The second book in the trilogy continues where the first left off with Salander, of course, as the focus while Blomkvist has a
less central role. Opening with her holidaying in the Caribbean, Salander returns to Stockholm to become the prime suspect in three murders. The book becomes the story of the police investigation which is helped by her previous employer who has
a separate motive in trying to find out if it is Salander who is guilty with Blomkvist running his own search. The book is nearly 600 pages long and this does show. The pre-Stockholm sequence is superfluous to this book and the mechanics of
Salander's setting up home secretly and then the minutiae of the police investigation create a slowly paced feel. For example, Salander has access to, among others, Blomkvist's computer but will not meet him so he works out that he can send
her messages by creating a file on the computer which she will read; this she does in the chapters focussing on Blmokvist's
efforts but this is repeated verbatim when the focus changes to her. The villains of the piece are truly scary and the action
well done once it occurs with the pace and vigour of the closing chapters much in contrast to what has gone before. Despite
the imbalance in the book, it kept me engrossed and I have decided to read the final book very shortly.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I'm getting fed up with this; this is my third go to leave my thoughts!
I agree that this was not a vintage festival, but it could be our criteria for choosing the films that we do. Although I try to keep an open mind, a film's weaknesses often overcome its strengths in one's short term reaction. However, over time, some movies linger more positively in memory. I can not imagine wanting to view End of Animal, Kaboom, or Biutiful (despite Bardem's great turn) again. Nor would I want to see Mammuth which had a weirder scene than anything in Sunny Side Up -- namely the mutual masturbation between Depardieu and his elderly cousin.
I think that I may find occasions in the future to re-view 13 Assassins, Book of Masters, Sunny Side Up (a number of good things within its general clunkiness), and of course the Svankmajer.
Post a Comment