The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Okay. I finally read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I had avoided it, maybe because it was so trendy, but too many people had liked it and I was stuck in the airport anyway so I gave it a try. I loved it and I want to recommend it to all my followers out there who can tolerate a few graphic portrayals of his subject matter, the abuse of women. If I had to guess I’d say that the abuse of women is a personal issue for the author, Stieg Larsson. It’s an easy read, well paced with multiple layers to the plot. I liked that his title character was not his main character, but in the end had the strongest voice. She is my favorite character. Lisbeth Salander, the dragon tattoo character, is undoubtedly an abuse survivor herself but her abuse is never mentioned. I know she is a survivor because of how she reacts to things. She doesn’t put much faith in a society that has more rules to punish abusers after they abuse than to protect their victims in the first place. I can picture her response to a bleeding heart who expressed sympathy for an abuser because of their own childhood abuse. “A lot of women have been abused without becoming abusers themselves and it is an insult to them for this abuser to use it for sympathy. When we know who an abuser is the only person we should be concerned about is his next victim.” At least that’s what I want her to say.