WERMS
25) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
the book was well angst-ridden, feminist, angry, and kept us posted on certain relevant issues and always trying to raise a cause.
of course, when Stieg Larsson witnessed a rape in the past and decided to be indifferent about it, you would expect him to lash out in the future using his pen to free himself of guilt. hence Lisbeth Salander as his brainchild, and i assume Stieg himself was Mickael Blomkvist in the book. i must say, it was a good campaign no matter how there’s no intention for the book to be published initially, which proved that literature has immense power in keeping us armed in putting up certain causes, and keeping us informed that terrible things do happen in some parts of the world, and that hopefully, we do something about it.
in this case, to wage a crusade against violence on women. so, instead of Lisbeth as the rape victim that the author knew, Lisbeth was made the heroine, the girl with the dragon tattoo. and she was helping to get the justice done with her impeccable job as a detective and hacker to hunt down the culprit.
but if anything, Lisbeth Salander was only a sidekick here. this novel should have been in my opinion aptly called The Man With The Most Prolific Pen (okay, me so lame there). because Mikael Blomkvist was built with such loving, magnetic, and smart character he should take the title and top bill. but i guess with the author being a feminist, you shouldn’t really complain about how things were in the book. but props to Lisbeth though. it took several pages for Stieg to build her character and made us all root for her. in the end, she made us all want to crack her shell all the more and see what’s lurking inside. she is actually that consuming, and remained a mystery after long.
the book gave us glimpses of how things in the world work too. how our society is ruled and manipulated by power brokers. corruption is dissected and criminal minds are introduced. how the money in the world is owned by only few people only, and that we could actually steal them and change the world. i also loved the Friends With Benefits style projected in the book with regards to the love story. how everyone had to live free, without any expectations from anyone. what a bunch of non-deprecating, strong characters.
in its entirety, this is a crime novel which prolly stands on the same ground and makes no difference on style and approach with its contemporaries. but this is more bad-ass and testosterone ridden.
i just can’t wait to grab my hands on the second book.
