Millennium Girl

I spent the month of May in Sweden. Not literally but definately literature-ly. It all be gan with my need for a new book to read (I can't go long without a book on the go) while visiting my parents in Sudbury. The Shoppers had a paperback copy of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and I had heard good things about it. So I bought the book and I couldn't put it down. All 841 pages became my page-turning crack for the roadtrip and my succeeding commuter trips in the following weeks.

The book follows the story of Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist, who gets wrapped up in a decades old murder mystery. Eventually, Blomkvist connects with private investigation researcher/hacker Lisbeth Salander who is facing her own demons while trying to help Blomkvist find the ones involved in his case. The book is a fantastic mixture of pulp fiction, social commentary and addictive mystery. It is also somewhat disturbing as the crimes of characters are revealed and the victimization of others is described. Before I even finished the first book I had picked up the second in the series knowing that I wasn't ready to abandon Blomkvist and Salander just yet.

"The Girl who Played with Fire" is the second installment and it takes the the history of a key character one step further into a political thriller of epic proportions. The story examines the impacts of power and how the balance of it does not always equate even in a world where logic is based on equality. Once again I couldn't put the book down. It became my commuting companion and as I looked around, I saw others reading the first or second book. One day a lady stopped on the the streetcar to talk to me about the book. It feels as if the novels are reaching a Twilight-style phenomenon this season. While the books became best-sellers in Europe over 5 years ago they are finally reaching a mass audience in North America. And then it was a Sunday afternoon and I only had 50 pages left in book two. With 20 minutes left before the book store closed I was trucking down the sidewalk to buy third installment. I could not wait. I could not take my 30-minute commute with empty hands.

And so, "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" made it into my life.
And what a tale it is. The politics of book two play out in a story about a government's full-on assault against an individual's rights and a law drama to tie it all together. All three books feature Blomkvist and Salander - an odd partnership that reveals the bounds of true friendship under uber-challenging circumstances. When the last book ended I was almost at peace.

Rumour has it that the author - Stieg Larsson - had 10 books planned in the series. His death in 2004 occurred shortly after he provided the manuscripts for the three books now known as "The Millennium Trilogy". Recently, the Swedish film adaptation of the first book made it into North American cinemas. It is gritty, deliberate and a reasonably faithful portrayal of the book. While any film series will struggle to put over 2100 pages of story onto the screen, the second Swedish adaptation will be on screens in July and Hollywood is working on its own adaptation. But before the frenzy about "the Girl" takes hold, you should take time to read the series. It is the perfect trilogy for summer beach season. And it might even make you think. Long live Blomkvist and Salander!!