The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

My apologies to Mama Leopard, who is thrilled that I'm not reading as many novels at the moment (I never thought the day would come when I'd say those words--this from the woman who taught me to love reading!), but, in my defense, a girl's got to take a break from work occasionally. Plus, I primarily read when I'm stretching, which would make Papa Leopard proud. (My back hates it when I work all the time.)

I watched all of the Swedish films based on Larsson's books in a quick row sometime just before Christmas, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to read the third novel after I thought I'd spoiled it. While the films were quite good and had the same can't-put-them-down qualities as the books, the truth is that the third film leaves a ton of stuff out and is, consequently, a bit confusing. I mean, not Syriana levels of confusing (that's for you, Myrrh), but it could be clearer.

The film takes out a whole important theme of secrecy and tyranny, which is pretty interesting to a political theorist like me. Larsson makes up a super secret government agency that is outside of the law and accountable to no one. It was established to protect a man who could provide secrets to the state many years before. The members of the agency justify their work as necessary to the protection of their country, but they use extremely unethical means to get to that end. In the process of protecting this man, the state unspeakably abused one of its own citizens, Lisbeth Salander. This shows the danger of what is secretive and what is not accountable to anyone. Larsson ties this theme of secrecy within the government to what connects the entire trilogy together--the abuse of women. (In light of the series' treatment of the abuse of women, I have to give a disclaimer--both the books and the films deal with really serious and heavy issues and are quite graphic.)

The novel is written like a movie--it is full of action and cuts from one scene with a certain group of characters to another scene with another group. It's fast-paced and intriguing.

Dear readers, I admitted to you that I read One Day on a Kindle; well, I've gone even further this time: I read Larsson on an iPod! (Thanks, Ilana!) At least on an iPod, the direction you turn the page is the direction that it actually turns. They are really not so bad for reading books and you can easily carry them with you anywhere.

(The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire here)