promises Blomkvist to help him in surfacing Wennerstrom, if latter helps him in solving the murder mystery of his niece, happened some three decades ago.
But can Blomkvist solve that mystery, or will he need Lisbeth salander, an investigator who has her own secret skills in doing the investigation on any person? Will Vanger really help him in surfacing Blomkvist, or is it really a trick to allude such a dedicated and brainy journalist to give a last try to search killers of his niece????????
The book sets the pace form the very first page, and on reading it I knew that this is going to be interesting, and so it has. The characters are so vividly and aptly described, that you will just stick to it like an adhesive. The most unlikely thing about this thriller is the ending of the book, which could have been a bit different, and surprisingly I sometimes ponder about all thriller’s authors mind, that the answer to mystery in any of these novel lies only in one thing. I should not tell you more, or may be the avid readers can point out this. However, the book keeps its pace, and is one of the best thrillers I have ever read.
The author I think also studies human behavior, as the title suggests. The title has nothing to do much in the story, but is just created in a way to attract reader in his sticky web of writing. This is usually not seen in other books, or may be the ones who have tried had not done it in a better way. But this title as obvious attracted me to have a look at it, and I couldn’t stop myself grabbing this one from the book store.
The most amazing thing about this book is that it's originally written in Swedish and later translated, and even then uncommonly, this is as captivating and chilling as any of the chart busters.There are sequels to this book also, with the title ‘The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest’ and ‘The girl who played with fire ‘. I will take these ones also for the pacy and the artistic style of the author. It reminds me of Arthur Hailley, who writes a bit differently, but like him expert in weaving the characters in his books.
This can also become a wonderful gift for someone who loves reading.