After planning to read at least 100 pages every day I must confess that I have fallen behind and have only today read to page 150. My inability to concentrate on the literature, however, has nothing to do with my interest in the novel. On the contrary, I have actually found Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to be quite thrilling and hard to put down (after I have actually sat down to read some of it).
As I am only 150 pages into a 644 page novel I do not feel that I am far enough into it to make any real critiques or observations about the text, but I can say that I am intrigued by the characterization of Lisbeth Salander. Based on her punk description I feel as though I should be annoyed by her, but in fact I am intrigued. So far she seems much more intelligent than any of the male characters and while her introverted attitude comes off as rude to me, her quick wit and tech savvy help redeem her less favorable qualities.
I also find the "murder" of Harriet Vanger to be perplexing. I do not understand why there is such an assumption that she is dead. Her uncle believes that the pressed flowers he has been receiving in the mail are proof that someone is trying to drive him crazy but couldn't they also be proof that his niece is still alive or in hiding somewhere. I know that this hypothesis is more than likely false but I think it says a lot about the characterization of Henrik Vanger in that he is transfixed by the desire to find Harriet's killer without having any hope that she may still be alive.
So far I am impressed with Larsson's writing style. When I heard this book classified as a "popular thriller" i feared it would be a Dan Brown-esque book with horrible writing but a decent plot. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plot is not only extremely interesting, but that Stieg Larsson can actually write.
As I have only barely scraped the surface of the book I feel that I must read more of the novel before I can draw any more conclusions or make any more observations, but needless to say, the book is off to a promising start
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