Dragon Tattoo Girl #2

Finally! I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo! I'm so glad to have finished it! I wish I had been able to finish it before 2010 finished, but it just didn't happen. I woke up this morning a woman on a mission, though, and I got it done. I have to say that I had to force myself to read this one. The main plot is definitely an intriguing one, but as a reader, I had to weed through a lot of other "crap" to get to the parts that were worth reading.

The frame for the story is focused on financial and political stuff that I don't understand in the slightest. It made NO sense to me. I didn't care about that part of the story. And honestly, even after reading the whole book, I still don't understand why Steig Larsson felt the need to even have the frame for the book. In guessing, I can only assume that he had to have a way to get his main character involved in the real investigation for the real story, but I thought the whole attempt was lame.

Two other details about this book make it not an enjoyable read by any stretch of the imagination.

1. The many backstories--every person in this book has a back story and
2. There are more people in this story than any one person can keep track of!

The worst part is that not all of the people mentioned are even needed or important to the story. They don't help advance the plot. They aren't part of the resolution. The don't have anything to do with the story except for the fact that they're members of the Vanger family, which is vast! UGH! It's not just the Vanger family members whose backstories have to be told, either. We have to learn the back story of every stinking character in the whole book!!! All except one who obviously is going to be used and abused in a future book....!!!! At first I felt as if I needed a white board where I could keep track of all the characters and how they were related, but I realied fairly quickly that most of them had nothing to do with the story as a whole, so I just paid careful attention to the names that kept popping up, especially names with actual people attached. There were quite a few people who are only in the story by name; they're never actually physically IN the action of the story.

The girl in the story who has the dragon tattoo, Lisbeth Salander, is definitely a character in a story worthy of having not just one story written about, but several. Lisbeth really and truly is not just fascinating, she's intriguing, smart, and so much deeper than meets the eye. I loved reading about her and I especially love the fact that she's shown to be someone who is a loner and perceived by many as "stupid" and even classified as "retarded," but she is neither to the nth degree! She's definitely a fun character and I see why Larsson uses her for his title, even though in all actuality, she is not the central figure in the story nor is she a central figure in the main plot of the story. She's there and she'd important; don't misunderstand me. It's simply that the real story is not about her and it doesn't even center around her.

I don't want to give the story away for those of you who plan to read the book which is why I'm being so cryptic. I know if you haven't read the book, you probably don't understand a word I'm saying. But if you've read or do read the book, you'll understand exactly what I mean.

Ironically, it reminds me very much of one of my favorite books by Sir Walter Scott, IVANHOE. The title of the book gives the impression that the main character of the story is going to be Ivanhoe (Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, to be exact), but Ivanhoe is featured in the beginning of the book and again at the end only. For the majority of the story, he's recovering from wounds he received during the joust at the beginning of the book! The rest of the story has Ivanhoe always on the peripherial, but never actually a major player in the story. But yet, it's HIS story, just as in this book THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Lisbeth is always on the peripherial, she's not a major player in the story, yet it's HER story....

Do I recommend the book? Absolutely.