Not Oprah’s Book Club: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Spoiler Alert: This is less a review than an analysis, so if you haven’t read the book, I wouldn’t read this post.
I was truly intrigued when a couple of feminist buddies emailed and asked if I’d read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a book I’d also seen on both my mom and dad’s nightstands over the holidays. They all claimed that one of the characters was a feminist heroines of sorts, and that the book, overall, had a surprisingly feminist bent.
I just finished this 600 page whopper and I feel conflicted. On the one hand, I can totally see how Lisbeth Salander–detective, hacker, and general badass–is basically a feminist avenger. She has so much power–tracking down information that other people can’t get, punishing sexual predators and misogynists in unexpected and vicious ways, and not giving a shit about conventional femininity.
On the other hand–at least in this first book in the series–she doesn’t seek very capable of getting her own emotional needs met or being authentic in relationships. She’s obviously been through some real shit, so she’s in a place of figuring out how to feel safe in the world, which leads to some seriously violent and escapist behavior. I don’t blame her for this. It makes sense as a first step toward transformation, but I think her full realization as a feminist heroine would look different–less scared, less reactive, more emotionally courageous.
I also thought that it was interesting that the book has gotten so popular despite it’s truly gruesome content. Altogether, the trilogy had sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. It was disturbing, and while I understand that it’s a novel, and as such is technically imaginary, the horrific crimes described are the kinds of things that happen to women throughout the world. It’s not a classic detective novel, in this way. There’s obviously an underlying political and sociological analysis on the part of author Stieg Larsson, who died in 2004, but fought racism and right wing extremism throughout his life.