The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Day 1

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There is something about reading literature in translation. No matter how good the translator is, it just feels different. I'm not sure if it's turn of phrase, sentence structure, or vocabulary, but there's always this initial slog in getting used to the oddity of it. The eye has to grow accustomed to the flow of words; it's like the difference between swimming in an ocean versas swimming in a river. Once the adjustment happens, it's often smooth sailing - or smoother anyway.

The prologue and first chapter were rough going due to the adjustment in language. Larsson drops straight into the heads of his characters and I found myself rereading whole pages to try to hold onto the thread. It was worth the effort. By chapter two, I had the narrative voice down and it became immersive. A true omniscient narrator is pretty rare, but I think that is what I have here. The narrative is told mostly within the close perspective of certain characters but every so often the voice pulls back to editorialize on events or on the characters.  It is an interesting effect.

So far I have two main characters: a disgraced reporter named Mikael Blomkvist and a social outcast turned P.I. named Lisbeth Salander. They have very different personalities and I have to wonder how they will interact. So far they are following different narrative lines but it is obvious that they will have to meet soon.