I caused such a stir with my negative-leaning comments about "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" that I wanted to put it out there that I have just finished the book. And I leave the story nearly, but not quite, as underwhelmed as when I last posted about it. I appreciate that people like this book, and that some of you wanted to defend it, and inspire me to read on, but I am sorry, in my opinion, it is not a good book. Not at all. I gave it two starts on Good Reads, where it keeps company with most of the Twilight series and the recent Jonathan Franzen book.
The book just completely failed to capture my imagination, and the characters barely elicited connection. The mystery was just okay. Once the story finally shook off the many false starts and clunky side stories, it was somewhat engaging. But ultimately, when I began to realize what had happened, I also realized I just didn't care. And then I had to sit through more clunky bits in the denouement (which was WAY longer than it should have been.) I can't be the one to decide if my distaste should be blamed on poor writing, or poor translating (though I think it is probably a bit of both.)
So, Millenium trilogy likers/lovers... do you have anything to say to convince me to read books two and three? If not, anyone have any other suggestions of books you have recently enjoyed? I am heading to Chicago on Friday, and with two plane flights, and a five hour train ride in my future, I definitely need to restock the Kindle before we depart.
PS- I wondered a lot about the title... why pick Salander out as the titular focus? Then I was doing some reading online and learned that the original Swedish title translates to "Men who Hate Women." Apparently it was softened for the English translation. Fascinating, eh?
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Salander's story is the major plot of Millennium II and III too I'm sure, although I haven't read it yet. If you didn't like the first one though, I wouldn't bother with the next two. I've only been reading the free Kindle classics and I've probably told you this already, but I loved Pride and Prejudice and House of Mirth. I just finished Sense and Sensibility though and was dissappointed. Last year I really enjoyed Jane Eyre and Catch-22. The Sookie Stackhouse novels are junky but addicting if you're looking for more "vacation reading." I'm also thinking about rereading the HPs in preparation for the grand finale... and yes, the split second shot of Fred and George in the preview totally brought tears to my eyes. I'm such a baby about Fred!!
ReplyDelete@Camilla Bergin
ReplyDeleteI read P&P last fall, and I don't know if it was because it was right before my wedding and I was feeling particularly inclined towards romance, but I loved it! Like, it is now one of my top 5 books ever. I have S&S on my Kindle, too, and am considering the Sherlock Holmes books. And no shame about HP... I re-read all last summer in anticipation of 7.1!
Just finished Zeitoun by Dave Eggers and thought it was excellent. And it wasn't written by a Swede, so there's that.
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