Second in the Millennium Trilogy, the astonishing set of works from Stieg Larsson. Like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, this fully justifies the hype as it continues the adventures of crusading journalist Blomqvist and the anti-heroine Lisbeth Salander. Blomqvist is working on an exposé of the sex trafficking industry in Sweden, dragged deeper in after the murder of the journalists who began the investigation. Salander is implicated in those murders and goes on the run.
Larsson again weaves the pain of Lisbeth Salander around the slightly calmer journalistic happenings and we learn more about the horrendous mistreatment of Salander through the years. Abused as a child at home, abused in institutions, she has developed coping mechanisms and skills that confuse the authorities but serve to shield her and save her life. Now she cares little for society and less for the fate of those who are directly trying to harm her. The police hunt for her, initially mistaken and ultimately corrupt, is almost another plotline as she continues on her way, deciding her own directions whenever able.
The writing is gripping, the pace is relentless, the characters are finely limned. There's a thriller here, a detective novel, a walk through the Swedish justice system and a morality tale. Though very much a Swedish novel this will appeal to anyone who likes their books intelligent and demanding. One caveat: you are much better reading this after The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
See The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo -- The Book and The Movies for a discussion of books and both Swedish and US movies.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
In Praise Of UK Public Libraries
Settle down children, pop in a boiled sweet and Granddad will tell you a tale of yesteryear, of a time when Britain ruled the waves and large parts of the Midlands were marked on maps as "here be dragons". This is a time when local authorities spent money on local people rather than on massively-overpaid chief executives, when leisure facilities received more funding than the council employee who ran them, a time when the only thing that stopped a young whippersnapper accessing free books was a touch of scurvy and the fact that it was his brother's day for the shoes ...
In 1849 William Ewart introduced a Public Libraries Bill to the Commons. Despite opposition from Conservatives, who thought that it would mean the upper and middle classes paying to educate the poor (and in the process making the oiks uppity and difficult to control) the bill eventually became law, though it was almost emasculated by the alterations forced on it. Most noticeable was the halfpenny rate restriction on funding (and that money couldn't be used to buy books!). If it hadn't been for several wealthy philanthropists, most notably Andrew Carnegie, putting up money for buildings and books, the new library movement could have been stillborn. PS Carnegie's worth a read-up himself, the closest thing to a good capitalist that the 19th century produced.
Cutting the history lesson short, matters improved and public funding increased so that soon major towns and cities all had public lending libraries. Most were staffed by pallid men in nylon shirts (yes, even in 1863), scowling women of a certain age in cardigans and horn-rimmed specs and plump young women who wanted to be somewhere else. The other thing that these libraries had in common was books. Hundreds and thousands of the buggers. Big books, little books, books for kids and books for grown-ups. Some even had books for odd people but you had to ask for those, I'm told, and the horn-rimmed glasses stopped me ever trying that.
As I mentioned in my first blog, I was a voracious reader as a child. Imagine then stepping into one of these cavernous buildings, going through the sacred process of registering and getting my first Library Card (and yes, it should be be capitalised). Guided to the children's section, let loose on a selection of books that would amaze and horrify today's punters. Biggles and Blyton, Treasure Island and Tom Sawyer, people marooned on desert islands, whether with treasure or coral and boys only or with the family and geology unspecified, a short ride on the L3 bus took me to worlds hitherto unimagined.
Four books only, impossible! I didn't care if they were too big and too heavy -- Mum could carry them :) Asking a small child to choose between all those possibilities was like setting me loose amongst Woolies Pick 'n' Mix but making me wear mittens. Yet there was another, untold, benefit of these temples to the written word. Even at a very tender age I was learning to evaluate and make a choice, learning to use my own judgement -- with the hideous penalty of having garbage to read for a week or two if I got it wrong.
As I grew older, libraries developed. LPs became available in the more avant garde, then CDs and videos. Reference libraries began and provided valuable sources for homework and, note this all you local government hobgoblins, places for children to do homework away from all distractions. Eventually computers arrived and I'm proud to say I had a small part in helping popularise that development in libraries on Merseyside. In the early days of the internet we saw anyone from grannies to goth kids tentatively approaching and soon surfing merrily. People who'd come in for books found a new facility, people who'd come in for the new facility often found books. Win, win, win.
Of course, that last triumph was funded by Europe, the ERDF. Already the powers that be were dipping into the pot. Buy less copies of each book. Buy less books and then only the popular ones. No adventure, nothing even vaguely unusual. Forty kids after one reference work. Tough. What else can we cut? Staffing and running costs. Shorter opening hours, less evenings, no Saturdays. Deskill the staff -- we don't need trained librarians to stamp books.
And as the service gets worse, so the number of users drops and the range decreases. Working people don't go to the library? No, because our working hours correspond exactly with opening hours. Quality of books? Dick Francis and Barbara Bloody Cartland - yes, if you limit availability to pensioners and don't offer much of a choice anyway.
Where were we? Ah yes. Settled comfortably, Worthers in gob. "Once upon a time there were big buildings called Libraries ..."
What can we do? Patronise your local library -- get up on a Saturday morning! Complain about cuts to MPs and councillors. Question their support for library services. Make it an election issue. Complain to local media. If we just moan quietly to ourselves then the easy targets stay easy.
Mark Haddon: "Libraries are the NHS for the mind, one of the very few places where we are all equal, a place where we can all read and learn and get involved in our community institutions of which we should be hugely proud, and they are being destroyed to save a banker’s bonus."
Facebook campaign by The Bookseller
An excellent blog on the finances of public libraries
Ian Anstice, who is a librarian, blogs on public libraries. Includes call to action and suggestions for responses.
Guardian piece on Labour government review of public libraries (March 2010)
Excellent piece by Terence Blacker on Tory depredations. Newer piece (aug 2012) in in the Independent but don't read the comments - depressing.
Funny stunt, but a tinge of sadness: To prevent a threatened closure, Library gets rid of all of its books
Children's books referred to above: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Treasure Island
The Coral Island
The Swiss Family Robinson
In 1849 William Ewart introduced a Public Libraries Bill to the Commons. Despite opposition from Conservatives, who thought that it would mean the upper and middle classes paying to educate the poor (and in the process making the oiks uppity and difficult to control) the bill eventually became law, though it was almost emasculated by the alterations forced on it. Most noticeable was the halfpenny rate restriction on funding (and that money couldn't be used to buy books!). If it hadn't been for several wealthy philanthropists, most notably Andrew Carnegie, putting up money for buildings and books, the new library movement could have been stillborn. PS Carnegie's worth a read-up himself, the closest thing to a good capitalist that the 19th century produced.
 |
| Andrew Carnegie with a library copy of Valley Of The Dolls |
Cutting the history lesson short, matters improved and public funding increased so that soon major towns and cities all had public lending libraries. Most were staffed by pallid men in nylon shirts (yes, even in 1863), scowling women of a certain age in cardigans and horn-rimmed specs and plump young women who wanted to be somewhere else. The other thing that these libraries had in common was books. Hundreds and thousands of the buggers. Big books, little books, books for kids and books for grown-ups. Some even had books for odd people but you had to ask for those, I'm told, and the horn-rimmed glasses stopped me ever trying that.
As I mentioned in my first blog, I was a voracious reader as a child. Imagine then stepping into one of these cavernous buildings, going through the sacred process of registering and getting my first Library Card (and yes, it should be be capitalised). Guided to the children's section, let loose on a selection of books that would amaze and horrify today's punters. Biggles and Blyton, Treasure Island and Tom Sawyer, people marooned on desert islands, whether with treasure or coral and boys only or with the family and geology unspecified, a short ride on the L3 bus took me to worlds hitherto unimagined.
Four books only, impossible! I didn't care if they were too big and too heavy -- Mum could carry them :) Asking a small child to choose between all those possibilities was like setting me loose amongst Woolies Pick 'n' Mix but making me wear mittens. Yet there was another, untold, benefit of these temples to the written word. Even at a very tender age I was learning to evaluate and make a choice, learning to use my own judgement -- with the hideous penalty of having garbage to read for a week or two if I got it wrong.
As I grew older, libraries developed. LPs became available in the more avant garde, then CDs and videos. Reference libraries began and provided valuable sources for homework and, note this all you local government hobgoblins, places for children to do homework away from all distractions. Eventually computers arrived and I'm proud to say I had a small part in helping popularise that development in libraries on Merseyside. In the early days of the internet we saw anyone from grannies to goth kids tentatively approaching and soon surfing merrily. People who'd come in for books found a new facility, people who'd come in for the new facility often found books. Win, win, win.
Of course, that last triumph was funded by Europe, the ERDF. Already the powers that be were dipping into the pot. Buy less copies of each book. Buy less books and then only the popular ones. No adventure, nothing even vaguely unusual. Forty kids after one reference work. Tough. What else can we cut? Staffing and running costs. Shorter opening hours, less evenings, no Saturdays. Deskill the staff -- we don't need trained librarians to stamp books.
And as the service gets worse, so the number of users drops and the range decreases. Working people don't go to the library? No, because our working hours correspond exactly with opening hours. Quality of books? Dick Francis and Barbara Bloody Cartland - yes, if you limit availability to pensioners and don't offer much of a choice anyway.
Where were we? Ah yes. Settled comfortably, Worthers in gob. "Once upon a time there were big buildings called Libraries ..."
What can we do? Patronise your local library -- get up on a Saturday morning! Complain about cuts to MPs and councillors. Question their support for library services. Make it an election issue. Complain to local media. If we just moan quietly to ourselves then the easy targets stay easy.
Mark Haddon: "Libraries are the NHS for the mind, one of the very few places where we are all equal, a place where we can all read and learn and get involved in our community institutions of which we should be hugely proud, and they are being destroyed to save a banker’s bonus."
Facebook campaign by The Bookseller
An excellent blog on the finances of public libraries
Ian Anstice, who is a librarian, blogs on public libraries. Includes call to action and suggestions for responses.
Guardian piece on Labour government review of public libraries (March 2010)
Excellent piece by Terence Blacker on Tory depredations. Newer piece (aug 2012) in in the Independent but don't read the comments - depressing.
Funny stunt, but a tinge of sadness: To prevent a threatened closure, Library gets rid of all of its books
 |
| Phil Bradley's Tweets Tag Cloud |
Treasure Island The Coral Island The Swiss Family Robinson
Monday, 29 November 2010
Stieg Larsson: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
First volume in the world-wide success that is Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. This combines a whodunit for a decades-old murder, a journalistic exposition of financial shenanigans, an array of personal relationships, a social commentary and more. Most importantly, it introduces the two main characters: financial journalist Carl Mikael Blomqvist and one of the most unusual (and unwanting) heroines of crime fiction for decades: Lisbeth Salander.
Salander is the girl with the dragon tattoo: she is the girl mistreated for years by the asylums and social services of Sweden, she is the hacker and fighter who goes unnoticed by all bar a few. Dismissed as stupid, near-autistic, a nonentity by those in authority, abused by professionals, her gifts and her courage drag her up to a crucial role in this book.
Okay then, I'm not sure if those two paragraphs will have scared you off or left you curious. Hopefully the latter and you're reading this third paragraph! Larsson's novel is a triumph of a debut: gripping, dark, incident-packed and written in a style all of his own. Slow in starting however, read only the first few pages and you will misjudge the book. Read a few chapters and you'll be hooked. You'll probably also be shocked and outraged at some of the content but that shouldn't put you off -- this is a book that plays you like a fish on a line. Order the next one in the trilogy before you finish this one -- you'll be angry with yourself if you have to wait for more.
Daftest comment from a reviewer (though overall he gave a favourable review): "It's hard to find fault with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. One must struggle with bewildering Swedish names" Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post.
Well yes, one might expect a few of those in a book set in Sweden, written by a Swede!
See The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo -- The Book and The Movies for a discussion of books and both Swedish and US movies.
Salander is the girl with the dragon tattoo: she is the girl mistreated for years by the asylums and social services of Sweden, she is the hacker and fighter who goes unnoticed by all bar a few. Dismissed as stupid, near-autistic, a nonentity by those in authority, abused by professionals, her gifts and her courage drag her up to a crucial role in this book.
Okay then, I'm not sure if those two paragraphs will have scared you off or left you curious. Hopefully the latter and you're reading this third paragraph! Larsson's novel is a triumph of a debut: gripping, dark, incident-packed and written in a style all of his own. Slow in starting however, read only the first few pages and you will misjudge the book. Read a few chapters and you'll be hooked. You'll probably also be shocked and outraged at some of the content but that shouldn't put you off -- this is a book that plays you like a fish on a line. Order the next one in the trilogy before you finish this one -- you'll be angry with yourself if you have to wait for more.
Daftest comment from a reviewer (though overall he gave a favourable review): "It's hard to find fault with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. One must struggle with bewildering Swedish names" Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post.
Well yes, one might expect a few of those in a book set in Sweden, written by a Swede!
See The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo -- The Book and The Movies for a discussion of books and both Swedish and US movies.
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