Thoughts

When I started reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I like Salander the best, her personality, the way she carried herself, the way she didn’t care about being misunderstood and the fact that she knew exactly who she was. Now that I’m about half way through the book, I am feeling more connected with Erika and Cecilia. I like Erika and Blomkvist’s relationship, the openness and understanding of it. Now, in my life, I think I would like to have a relationship similar to this - have my husband and lover, however I am also aware of the fact that this type of relationship is not well accepted here in the U.S. and my opinion will most likely change as I grow older. I also know it’s easier to be the one with the lover rather than the partner who must be excepting of their partners behaviors.

I enjoy Salander’s traits, with Erika’s way of living, with Cecilia’s frame of mind. Why is one person loving you not enough. I can understand if your partner is not around, you might possibly start looking to fill that void, but to leave your husband occasionally to be with your lover sounds selfish. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of it as I said before, I don’t believe anyone should have to sacrifice their love for another person. I don’t think it should be wrong to enjoy life with as many people as you possibly can as long as it’s well communicated. Still I can’t help but wonder why as humans, does it feel like one person loving us is not enough. I guess it’s human nature to always want more or want whatever it is you can’t have. This is the best way I can explain it for now. I don’t think this is what Larsson intend me to go on about in depth so…let’s get back to the book!

Chapter 14

Summary

Vanger owns part of Millennium now and Blomkvist is writing his bio while searching for Harriet's killer. The book explains that if Vanger and Blomkvist were to become enemies, Vanger owns such a large portion of Millennium that he could easily destroy it!

Lawyer, Frode hires Salander to investigate Blomkvist which is the start of them becoming close.

Wennerstrom started his career with the Vanger Corporation. We don't know why Vanger doesn't like Wennerstrom yet, but we can assume something bad happened between them. Salander takes it upon herself to investigate this as well.

Blomkvist ends up only spending 2 months in jail and Vanger says he will explain why he dislikes Wennerstrom at the end of the year.

Chapter 11

Prepare yourself for the chapter it's very graphic!

In this chapter Nils says, "this is better than a whore. She gets paid with her own money." or does he say this in his head, either way it sent me over the roof! This quote will stick with me for awhile.

It's frustrating to me that Lizbeth needs guardianship even though she is over 18 years of age. The book also states that 4,000 people in Sweden are under guardianship. I wonder how many are woman.

I forgot who Harald Vanger was when I was reading about him in this chapter, so in case you did too he’s the father of Birger and Cecilia.

Chapter 10

I LOVE CATS! I think it's so cute how the cat spends time at everyones house. I currently live with a cat, Jasper, who sleeps on everyones bed. He usually sleeps with his owner but from time to time he will comfort Gwen and I by sleep on our beds, what we call as him giving us our present.

Some things I noticed is that Nils is getting really weird, and book goes into great detail about the hardware of Lizbeth's laptop. This was a little too much for me seeing as I don't think it added anything to the book by describing all the in's and outs of her macbook. I did however just purchase a macbook but still, it's an overkill.

Chapter 9

Near the end of chapter 9, Vanger explains why HIS brother hates him so much. We find out it's because he married a Jewish woman BUT isn't that woman his brothers daughter?! Is his brother Herald or are they talking about Lowbeck?

I found it interesting how Harriet's grandfather, father and then herself all had shady deaths. So far I don't see a connection because the deaths. It's also peculiar how no one in the family has divorced or remarried after becoming widowed. Martin has never marriend. Will these be main points in Harriet's disappearance?

Abuse Rate of Women in Sweden!

"Eighteen percent of women in Sweden have at one time been threatened by a man."

"Forty-six percent of the women in Sweden have been subjected to violence by a man."

"Thirteen percent of the women in Sweden have been subjected to aggravated sexual assault outside of a sexual relationship."

"Ninety-two percent of women in Sweden who have been subjected to sexual assault have not reported the most recent violent incident to the police."

Larsson does a great job in getting the reader’s attention with these stunning percentages. I'm curious in knowing if these percentages are accurate, between what years they were taken, and how the U.S. comes out in comparison. As human beings and especially as a woman myself, I take this to heart. I think we need to do more to make women feel like if they report an incident it will be taken seriously. I remember hearing on the news a while back that L.A. County had a backlog of about 5,000 rape kits that had never been sent out for testing because of budget cuts. To suffer through an assault, report it and have your body poked at all over again, just to find out that it was put away in a box never to be tested is unacceptable! Abuse and assault of any kind should not be tolerated and until we take it seriously we will all suffer the consequences.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (intro cont.)

Who is who?! There are way too many characters and the fact that Larsson uses first names and last names interchangeable doesn’t help. I think for me, because the names are Swedish, I’m having trouble keeping track. I have included a character list below along with the major themes for this book. I hope this helps! You can read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_the_Dragon_Tattoo

CHARACTERS

·         Mikael Blomkvist, journalist, publisher of Millennium magazine, and amateur sleuth. Early in his career, he was compared to Astrid Lindgren's fictional boy detective Kalle Blomkvist (in the English translation, Bill Bergson), and the nickname stuck.

·         Lisbeth Salander, antisocial but extremely intelligent hacker and researcher, specialising in investigating people. She has a photographic memory, and is believed by Blomkvist to have Asperger syndrome. She has been compared to Pippi Longstocking,^[4] and a colleague has stated that Larsson conceived Salander partly as a "grown up Pippi Longstocking".^[5]

·         Henrik Vanger, retired industrialist and former CEO of Vanger Corporation.

·         Hans-Erik Wennerström, corrupt Swedish industrialist and Blomkvist's nemesis.

·         Gottfried Vanger, father of Harriet and Martin. An abusive alcoholic with neo-Nazi sympathies.

·         Harriet Vanger, Henrik's great-niece (usually referred to as his niece) who vanished 40 years ago.

·         Martin Vanger, brother of Harriet and President of the Vanger Corporation.

·         Holger Palmgren, lawyer, and earlier guardian of Lisbeth Salander.

·         Nils Bjurman, corrupt lawyer and guardian of Lisbeth Salander after taking over from Palmgren.

·         Cecilia Vanger, daughter of Harald Vanger, and one of Henrik's nieces.

·         Erika Berger, editor of Millennium, friend and occasional lover of Blomkvist.

·         Dirch Frode, lawyer for Vanger Corporation, and main friend and assistant to Henrik Vanger.

·         Dragan Armansky, director of Milton Security, Salander's boss and quasi-father figure.

·         Christer Malm, Art director and designer of Millennium. Also part owner of the magazine together with Berger and Blomkvist.

·         Gustaf Morell, Retired Detective superintendent (inspector while investigating Harriet’s disappearance).

·         Isabella Vanger, Harriet and Martin Vanger's mother and wife of the late Gottfried Vanger.

MAJOR THEMS
“Larsson makes several literary references to the genre's classic forerunners, and comments on contemporary Swedish society. Reviewer Dessaix writes that "His favorite targets are violence against women, the incompetence and cowardice of investigative journalists, the moral bankruptcy of big capital and the virulent strain of Nazism still festering away ..." in Swedish society.
Larsson further enters the debate as to how responsible criminals are for their crimes and how much is blamed on upbringing or society.  Salander has a strong will and assumes that everyone else does, too. She is portrayed as having suffered every kind of abuse in her young life, including sexual assault and time in a psychiatric clinic. Since she holds others responsible for their actions, she takes revenge on those who abuse others.”

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Book 1: Millennium) by Stieg Larsson

The Swedish title for this book is Men Who Hate Women. I found some interesting facts regarding the author before I set out to read his Millennium trilogy. Below I have cut and pasted a few fun facts, you can read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Karl Stig-Erland Larsson (15 August 1954 – 9 November 2004), who wrote professionally as Stieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå. He was the second best-selling author in the world in 2008, behind Khaled Hosseini.”

NAME CHANGE
“Larsson's first name originally was Stig which is the standard spelling. In his early twenties, he changed it to avoid confusion with his friend Stig Larsson, who would go on to become a well-known author well before Stieg did. At the time, they were amateur photographers and it was in this capacity that they wished to prevent any misunderstanding; neither had yet published a book. Stieg Larsson, in later years, would tell the story that the two men had tossed a coin to decide who was to change his name, but this is disputed by Stig Larsson. The pronunciation is the same regardless of spelling.”

THE NOVELS
“At his death, Larsson left behind manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death. Larsson left about three quarters of a fourth novel on a notebook computer, now possessed by his partner, Eva Gabrielsson; synopses or manuscripts of the fifth and sixth in the series, which he intended to contain an eventual total of ten books, may also exist.”

DEATH AND AFTERMATH
“Larsson died in Stockholm at the age of 50 of a heart attack. There were rumors that his death was in some way induced, because of death threats received as editor of Expo, but these have been denied by Eva Gedin, his Swedish publisher.”

INFLUENCES
“When Larsson was 15 years old he witnessed the gang rape of a girl, which led to his lifelong abhorrence of violence and abuse against women. The author never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, whose name was Lisbeth - like the young heroine of his books, who is also a rape victim. This inspired the themes of sexual violence against women in his books.” Goodreads (additional reviews)