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QC Forum Book Group - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Discussion Thread
Inlander:
I don't know about in Norway, but I have not read a single negative review of Stieg Larsson's books, nor heard a bad word said about it; in fact, all the critics who talk about it seem to praise it to the high heavens. Whereas the Da Vinci Code is pretty much universally regarded as an appallingly written page-turner, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo seems to have genuinely impressed literary critics.
The same thing can be seen in review of books by the likes of George Pelecanos and Ian Rankin: crime fiction seems to be near-universally regarded these days as the torch-bearer of the contemporary novel. I'd go as far as to say that, in literary circles, praising the crime genre is the cool thing to do. Now I don't read a lot of crime fiction - almost none, in fact - so I can't say how justified this attitude is, but I do think it's notable, and Stieg Larsson is the latest demonstration of it.
Which begs the question: has critical writing really slipped that far? Or are critics just so blinkered by the "crime is the new Literature" thing that they don't even notice the glaring deficiencies in Larsson's writing? Or perhaps a crime writer isn't held to the same standard, and all they have to do is put in a few statistics about violence against women (for instance) to get themselves compared to the great social commentary novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries, whereas the exact same thing would be decried as laziness in a non-genre work.
JD:
--- Quote from: Inlander on 29 Apr 2010, 06:31 ---I don't know about in Norway, but I have not read a single negative review of Stieg Larsson's books, nor heard a bad word said about it; in fact, all the critics who talk about it seem to praise it to the high heavens. Whereas the Da Vinci Code is pretty much universally regarded as an appallingly written page-turner, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo seems to have genuinely impressed literary critics.
--- End quote ---
Maybe it's because the author is dead.
Inlander:
I definitely think that if he hadn't died the book would at least have been better edited. Or edited at all.
Lines:
The only explanation I can come up with that Code was more negatively criticized than Girl, other than Larsson is dead, is that Code was full of ideas that some people thought were true and most thought was bullshit. Girl has some ideas in it that may, sadly, actually happen in real life. Both were on the same level when it came to prose, though mostly because of the lack of editing Larsson's I guess, but it wasn't complete religious nonsense. That's the only other reason I can come up with for one getting being negatively criticized and the other being praised. Really I think they're on the same level. I don't think a dead author cares if you don't like his book.
But I agree with Jens. This was a page turner and that's really about it, so I'm ready for the next book.
TheFuriousWombat:
--- Quote from: Jeans on 28 Apr 2010, 23:37 ---Yeah, I could have talked more if we had chosen an interesting book. This is like performing literary criticism on a Ken Follett book
--- End quote ---
Hey man, The Pillars of the Earth rocks! I'd say it's all meritorious and shit.
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