The Romance

I am almost finished with the 2nd book but am hesitant, as I don’t want it to end, I want to spend more living the story. Beginning from the first book, Larsson’s characters Salander and Blomkvist are people the reader is drawn to. You want to hang out with them, watch them and follow them,discover more of them. Especially Lisbeth, who is made into a sort of super-human, imperfect but stronger than the average mortals, and who, despite her dark side, is really a white night eliminating evil in the world, and in a way all of us would secretly love to do. Her disease is her strength, and for the rest of us, this give us the hope that our faults too may be in some way a good thing, leading to our strengths.

But for me, besides all that, Larsson was so good in teasing us with a soft undercurrent of Lisbeth’s love for Mikael. It is alway there but so softly expressed and hinted at, until late in this book Lisbeth finally hisses it out in a lonely moment (as all her moments are) in her swank apartment. How later you can feel her smirk in the car as Mikael finds her new place and the code on her security system. She is surprised but not so at the same time. The love connection is stronger in the second book, although more subtle and so beautifully done. I am looking forward to book 3, wondering which of the trilogy will be my favorite.

Peter Verwoerd i Toronto, Canada
Submitted: 30 November 2010