The Milennium Trilogy or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ,who played with fire and hornets, but still had a breast enlargement at the start of book two.
I've been trying to fathom the success of these books. I think, firstly, that Milennium is a fancied word. This in spite of my mother's assertion, Christmas 1999, that it is silly and not to 'bother with it'. Mainly, however, its prominence is all the fault of people who don't read and worry about their holidays with no telly. So they ask around, copy other non-readers and panic-buy at airports. They haven't developed their own tastes and so are hoodwinked by this oul' hokum.
For one thing, the books are not well translated. One example ;'She was seriously chilled' which might be said on Radio 1 to describe a relaxed person, not a skinny bird with no access to a nice Aran. Another difficulty is that no matter how many hurdy-gurdy placenames are scattered about, there is no real local colour. Neither do the characters have any character, so to speak. They have open marriages,perverse leanings and quite a bit of uninvolved and athletic Nordic sex ,but no discernible personalities.
The humour is only of the unintentional kind-the painstaking listing of all the protagonists eat and drink becomes funny, even if they did not subsist largely on something styling itself 'Billy's Pan Pizza'. On one day of intense interviewing, Blomkvist had about 17 cups of coffee,no wonder he was awake half the night writing up his notes.
The subject matter is mostly distasteful rather than intriguing ,although it is possible to be carried along by wanting to know who,er, done it. When this is revealed,well, Shaggy and Scooby could have been satisfied with the style and manner of the finale.
If its a toss up between The Millenium Trilogy and Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (cover of Time mag), I cant blame anyone who'd chose the story teller over the novelist. I still have to meet a real live human being who finished the Corrections. If a book has a page turning quality, the writer can get away with poor dialogue, repetitive phrases and caricatures. Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton were never in danger of winning the Nobel prize for literature but they entertained people. Their readers not only managed to finish their books but went out looking for more. Anyone who reads a trilogy must do so willingly.
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