The End of the Millennium

Almost two thousand pages later and my Millennium is finished.

Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson wrote novels, for fun, in his spare time. He died suddenly in November 2004, leaving three unpublished books, that are known as the Millennium Trilogy: The Girls With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

It follows the lives of the unlikely heroine Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist. In this trilogy, Salander fights for her civil freedom and takes revenge on certain people who have harmed her in the past. Armed with phenomenal hacking skills and tenacity to live, Salander might fight the system and everyone who wants her to stay down. Mikael Blomvist enlists her help to uncover government conspiracies and together they fight the dominating power.

These three books are among some of the most interesting ones I have read this year. Translated from Swedish, the three books open my eyes to a new setting; I was bored with crime novels set in North America or in the UK and this series provided a refreshing change from that. Also, I have always been fascinated by the Scandinavian countries and especially by Sweden and this trilogy offers a good overview of life in the modern Swedish society (and politics)

Larsson has created a very intriguing heroine. She is a victim but not victimised; she is vengeful but not cold-blooded; she is small but not weak; she deserves empathy but not sympathy. Lisbeth resides in a critical balance between these dialectics. This is what makes her an unlikely heroine. She is nothing cliché. At some points she overshadows Blomkvist, but the two main characters both have their own charms in the trilogy. Blomkvist is not a perfect hero, which only serves to make him more convincing as a human being. The books are a bit slow in some points and over-descriptive in others due to that fact – think - that Larsson was a journalist and not a novelist. Some parts could have needed an abundant editing and some repetitions would have surely not been there if Larsson would be still alive now.

That said, I think this series is worth reading, especially the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It’s a very dark and strong story, very shocking and engrossing at the same time. But never boring. I’m very sad to have to say farewell to Lisbeth Salander who kept me company for many interesting nights. I will devote myself to their cinematographic versions, the Swedish films of course, before Hollywood get hold of the film rights and make of George Clooney and Scarlet Johansson the unlikely versions of Lisbeth and Kalle!