The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by hidari

So is this another BEST SELLER Because everyone says it is a best seller and must be read...or is this actually something worth reading? Most Best Sellers fit well into the PULP FICTION category...so... just wondering if this is the same inane.....?

I very much enjoyed it. Definitely not "pulp fiction".

[beppe]

It appears that there are problems with the translation of the trilogy. I read in Italian, translated by a renown professional, very much appreciated for the quality of her work. I read interviews of the translator that explained how much she had to work for Stieg Larsson's books.

One thing I can say, I recognized a certain Swedish style, being familiar with Martin Beck stories by Sjöwall and Wahlöö.

I found the reading in itself very pleasant. The first hundreds (sic) of pages seem glued together, but after a slow start, the pace is lively and the tensions are built and released masterly, around the extremely captivating characters (see Ea's comment above). The second book is packed with events, and the third one, where the drama and mysteries are finally unraveled is highly satisfactory.

I will reread the second book and than the third. Highly and warmly recommended. It is true the super heroine Lisbeth Salander is fascinating, for many reasons. Her ambiguities, her vitality, her supreme capability of taking punishments and her incredibly amusing inner world are fascinating. When finally she gets some money, what she does with it is a riot. Her eating habits are quite interesting also. Sex is fine. That also is quite Swedish. No offense intended.

Just an other consideration about the character of Lisbeth Salander. It is the best interpretation that I have encountered of those strange beings that I see moving around in the big cities, ringed, pierced, tattooed, jellied and with primary colors on their heads, dressed in improbable garments and with phased out faces. Since reading the books I observe them more curiously, and may be a little more interested.

OK. technology. No way that in Sweden they have that large bandwidth. Or on Mars. So in a way the trilogy could be considered SF.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by beppe

It appears that there are problems with the translation of the trilogy. I read in Italian, translated by a renown professional, very much appreciated for the quality of her work. I read interviews of the translator that explained how much she had to work for Stieg Larsson's books.

Some American readers have criticized the English translation, seemingly on the grounds that it is a British English translation, and hence uses words and expressions that they are unfamiliar with. As a British reader, though, I find the translation to be very good indeed.

[daffy4u]

I just finished the first book earlier this week and immediately purchased the other two books.

I also watched the movie (with sub-titles) the day after and of course it was no where near as satisfying as the book (lacked a lot of the layers of deceit and danger). What the movie did for me was help me to learn the correct pronunciation of the some the names and locations. I'm not very familiar with the Swedish language, so in my head I was off in some of my pronunciations (Vanger = VanJER). I also thought a typo was a Swedish word for a moment ("Helita" was really "He lit a").

[Ea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I very much enjoyed it. Definitely not "pulp fiction".

I agree. Just found the writing style lacking, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by beppe

It appears that there are problems with the translation of the trilogy. I read in Italian, translated by a renown professional, very much appreciated for the quality of her work. I read interviews of the translator that explained how much she had to work for Stieg Larsson's books.


...

I found the reading in itself very pleasant. The first hundreds (sic) of pages seem glued together, but after a slow start, the pace is lively and the tensions are built and released masterly, around the extremely captivating characters (see Ea's comment above). The second book is packed with events, and the third one, where the drama and mysteries are finally unraveled is highly satisfactory.

...

OK. technology. No way that in Sweden they have that large bandwidth. Or on Mars. So in a way the trilogy could be considered SF.

The Danish translation was so-so I thought. Caught a few "swedish-isms" for example.

I wasn't so enamoured by the character of the journalist (what's his name?) as he's quite clearly a wish-fulfilment fantasy of the author's. It was hard to forget. Dialogue felt stilted and unnatural, and at times he goes into lecture mode.

AFAIK, the Swedes are actually doing quite well with implementing broadband.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Ea

AFAIK, the Swedes are actually doing quite well with implementing broadband.

I do not remember anything in the book requiring that much bandwidth. The mirroring was done incrementally from what I remember. The standard bandwidth nowadays (and I think also when the books was written) is 10Mibt/s or 100 Mbit/s.

[beppe]

Originally Posted by tompe

I do not remember anything in the book requiring that much bandwidth. The mirroring was done incrementally from what I remember. The standard bandwidth nowadays (and I think also when the books was written) is 10Mibt/s or 100 Mbit/s.

I'll get to you when i find the couple of spots that made me smile. Of course being not that many, there is less people to share with

If I remember it was her real time exchanges with her hacker friends with the help of a mobile.

[beppe]

Originally Posted by Ea

I wasn't so enamoured by the character of the journalist (what's his name?) as he's quite clearly a wish-fulfilment fantasy of the author's. It was hard to forget. Dialogue felt stilted and unnatural, and at times he goes into lecture mode.

Mikael Blomkvist. Actually in the second and third book he gets downsized few times by macha baby Salander, and by his other partner, the colleague, so the overall picture is not disagreeable. In the third book he behaves really nice, and very decently. Certainly these Swedish guys ...

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Some American readers have criticized the English translation, seemingly on the grounds that it is a British English translation, and hence uses words and expressions that they are unfamiliar with. As a British reader, though, I find the translation to be very good indeed.

I had no problem with the translation at all. Mind you, although I'm a Yank, I did live in England for four years plus have made many trips there. Most recently was last month and I did learn something new: The GB on the backs of lots cars there stands for Great Britain. I always thought it stood for Gor Blimey. LOL

[Papi]

Originally Posted by hidari

So is this another BEST SELLER Because everyone says it is a best seller and must be read...or is this actually something worth reading? Most Best Sellers fit well into the PULP FICTION category...so... just wondering if this is the same inane.....?

I found it (at least the first book) to be very average (so no, not everybody loves it or hates it). I wouldn't say I regretted reading it, but I didn't bother reading the rest of the trilogy. Kind of same literature and overhype to me as Da Vinci Code (well I kind of regretted reading this one) : not credible story, simple characters, etc.

[dmacmart]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Some American readers have criticized the English translation, seemingly on the grounds that it is a British English translation, and hence uses words and expressions that they are unfamiliar with. As a British reader, though, I find the translation to be very good indeed.

As a Canadian, whose language is somewhere in between British & American, I think that there were some unfamiliar words & phrasing. Example: “Norsjö was a small town with one main street, appropriately enough called Storgatan…” - how is this appropriate? had to Google to find Storgatan means "Main Street".

finding this link http://thelanguagelady.blogspot.com/ It indicates that the English was put to press before the translator was finished, a work in progress so to speak. I'm 100 pages into book 2, and it seems to suffer less from this problem.

There are still a few jarring phrases (such as "the next-door room" instead of "the room next door") that pop me out of the story and make me think "hmm that wasn't written by an English person". Or is that a British construct?

Other than that, Lisbeth is fascinating, and the story (so far) is great. I did find the first bit of the Tattoo book a little sluggish, but the rest certainly made up for it.

[FlorenceArt]

The French translation was no good, and one of the reasons I didn't finish the book, but I still feel the original writing must have been rather bad...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by dmacmart

As a Canadian, whose language is somewhere in between British & American, I think that there were some unfamiliar words & phrasing. Example: “Norsjö was a small town with one main street, appropriately enough called Storgatan…” - how is this appropriate? had to Google to find Storgatan means "Main Street".

"Storgatan" literally means "big street". "main street" would in Swedish probably be "huvudgata" which literally means "head street".

But very strange to keep this in the English translation.

[HarryT]

I agree; one would have thought that it would have been translated as "Main Street"!

[emalvick]

I have to agree with a lot of people. I actually enjoyed the book from a story point of view, but I did find the writing lacking (or more or less the translation). While they did fail to translate a few items here and there that probably could have helped (English Translation), I also liked those moments for reminding me that this was a Swedish story.

The Dragon Tattoo was a bit slow in the first hundred+ pages, and I think the Played with Fire book felt even slower after an initially quick start. I have just started the 3rd one only because I felt the 2nd book left you hanging.

The 1st book stands alone well, and is definitely better if you are into that movie script type book, like the Da Vinci code, but I am a bit mixed as to the quality of the novel itself. I feel that the 2nd (and what I read of the 3rd) books are better written, but I am disliking the story a bit and finding a lot of things getting a bit far-fetched.

As far as the technology goes, I have read in the past (Wired magazine perhaps) that Scandinavian countries have amongst the highest bandwidth in the world, so I didn't find anything unbelievable from that point of view.

Other things I found educational, from a cultural point of view were the coffee references. It makes sense, but it is a little surprising at first when you hear just how often coffee is consumed in Sweden.

Anway, I don't regret reading the first book, and I am hoping the 3rd book will help me not to regret the last two books of the trilogy. I do enjoy the books more than Dan Brown's books, but that isn't necessarily saying much either.