Saturday June 27 2009

Every so often, I have to stop reading books that are considered to be lofty or overtly intellectual. Some, I have to read for work and others, I just want to read for no particular reason. The book world appears to be rife with snobbery and intellectual posturing (in fact, the same can be said of the 'arts' broadly). If I talk about a particular book on the radio or write about it in this column, I might be accused of dumbing down or of being too esoteric (why not 'dumbing up'?) depending on the book in question.

Authors of so-called 'chick-lit' are often accused of writing 'light' books. Does this mean that those who read them aren't that bright or that they want an easier literary escape than the guy who is reading D-Day by Anthony Beevor? What about adults who read Harry Potter? Are they juvenile or 'limited' in their reading habits or are they just grown-up fans of an ostensibly younger book series?

Around 15 years ago, I read The Firm by John Grisham and got a great kick out of it. I tried reading some more of his but felt that they were pretty much all the same so I stopped. I loved The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon by Thomas Harris but Hannibal was dreadful. More recently, The Da Vinci Code got me through 10 minutes (although I did enjoy the ridiculous film version of Angels and Demons a few weeks ago).

Last summer, I was interested to read the Bond book, Devil May Care, written by Sebastian Faulks. I loved Birdsong and was curious to see what he would do with the Fleming creation. As it transpired, I found it a disappointing experience that failed to live up to my expectations despite the exotic location in which I was reading it (a friend's wedding on the Amalfi Coast).

I decided to stick to the movies after that, although I am open to suggestions when it comes to a Fleming recommendation (I read recently that one of JFK's favourite books was From Russia With Love?!) Similarly with the Bourne series, I've never read any of them but I love the films so if any of you could recommend a Ludlum title, please get in touch. In total, I've read between five and 10 'international bestseller' thrillers in the last few years so I was ready for a new one.

And so, we decided to choose The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as our book of the month for the Tubridy Show for the month of June. I hadn't read it and was happy to have it as one of my holiday reads when I was off the radio for the first three weeks in June. I was intrigued by the book for a few reasons. Firstly, the author is a Swedish journalist called Stieg Larsson. Larsson wrote a trilogy of which this was the first part. It seems he wrote the three novels and handed them into his publisher at the same time. Shortly after he handed the manuscripts in, he died.

The first book has so far sold 7.5 million copies around the world and there is a phenomenal demand for the next parts (the paperback of part two is out next week and the third part is published in Europe already but not in English, which is driving fans around the twist). Stieg Larsson didn't live to see any of this success and this merely adds to the mystery that surrounds what has become one of the great publishing stories of recent times.

As thrillers go, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a classic page turner of a thriller the like of which I haven't read since Red Dragon or The Firm. The Swedish setting is unconventional but something I've become accustomed to thanks to the Wallander series (the television version rather than the books, which I haven't read). The storyline is suitably ridiculous and yet bizarrely relevant. A famous business family all living in a small part of rural Sweden are hiding dark secrets that are discovered by a wronged journalist and a tattooed waif with attitude.

Along the way we have corrupt international bankers and industrialists who are busy making a fortune at the expense of the Swedish economy (wouldn't happen here, etc), there is plenty of sex (wouldn't happen here, etc) and there is a cellar where awful things happen.

Naturally, the film has been made and I found myself casting the movie as each new character was presented in the book. No doubt, the other two films will be produced such is the demand for gripping books being swiftly transferred to the big screen. Unfortunately for fans of the Millennium Trilogy (as they are formally known), barring an intervention by Sebastian Faulks, there will be no more books, movies, etc.

Like the Grisham books, these are not intellectually challenging in the strict sense of the word and book snobs (come on, you know who you are) will scoff at such pulp fiction, claiming, sotto voce, that it's beneath them. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed the experience and found it to be perfect holiday reading. Anyone I've spoken to agrees and found that they couldn't put it down.