the Informer

Courtesy of Collider.com

The 2011 film titled “The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo” directed by David Fincher, a remake of the 2009 Swedish version, is nominated for four Academy Awards this year, but that’s not what interests me.

Both films are based on the “Millennium Trilogy” by the late Swede journalist Steig Larsson. Besides the fact that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” the first book in the trilogy, is the all-time top seller of e-books on the Amazon Kindle, it seems American audiences are still glued to the modern day mysteries, my self included.

My interest in the series was indifferent before seeing Fincher’s rendition of the 2005 novel, however it was that film that got me hooked on the suspense fueled stories.

Although the series went unpublished until after Larsson’s death, the similarities in the series’ protagonist Mikael Blomkvist and author Larsson are obviously blatant.

What I think makes the stories so enticing to read is the simple fact that there hasn’t really been anything like them in American popular culture.

Sure we get hit with remake after remake at the movie theaters of recycled plots but Larsson’s original and intricate stories evoke an interest that is hard to deny.

So what is it exactly that makes “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” or any of the three books in the series so addicting?

For starters there is a lot of sex, murder, corruption, controversy and psychological elements at work in the narratives.

Larsson is no literary genius to be praised for centuries, but his books have got to be doing something right with the amount he has sold so far, which brings me to an important point, Larsson’s writing is something the average reader can comprehend.

The simplicity of the language, although it was translated from Swedish, is very easy to wade through making the novels into quick reads, forcing readers to turn the pages.

The Oscar nominated Fincher rendition of the first novel sticks pretty closely to the book, with various gaps throughout, which is to be expected when lifting a script from a thick book.

Fincher definitely does the book justice and accurately portrays the major events of the book. Everyone that enjoys a solid mystery story will no doubt get attached to the series’ second protagonist, Lisabeth Salander.

The lack of emotionality in the character of Salander attributed to her haunted past and combined with her extraordinary intellect makes for a twisted and interesting persona.

The relationship between Blomkvist and Salander is one that not many people would expect and I think it is the unexpected chemistry between the two that fuel the human interest in Larsson’s creations.

As a journalist, Larsson certainly knew how to cater to grabbing reader’s attention and running with it. An expert in the field of Nazi history, Larsson also put his personal intellect and vast knowledge to use to create the irresistible story that seems to be captivating readers nation wide.

I personally enjoyed the series, although my semester’s required reading is putting a damper on my finishing the final book.

I highly recommend the series to any curious skeptics because the simple fact is that the series is smart, very well told and intertwined in a way that prompts the reader to reveal the pieces of the puzzle.