The Dive from Clausen Pier by Ann Packer
The Dive from Clausen’s Pier is about relationships ~ how they change and how they change us.
Carrie Bell is a young college graduate who has been dating her boyfriend, Mike, for since she was 15. They recently became engaged, but Carrie is having second thoughts ~ none that she has been able to articulate, though. She just has a nagging feeling that she needs more in her life than settling down in Wisconsin with her childhood sweetheart.
At their annual Memorial Day picnic, Carrie, Mike and their friends head out to their favorite lakeside spot for a day of fun. Carrie is considering how to break it to Mike that she wants out of their pending nuptials. Mike, knowing something is up and in an attempt to catch Carrie’s attention, dives into the water, but things go terribly wrong. He breaks his neck and suffers terrible head injuries.
For weeks Mike remains in a coma. Playing the part of the good girlfriend, Carrie spends hours at the hospital with him, but feels guilt. Her friends all expect her to stand by the injured Mike. His family refuses to believe that he will not recover.
Finally, Mike comes out of his coma, only to acknowledge his own limitations as a quadriplegic. He still faces numerous surgeries and months of rehab. He cannot join his friends on evenings out. Carrie is no longer interested in the party life she enjoyed with her friends prior to Mike’s accident.
One night, however, her friends convince her to join them. She meets Kilroy, an eccentric single male who is visiting from New York City. Something about him catches her interest.
Finally, the pressures of Mike’s illness prove too much for Carrie to bear. She packs her car, complete with her sewing machine (she sews to relax) and heads to NYC, where she crashes with another high school friend, Simon. Simon is gay and feels comfortable being open about his sexuality in New York, where it wouldn’t have been possible in Wisconsin.
Carrie seeks out Kilroy and begins an affair with him. Then she begins to learn about him. He has no permanent job and hangs out in a bar playing pool. Kilroy is 40 years old and is still seeking himself. Carrie learns that he has a troubled relationship with his parents, who are very well-to-do (hence, are underwriting Kilroy’s lifestyle.) Kilroy is unable to make a commitment and is alternating loving and cold to Carrie. He has his own tragedies, as we ultimately learn, that render him unable to move forward with his life.
Carrie enrolls in design school and is destine to succeed, when she receives a call from her best friend, Jamie, back in Wisconsin. Jamie’s message, although very cryptic, is a plea for help. Furthermore, Jamie refers to Carrie as someone who would dump her boyfriend after he breaks his neck. Carrie, whose relationship with Jamie had been altered by Mike’s accident, doesn’t immediately provide Jamie with the answer Jamie was seeking.
After some soul searching, Carrie decides to return to Wisconsin. Carrie is still conflicted and struggling between her needs and those needs of others.
Although most of us aren’t faced with the dilemmas Carrie is confronted with, all of us struggle with relationships as we all grow and change. I was especially drawn to the change in relationship between Carrie and her friend, Jamie. The Dive from Clausen’s Park reminds us that as relationships change, we must take them for the gift they are and know when to let go.
Read: August 29, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Books Set in Spain
The Last Jew, by Noah Gordon (2000).
The Last Jew follows the life of Yonah Toledano during the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition was initially designed to ferret out conversos, those Jews who converted but were “backsliding” towards their former religion. The Church viewed conversos as suspect, however. In time, however, the Church extended its reach and began targeting all Jews.
Yonah was the second son of a silversmith and only survivor in his family following the Inquisitions raid in his familial home town of Toledo. He manages to escape and “passes” as a Christian by assuming the name Ramon Callico. He recites his Hebrew prayers in secret to retain his ties to his beliefs. At the same time, however, he knows that at anytime he can be turned in to the Inquisitors.
At times Yonah/Ramon is just one step ahead of the Inquistors. At other times, he is able to find a sympathetic family who may or may not have discerned his true identity. Along the way, he reinvents himself ~ he is takes a job as a shepherd, travels with gypsies, recalls his training as a silversmith and crafts armor, and finally apprentices with a physian.
The book started off well, but the plot began to weaken. After a while, I grew bored with the exploits of Yonah. The author researched the period, and details the market for (fraudulent) sacred relics as well as medieval medicines.
Read: August 13, 2010
The Last Jew follows the life of Yonah Toledano during the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition was initially designed to ferret out conversos, those Jews who converted but were “backsliding” towards their former religion. The Church viewed conversos as suspect, however. In time, however, the Church extended its reach and began targeting all Jews.
Yonah was the second son of a silversmith and only survivor in his family following the Inquisitions raid in his familial home town of Toledo. He manages to escape and “passes” as a Christian by assuming the name Ramon Callico. He recites his Hebrew prayers in secret to retain his ties to his beliefs. At the same time, however, he knows that at anytime he can be turned in to the Inquisitors.
At times Yonah/Ramon is just one step ahead of the Inquistors. At other times, he is able to find a sympathetic family who may or may not have discerned his true identity. Along the way, he reinvents himself ~ he is takes a job as a shepherd, travels with gypsies, recalls his training as a silversmith and crafts armor, and finally apprentices with a physian.
The book started off well, but the plot began to weaken. After a while, I grew bored with the exploits of Yonah. The author researched the period, and details the market for (fraudulent) sacred relics as well as medieval medicines.
Read: August 13, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Books Set in India
The Girl From Foreign, by Sadia Shepard (2008)
The Girl from Foreign is both a memoir and a loving tribute to the author’s maternal grandmother. Sadia Shepard grew up in Chestnut Hill, a posh suburb outside of Boston, where she lived with her American father, Pakistani-born mother and Indian-born grandmother. Her father was Christian and her mother was Muslim. When Shepard was a teenager, she discovered that her grandmother was born Rachel Jacobs into a Jewish family in India’s Bene Israel community. When her grandmother secretly married her father’s business partner at age 17, she agreed to raise any children from the marriage as Muslims. She also changed her name to Rahat. She also may or may not have converted herself.
Shepard promises her grandmother that she will seek out her Indian heritage. Her trek begins a few years following her grandmother’s death. When Shepard is awarded a Fullbright scholarship, she makes good her promise. This book is a part of that search.
As Rachel Jacobs, the author’s grandmother lived in the Bene Israel community of India. The Bene Israel are believed to be descendants from a ship-wrecked group of Jews who washed up on Indian shores sometime before 166 BCE. There are still a few remnants of the Bene Israel in India today, although many have now immigrated to Israel.
Upon her marriage, Rachel became the third wife of a Muslim business man. She was believed to be the wife he married for love, the first two marriages were business arrangements. Rachel’s children, including the author’s mother, were raised Muslim in an environment of tolerance.
The author embraces her varied religious heritage, but is on a journey to determine where she fits. While in India, she connects with the Jewish community and attends Shabbat services as well as other Jewish festival services. Clearly, she feels comfortable in this setting. She also befriends a young Hindi man who often accompanies her on her travels to the small Jewish enclaves in India.
In her later life, Rachel began to look back into her faith and wanted to be buried as a Jew. Although her family buried her in a traditional Muslim manner, on the anniversary of her death, she was remembered in a traditionally Jewish service.
Shepard also recounts how, as a child, she and her family would make trips to Pakistan to visit relatives. When she returns as an adult, after September 11, 2001, she finds her Pakistani relatives to have moved to a more militant brand of Islam. She also learns how her grandfather’s other wives and families have decimated her estate.
The Girl from Foreign is a beautifully written book. It is a lesson in understanding cultures that are making headlines in today’s news stories.
Read: August 8, 2010
The Girl from Foreign is both a memoir and a loving tribute to the author’s maternal grandmother. Sadia Shepard grew up in Chestnut Hill, a posh suburb outside of Boston, where she lived with her American father, Pakistani-born mother and Indian-born grandmother. Her father was Christian and her mother was Muslim. When Shepard was a teenager, she discovered that her grandmother was born Rachel Jacobs into a Jewish family in India’s Bene Israel community. When her grandmother secretly married her father’s business partner at age 17, she agreed to raise any children from the marriage as Muslims. She also changed her name to Rahat. She also may or may not have converted herself.
Shepard promises her grandmother that she will seek out her Indian heritage. Her trek begins a few years following her grandmother’s death. When Shepard is awarded a Fullbright scholarship, she makes good her promise. This book is a part of that search.
As Rachel Jacobs, the author’s grandmother lived in the Bene Israel community of India. The Bene Israel are believed to be descendants from a ship-wrecked group of Jews who washed up on Indian shores sometime before 166 BCE. There are still a few remnants of the Bene Israel in India today, although many have now immigrated to Israel.
Upon her marriage, Rachel became the third wife of a Muslim business man. She was believed to be the wife he married for love, the first two marriages were business arrangements. Rachel’s children, including the author’s mother, were raised Muslim in an environment of tolerance.
The author embraces her varied religious heritage, but is on a journey to determine where she fits. While in India, she connects with the Jewish community and attends Shabbat services as well as other Jewish festival services. Clearly, she feels comfortable in this setting. She also befriends a young Hindi man who often accompanies her on her travels to the small Jewish enclaves in India.
In her later life, Rachel began to look back into her faith and wanted to be buried as a Jew. Although her family buried her in a traditional Muslim manner, on the anniversary of her death, she was remembered in a traditionally Jewish service.
Shepard also recounts how, as a child, she and her family would make trips to Pakistan to visit relatives. When she returns as an adult, after September 11, 2001, she finds her Pakistani relatives to have moved to a more militant brand of Islam. She also learns how her grandfather’s other wives and families have decimated her estate.
The Girl from Foreign is a beautifully written book. It is a lesson in understanding cultures that are making headlines in today’s news stories.
Read: August 8, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Books Set in the United States: Seattle
The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein (2008)
The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautiful little book as told from a dog’s point of view. Enzo is a Labrador-terrier mix who was adopted as a young pup by Denny. The novel begins near the end of Enzo’s life. Although he cannot speak, he strives to let his Denny know that it is time to let him go. Enzo has a strong feeling that he will become human in his next life, something that he looks forward to.
Denny works in an auto shop with dreams of becoming a famous race-car driver. Enzo truly lives a dog’s life, whose only disappointment is that he has no thumbs. If only he had thumbs, he thinks, what wonderful things he could accomplish!
Enzo’s goes through life changes as Denny’s life changes. Denny falls in love with Eve and marries and begins a family. Eve worries how Enzo will treat their young daughter, Zoe. She should have had no fears, however, as both dog and child become good pals.
Denny has a habit of leaving the TV on so that Enzo can be occupied during the day. Enzo learns about life through the wonderful world of television. Between the television, and Denny’s monologs, Enzo gains insight into the human condition. He learns about life through race-car driving. Life, like race-care driving requires techniques to navigate all the obstacles that are thrown at one.
Enzo knows long before the rest of the family that Eve has a dreadful illness. After Eve dies following her battle with brain cancer, her parents fight Denny for custody of Zoe. Eve’s father dislikes Denny and feels Eve married beneath her class. When a young relative accuses Denny of rape, Enzo becomes his main strength, as he struggles to regain his reputation.
The title of the book comes from Denny’s talent for racing on wet pavement. It is also an metaphor for live itself. The Art of Racing in the Rain is a quick read, to anyone with a pet is an unforgettable story.
Read: August 1, 2010
The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautiful little book as told from a dog’s point of view. Enzo is a Labrador-terrier mix who was adopted as a young pup by Denny. The novel begins near the end of Enzo’s life. Although he cannot speak, he strives to let his Denny know that it is time to let him go. Enzo has a strong feeling that he will become human in his next life, something that he looks forward to.
Denny works in an auto shop with dreams of becoming a famous race-car driver. Enzo truly lives a dog’s life, whose only disappointment is that he has no thumbs. If only he had thumbs, he thinks, what wonderful things he could accomplish!
Enzo’s goes through life changes as Denny’s life changes. Denny falls in love with Eve and marries and begins a family. Eve worries how Enzo will treat their young daughter, Zoe. She should have had no fears, however, as both dog and child become good pals.
Denny has a habit of leaving the TV on so that Enzo can be occupied during the day. Enzo learns about life through the wonderful world of television. Between the television, and Denny’s monologs, Enzo gains insight into the human condition. He learns about life through race-car driving. Life, like race-care driving requires techniques to navigate all the obstacles that are thrown at one.
Enzo knows long before the rest of the family that Eve has a dreadful illness. After Eve dies following her battle with brain cancer, her parents fight Denny for custody of Zoe. Eve’s father dislikes Denny and feels Eve married beneath her class. When a young relative accuses Denny of rape, Enzo becomes his main strength, as he struggles to regain his reputation.
The title of the book comes from Denny’s talent for racing on wet pavement. It is also an metaphor for live itself. The Art of Racing in the Rain is a quick read, to anyone with a pet is an unforgettable story.
Read: August 1, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Books Set in the United States: Washington, D.C.
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, by Jeffrey Toobin (2008)
Who knew that a book about the Supreme Court Justices could be such a page turner? Jeffrey Toobin has created a fascinate book about the William Rehnquits Court.
Toobin first describes a brief history of the Earl Warren and Warren Burger Courts and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. During this period on American history, the federal government played an expansive role in forming the country. With the election of Ronald Reagan, conservative ideas began to the move to restrict the reach of the federal reach.
In writing this book, Toobin interviewed some of the Supreme Court Justices (although he never names which ones provided him with the inside scoop), and many of their clerks over the years. The result is a remarkable insight into the inner workings of the Court, along with the petty scrabbles and grudges the Justices harbor.
The Justices in the Rehnquist Court served together for 9 years (from 1994 through 2004), which is the longest period without a change in the history of the nine-justice Court. In addition to Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the other Justices were Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Clarence Thomas.
Toobin describes how some of the advances made in the previous Court are being eroded. He provides careful detail of how such cases and issues as abortion civil rights, affirmative action and the separation of church and state are discussed and changed. Toobin describes how the individual philosophies and prejudices come into play in drafting the Court’s decisions.
The book is terribly revealing and anyone who thinks that the Court’s decisions are made altruistically will be in for a shock. The reader learns such tidbits as how Clarence Thomas selects his law clerks, and how David Souter was devastated following the Bush v. Gore, so much so that he nearly resigned from the Court. The reason given for his remaining on the Court was due to his reluctance to forgo his full retirement if he left early. Toobin take a look into the philosophy and background of each Justice in turn.
The Nine also contains a fascinating account of the nomination process of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, who replaced William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor, respectively.
The book makes for interesting reading. Although many landmark cases are discussed, the reader does not need to have a legal background to realize the impact the Court has on American life. The Nine should be a “must read” for all Americans.
Read: July 29, 2010
Who knew that a book about the Supreme Court Justices could be such a page turner? Jeffrey Toobin has created a fascinate book about the William Rehnquits Court.
Toobin first describes a brief history of the Earl Warren and Warren Burger Courts and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. During this period on American history, the federal government played an expansive role in forming the country. With the election of Ronald Reagan, conservative ideas began to the move to restrict the reach of the federal reach.
In writing this book, Toobin interviewed some of the Supreme Court Justices (although he never names which ones provided him with the inside scoop), and many of their clerks over the years. The result is a remarkable insight into the inner workings of the Court, along with the petty scrabbles and grudges the Justices harbor.
The Justices in the Rehnquist Court served together for 9 years (from 1994 through 2004), which is the longest period without a change in the history of the nine-justice Court. In addition to Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the other Justices were Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Clarence Thomas.
Toobin describes how some of the advances made in the previous Court are being eroded. He provides careful detail of how such cases and issues as abortion civil rights, affirmative action and the separation of church and state are discussed and changed. Toobin describes how the individual philosophies and prejudices come into play in drafting the Court’s decisions.
The book is terribly revealing and anyone who thinks that the Court’s decisions are made altruistically will be in for a shock. The reader learns such tidbits as how Clarence Thomas selects his law clerks, and how David Souter was devastated following the Bush v. Gore, so much so that he nearly resigned from the Court. The reason given for his remaining on the Court was due to his reluctance to forgo his full retirement if he left early. Toobin take a look into the philosophy and background of each Justice in turn.
The Nine also contains a fascinating account of the nomination process of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, who replaced William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor, respectively.
The book makes for interesting reading. Although many landmark cases are discussed, the reader does not need to have a legal background to realize the impact the Court has on American life. The Nine should be a “must read” for all Americans.
Read: July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Books Set in Europe: France
Sarah's Key, by Tatiana deRosnay (2007).
Sarah’s Key is two stories in one. One thread of the novel depicts the treatment of Jews by the French during the Holocaust; the other depicts the destruction of a marriage between an American woman and her French husband.
Sarah Starzynski was a 10-year old Jewish girl when the French police arrested her and her family during the Velodrome d’Hiver (known as Vel d’Hiv) on July 16, and 17, 1942. In 2002, middle aged Julia Jarmond is writing a story to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Vel d’Hiv.
Each chapter is very short and, for the most part, switches between Sarah’s story and that of Julia. Sarah is know as the “girl” for most of her story. Not giving people names was a way to depersonalize an individual. That was certainly how the Nazi’s treated the Jews.
When the French police knocked on her family’s door, Sarah’s younger brother crawled into his favorite hiding place, the cupboard, and Sarah locked him in with a promise that she would come for him soon. Little did she realize that she will not be able to return. Instead, she and her parents were brought to the Vel d’Hiv, where they were imprisoned with thousands of other Jews before being transported to concentration camps.
Sarah and another young girl named Rachel were able to escape. The ultimately came to the home of an elderly couple, Jules and Genevieve Dufaure, who took them in and cared for them. (Rachel became ill and died.) Sarah insisted on returning to Paris to find her brother. Against their better judgment, the couple brought her to her former home, which was now occupied by a French family. When Sarah opened the cupboard, all that remained was her brother’s corpse. The Dufaure’s took in Sarah and raised her as their grandchild.
Sixty years later, Julia and her husband move into the apartment that once belonged to his grandmother. As Julia begins her research on the Vel d’Hiv, she comes to realize that the apartment her husband’s family had moved into in July 1942, was one that had recently belonged to a deported Jewish family that had been a target of the Vel d’Hiv.
She persists in her inquiry about the source of her family’s apartment, but her husband is very blasé about the matter. Finally, her father-in-law confesses that he remembered the day when Sarah came an opened the cupboard to find her dead brother. It is a secret that his family had kept for years.
This is the turning point of the novel and we no longer see Sarah’s story from her perspective. The novel turns to Julia and her quest to find Sarah.
Julia becomes obsessed with finding Sarah. She was able to track her down through the Dufaure’s grandsons. As a young woman, Sarah left France and immigrated to the United States. Julia is able to find her family, but learns that Sarah had died many years earlier. Julia tells the Dufaure’s relatives that their ancestors were Righteous Gentiles for their protection and care of young Sarah.
The story’s flaw is when Julia finds herself pregnant at age 45. She thinks her husband will be thrilled with this news, but instead insists that she either abort the fetus or he will leave her. Julia is suddenly confronted how the French perceive Americans. This thread of the story seems to focus on stereotypes that detract from the main theme of active participation by some of the French to the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust.
Sarah’s Key is a beautiful story. It ties a young Jewish girl who lived through the horrors of the Holocaust and a middle-aged gentile researching this horrific past together.
Read: July 27, 2010
Sarah’s Key is two stories in one. One thread of the novel depicts the treatment of Jews by the French during the Holocaust; the other depicts the destruction of a marriage between an American woman and her French husband.
Sarah Starzynski was a 10-year old Jewish girl when the French police arrested her and her family during the Velodrome d’Hiver (known as Vel d’Hiv) on July 16, and 17, 1942. In 2002, middle aged Julia Jarmond is writing a story to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Vel d’Hiv.
Each chapter is very short and, for the most part, switches between Sarah’s story and that of Julia. Sarah is know as the “girl” for most of her story. Not giving people names was a way to depersonalize an individual. That was certainly how the Nazi’s treated the Jews.
When the French police knocked on her family’s door, Sarah’s younger brother crawled into his favorite hiding place, the cupboard, and Sarah locked him in with a promise that she would come for him soon. Little did she realize that she will not be able to return. Instead, she and her parents were brought to the Vel d’Hiv, where they were imprisoned with thousands of other Jews before being transported to concentration camps.
Sarah and another young girl named Rachel were able to escape. The ultimately came to the home of an elderly couple, Jules and Genevieve Dufaure, who took them in and cared for them. (Rachel became ill and died.) Sarah insisted on returning to Paris to find her brother. Against their better judgment, the couple brought her to her former home, which was now occupied by a French family. When Sarah opened the cupboard, all that remained was her brother’s corpse. The Dufaure’s took in Sarah and raised her as their grandchild.
Sixty years later, Julia and her husband move into the apartment that once belonged to his grandmother. As Julia begins her research on the Vel d’Hiv, she comes to realize that the apartment her husband’s family had moved into in July 1942, was one that had recently belonged to a deported Jewish family that had been a target of the Vel d’Hiv.
She persists in her inquiry about the source of her family’s apartment, but her husband is very blasé about the matter. Finally, her father-in-law confesses that he remembered the day when Sarah came an opened the cupboard to find her dead brother. It is a secret that his family had kept for years.
This is the turning point of the novel and we no longer see Sarah’s story from her perspective. The novel turns to Julia and her quest to find Sarah.
Julia becomes obsessed with finding Sarah. She was able to track her down through the Dufaure’s grandsons. As a young woman, Sarah left France and immigrated to the United States. Julia is able to find her family, but learns that Sarah had died many years earlier. Julia tells the Dufaure’s relatives that their ancestors were Righteous Gentiles for their protection and care of young Sarah.
The story’s flaw is when Julia finds herself pregnant at age 45. She thinks her husband will be thrilled with this news, but instead insists that she either abort the fetus or he will leave her. Julia is suddenly confronted how the French perceive Americans. This thread of the story seems to focus on stereotypes that detract from the main theme of active participation by some of the French to the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust.
Sarah’s Key is a beautiful story. It ties a young Jewish girl who lived through the horrors of the Holocaust and a middle-aged gentile researching this horrific past together.
Read: July 27, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Books Set in Europe: Sweden
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (2008)
I have very mixed feelings about this book. It has been on the best seller list and gotten rave reviews, but that doesn’t make it good literature. Larsson creates a very bleak picture of life in Sweden. The dominant theme is abuse of women by men. Interestingly, in Sweden, the book was entitled Men Who Hate Women.
The prologue of the novel begins with a mystery. An elderly industrialist (whom we later learn is Henrik Vanger) receives a framed pressed flower on his birthday, just as he has received for his birthday for the past 40 years. The recipient is unknown. The flower is a gentle reminder of the gifts his beloved grand-niece, Harriet, had given him before her disappearance and supposed murder in 1966.
The book next shifts to journalist and magazine publisher Mikael Blomkvist. He had just been found guilty of libel. Disgraced, Blomkvist ostensibly removes himself from his magazine and is offered a job by Vanger. Vanger wants Blomkvist to investigate Harriet’s disappearance. The cover story that Blomkvist, however, is a history of the Vanger family. Harriet had disappeared from an island, so Vanger believes there is a limited number of suspects. Indeed, Vanger believes that a family member is responsible for Harriet’s murder.
Blomkvist takes the job because of the carrot Vanger dangles. He promises to deliver the executive who was the target of Blomkvist’s libel suit.
Finally, we meet Lisbeth Salander, the title character ~ Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She is an anti-social young woman with a photographic memory who freelances for a security company. She has amazing computer skills, many of which are illegal, which aid her in her security work. We get brief glimpses of her family life ~ her 48-year old mother is in a nursing home. Lisbeth visits her often, but the mother often confuses Lisbeth with her sister. Lisbeth has no close network of friends, and because she has had bad encounters with the police, she doesn’t seek legal assistance after she was brutally raped by her guardian.
Lisbeth had been initially hired to delve into Blomkvist’s past. Suddenly, the investigation was called off. Later, Blomkvist needs assistance in his Vanger investigation, so Lisbeth is called to assist him discover Harriet’s disappearance.
In a convoluted plot, Harriet’s murder seems to be connected to a number of murders that took place throughout Sweden in the 1950s and 1960s. As family members are interviewed, events lead Blomkvist to believe that maybe there is a copy-cat killer.
This is where the plot begins to unravel. A series of unlikely events occur, and, as if the book were the prelude to a movie script, there is a climatic scene where Blomkvist and the villain come to blows. Fear not, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes to Blomkvist’s rescue.
The resolution to the mystery is horrifying and one that came totally from left field. It didn’t fit with the initial portion of the book.
Larsson depicts how cruelly and sadistly the men treat women they encounter. Many women are tortured and raped. Blomkvist, however, isn’t cruel, physically, but has a lot of casual sex with nearly every women he meets. Even though he is more than twice her age, Blomkvist engages in a sexual relationship with Lisbeth, even after he knows how fragile she is emptionally. On wonders what scars his attitude toward such casual sex leaves on both Blomkvist and his women.
Once the Vanger mystery has been solved, Larsson turns to Blomkvist’s revenge on the executive who bested him in the libel suit. At this point in the novel, the plot totally falls flat. The reader doesn’t really care about the outcome. Lisbeth has virtually disappeared.
Although the book kept my attention, in the end, I found it lacking and unsatisfactory.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the first book in a trilogy by Larsson. After reading this novel, I am not ready to run out and read the rest in this series.
Read: July 27, 2010
I have very mixed feelings about this book. It has been on the best seller list and gotten rave reviews, but that doesn’t make it good literature. Larsson creates a very bleak picture of life in Sweden. The dominant theme is abuse of women by men. Interestingly, in Sweden, the book was entitled Men Who Hate Women.
The prologue of the novel begins with a mystery. An elderly industrialist (whom we later learn is Henrik Vanger) receives a framed pressed flower on his birthday, just as he has received for his birthday for the past 40 years. The recipient is unknown. The flower is a gentle reminder of the gifts his beloved grand-niece, Harriet, had given him before her disappearance and supposed murder in 1966.
The book next shifts to journalist and magazine publisher Mikael Blomkvist. He had just been found guilty of libel. Disgraced, Blomkvist ostensibly removes himself from his magazine and is offered a job by Vanger. Vanger wants Blomkvist to investigate Harriet’s disappearance. The cover story that Blomkvist, however, is a history of the Vanger family. Harriet had disappeared from an island, so Vanger believes there is a limited number of suspects. Indeed, Vanger believes that a family member is responsible for Harriet’s murder.
Blomkvist takes the job because of the carrot Vanger dangles. He promises to deliver the executive who was the target of Blomkvist’s libel suit.
Finally, we meet Lisbeth Salander, the title character ~ Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She is an anti-social young woman with a photographic memory who freelances for a security company. She has amazing computer skills, many of which are illegal, which aid her in her security work. We get brief glimpses of her family life ~ her 48-year old mother is in a nursing home. Lisbeth visits her often, but the mother often confuses Lisbeth with her sister. Lisbeth has no close network of friends, and because she has had bad encounters with the police, she doesn’t seek legal assistance after she was brutally raped by her guardian.
Lisbeth had been initially hired to delve into Blomkvist’s past. Suddenly, the investigation was called off. Later, Blomkvist needs assistance in his Vanger investigation, so Lisbeth is called to assist him discover Harriet’s disappearance.
In a convoluted plot, Harriet’s murder seems to be connected to a number of murders that took place throughout Sweden in the 1950s and 1960s. As family members are interviewed, events lead Blomkvist to believe that maybe there is a copy-cat killer.
This is where the plot begins to unravel. A series of unlikely events occur, and, as if the book were the prelude to a movie script, there is a climatic scene where Blomkvist and the villain come to blows. Fear not, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes to Blomkvist’s rescue.
The resolution to the mystery is horrifying and one that came totally from left field. It didn’t fit with the initial portion of the book.
Larsson depicts how cruelly and sadistly the men treat women they encounter. Many women are tortured and raped. Blomkvist, however, isn’t cruel, physically, but has a lot of casual sex with nearly every women he meets. Even though he is more than twice her age, Blomkvist engages in a sexual relationship with Lisbeth, even after he knows how fragile she is emptionally. On wonders what scars his attitude toward such casual sex leaves on both Blomkvist and his women.
Once the Vanger mystery has been solved, Larsson turns to Blomkvist’s revenge on the executive who bested him in the libel suit. At this point in the novel, the plot totally falls flat. The reader doesn’t really care about the outcome. Lisbeth has virtually disappeared.
Although the book kept my attention, in the end, I found it lacking and unsatisfactory.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the first book in a trilogy by Larsson. After reading this novel, I am not ready to run out and read the rest in this series.
Read: July 27, 2010
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