Studying the Masters Part 9 – Stieg Larsson

Stieg Larsson is best known for his trilogy that started with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I’m including him in my ‘Masters’ series because of the worldwide success of these books and because of his death at the relatively young age of 50. Actually, he died before the first book was published, so he never realized the success that his work would achieve.

In another example of an author that wrote what he lived, Larsson was an activist and journalist much like his character, Mikael Blomkvist, a mainstay in his trilogy. His other very notable character is Lisbeth Salander, a combination hacker, punk, emo, nearly autistic woman who has created herself based on her early experiences of abuse from a criminal father, witnessing violence against her mother, and abuse in the public child welfare system.

Larsson’s books demonstrate his expertise in the areas of Swedish politics, business, and finance. This could sometimes make his books difficult to read in spots. The intrigue and the spirit of his characters, however, mad the books well worth the effort.

One thing that I particularly enjoy about Larsson’s characters is their flaws. Blomkvist is a bit of a womanizer, whose main love interest is a married colleague. Their affair is carried out, however, with the full knowledge and consent of her husband. Salander is flawed because of her past and, even though she is the ultimate heroine of the book, she never rises above those flaws completely.

A fourth book in the Lisbeth Salander/Mikael Blomkvist series has been released by another author, David Lagercrantz. The book, while not terrible, does not contain Larsson’s spark that he gave his characters, especially Lisbeth Salander, who appears sparingly in this book.