La Nouvelle Observatrice - Sports Section

As noted, I'm not a huge sports fan, nor sports-knowledgeable.  I do enjoy watching the finals of most any sport.  I tend to root for the underdog (but not always) or my favorite city/country regardless of individual team/athlete skill, record, or other more pertinent facts.   For someone who really just doesn't much care, I can still get totally caught up in a nail biter.

I missed the men's final of the French Open (I love the way Roland Garros just rolls off the tongue).  But in an effort to demonstrate just how superficial I can be, here's what I liked about the match and it's winner, Rafael Nadal.  He's totally cute with that shaggy long hair.  He's hot and  sweaty.  He's Spanish (makes me think of my other favorite Spanish things - Madrid, tapas, and wine).  He played Robin Solderling from Sweden  -  another favorite place (makes me think of a great Midsommer holiday and enviable social policy). 

Not sure how I missed this watching this one.  There's always Wimbledon...coming up!

The Afterlife of Stieg Larsson

Wow! The drama and intrigue of the late Stieg Larsson's family and long-term lover are nearly as compelling as his novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I blogged about here.

That novel, the first installment of the Millennium trilogy crime thriller series, was wildly successful. All three books are soaring best sellers, translated into multiple languages, and adapted into mainstream films.  All of that translates to -  as we say here in the 'hood - "BANK!"  But Larsson, who died at the age of 50 of a massive heart attack before the first book was even published, has never seen a single cent...er...a single Swedish kroner.  Without a will, that money (which just keeps pouring in) goes to his estate, his brother and father. His long-term lover and partner of 30+ years, Eva Gabrielsson,  is not recognized under Swedish law.  With no children together, and having never gotten married to Larsson, she is Nobody.  Interesting, that in socially liberal Sweden, there is no such thing as common-law marriage - only the real deal (gay or straight) traditional "Married"  with a capital "M."

And the bitterness, allegations, insinuations, and accusations are flying...Money! Who gets all the dough?  What is she entitled to? His brother and father were legally awarded half the apartment that Larsson and Gabrielsson shared, then demanded an arrangement of Gabrielsson to buy them out, and later caved to social and moral pressure to just give her the Larsson half outright.  Mystery!  What were Larsson's intentions?  And now even, who wrote the books? She has alluded that she had a hand in creating them.   Family strife! She says Larsson was estranged from his brother and father. Psycho girlfriends!  Brother and father say, of course, that Gabbrielsson is "mentally unstable."  (Grrrr...don't get me started on that one!)  Revenge!  Despite it all, she still holds a great hand of cards.  Why?  Because Gabrielsson just happens to have Larsson's laptop with the nearly complete manuscript, outline, and notes of a 4th novel .  That's right, folks, more "BANK!"

So, there's quite a drama behind the crime thriller trilogy.  The subtext, the sub-plot, the intrigue make for a whole other bestseller.  I'm fascinated! - and staying tuned for the next installment of Reality Lit.

Books 2010: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Wow.  This book got me.  Published under the crime novel genre - not at all my usual - I was absolutely spellbound, one night even reading it from 3am to 6am (ok, coupled with jetlag, but still...).

The gripping tale takes place in Sweden, and follows a somewhat disgraced, but totally righteous, journalist (and his lovers); a disturbed young punk hacker (and her abusers); and a wealthy aging industrialist (and his multi-generational back-stabbing family, each member with shares in the family empire).  The main story is solving a 40-year old mystery, the disappearance and suspected murder of a young teenage girl.  However, there are seemingly a bizillion sub-plots - and their twists and turns, and unexpected connections make for a very complex web indeed.

Parental discretion is advised.  The crime novel includes just about every type of crime - rape, murder, serial murder, hate crime, financial crime, and cybercrime - at times so complicated, I could barely follow.  There's some bondage (not all in the name of crime, if you know what I mean).  And the mystery and its investigation involve some highly repellent, hugely graphic depictions of rape, sexual assault, torture, animal torture, and more.   Around page 450, there was a description of a tortured confession that went on so long - 40 pages or more - and was so vividly described, my stomach churned and my head was addled.  The characters in this book are sick, I thought. The author is a sick man for writing this.  I am a sick woman for reading this.  I briefly considered abandoning the book here - just too much for me.

But I continued.  It was also around this point in the nearly 600 page novel, that it lost just a bit of its hold on me.  The sub-plots, as they were wrapping up, were taking yet another turn, perhaps one too many.  And there were just so many sub-plots to wrap up - I thought the book still could have been great with  2 or 3 fewer plots!  A few seemed to hasten to finish, in order to wrap up without hitting the 800-page mark.  Some of the delicious pacing got compromised to this end.

One thing I definitely loved about the book was it's Swedish setting.  (I'm so predictable).  You could really feel the summer white nights and the long, dark winter nights with their bone-chilling cold.  Stockholm's modern cosmopolitan life was juxtaposed against the spare, simplicity of northern Sweden's secondary towns with their hearth-warmed cottages.  The endless pots of very strong coffee could be smelled brewing throughout.  And the lovers, and the other lovers, and the lovers of one's lover, and the lovers in their 20's and their 50's (sometimes even lovers of each other).  Ahhhhh...Sweden....

All in all, a satisfying read - 3.75 stars of 4, just slightly marked down because of pacing and (over) complexity.  But still, completely enticing and engrossing, and never, ever cheap.