Suspect Sympathy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


People's imaginations never cease to amaze me.  Perhaps "amaze" isn't the exact word.  Terrify? Stun? Disgust? Repel?  I'm sure there are really bad people out there, even without Larsson providing statistics.  But, you know, I don't have to read about what they do.  The book was well-crafted (although the series of photos showing the girl's change of expression was pretty hokey) and kept you interested.  I liked the lead characters - they were fully conceptualized and realistic.  Larsson manipulated the reader beautifully, alternating between plot lines to build dramatic tension that really got my blood pressure up and me to want to read on and on and on into the night (but I didn't - I set it down right at a most critical point, the sentence ending in "hell," and let Malcolm Gladwell lull me to sleep reading from one of his books). 

But I don't think I'll be reading another one of these. 

The nice thing about mysteries, in general, is that there is a rent in the universe and someone repairs it, somehow, by the end.  All is restored to normal.  It's a safe thrill.  I just don't want to get my thrills from stories about the abuse/torture of women, children, or pets - especially when it gets graphic (I guess I must think abusing men is fair).  This is where I start worrying about people's imaginations. 
I just think people enjoy writing or reading about abuse too much.  Even when they add retribution - especially retribution in kind.  I can't blame those long, dark, Swedish winter nights for Larsson's imagination when the real life tortures of the "Disappeared" in Argentina are thrown in the balance.  What does it take to imagine torture or abuse and then write about it?  I don't have an answer.  I guess I just don't have the imagination.



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