LOB Book Club -- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
In chapters 4-8, the story progresses a bit. Blomkvist receives a call to travel to Northern Sweden where he meets Henrik Vanger, a retired industrialist. Vanger makes Blomvist an offer which seems to set up the mystery in this book: Discretely review the disappearance and possible murder of Vanger's niece Harriet who disappeared 40 years previously and is assumed dead. The sweetener in this pot is the offer by Vanger to provide dirt on Wennerstrom, the man Blomkvist was found guilty of libeling. The condition is that Blomkvist live for a year in the town where Harriet disappeared, something that Blomkvist's lover Erika Berger is not happy about.
Meanwhile, Salander skulks around the periphery of this story. We know that her mother is suffering from mental deterioration, and that she's involved in something to do with her investigation.
What did either of you notice so far?
posted by gooner71 @ 5:33 PM
4 Comments:
Very interesting. What I noticed right away in this second section is that after the very unconventional opening, we get into some fairly familiar territory. In Chapter 5, we hear from Vanger about the terrible accident on the day of Harriet's disappearance. The most important detail here is on pp. 81-2 when we find out that because of the accident, the only bridge leading to Hedeby Island was closed off with all hands on deck helping out with the rescue effort. That means that we're suddenly in an Agatha Christie world, in which the whole island becomes the equivalent of the closed parlor or train car in a traditional murder mystery. Everyone becomes a suspect, then, which is the reason for the somewhat tedious scene in Chapter 8 where Vanger describes in great detail all of the neighbors. I almost felt like adopting our dad's habit of jotting down the names of these characters and how they're related because I have to admit that I couldn't absorb all of that information and it would seem to be important down the road.
I too miss Salander, who has almost dropped out of the story entirely but I'm assuming like Gooner that she comes back in the investigation of Wennerstrom to come. Is Wennerstrom then also implicated in Harriet's disappearance? That seems a bit too convenient.
OK, lets pick up the pace. I have a suspicion that most of us have read on. Discuss Chapters 8-20 over the weekend?
Gulp! I'll try to keep up that pace. I'm through Chapter 11 right now.
By the way, did either of you notice the obscure Swedish geography joke that began Chapter 7 (p. 97)? Erika and Mikael are chatting in his apartment. She's pissed that he's taken up Vanger's offer and will be spending the winter in Norrland. Erika says:
"You can't be serious, Mikael." We're in our worst crisis and you're packing to goa nd live in Tjottahejti."
Apparently this is quite the exaggeration as Mikael retorts: "Hedestad. A couple of hours by train."
Erika then responds, "It might as well be Ulan Bator."
I'm amused by the thought of Scandinavian readers slapping their thighs in delight at this exchange. I only caught that last reference to Ulan Bator (in Mongolia) because it's a frequent NYTimes crossword item (lots of vowels).
Hilarious, eh?
I got a message from Bivalve Betsy that indicated that she's gotten really busy with family matters, so we may want to slow down a wee bit to allow her to catch up. Sound good?
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