The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Search for the killer in a serial murder situation. Countless books and films have done the honours before 'The Girl...', but this book has certain pluses going for it.

One, the setting is corporate (and journalistic) battles. One can identify with those shenanigans, as they are universal. Second, the locale is Sweden, an exotic land to most of us. Even within Sweden, the isolated village-island makes it even more interesting, with a cast of characters who are fairly weird. Most belong to the Vanger family, one of the corporates involved. The hero is an outsider hired to solve a disappearance from among the family, and how he does it is the story.

Then of course, the heroine. This is a singular (Holmesian terminology, but it fits in this case) character, well-developed by the author. And I think finally she makes it all different from the rest of the books in the genre. Rightfully, the title is based on her character. In a way, she is the hero too, or as much of one as the male lead, a journalist who is set up by a corporate rival whose shady secrets he tries to unravel.

Found it a good read, and might end up watching the film one day.

Jai Scandinavistan

There is a new book on the bookshelves. It's called 'Once Upon a Time in Scandinavistan', and it's a a rather gory whodunit with bodies being barbecued in a tandoor and so on. But what is novel about the novel is it is a takeoff on all things Indian- and a few things Swedish/Scandinavian.

Set in Gothenberg, now renamed Gautampuri, it has a Sweden that functions like India, because it is an Indian colony, with chai shops, idli joints, Dr. Ambedkar University, and the like- the Red Tape too. Wonderful takeoffs on India abound throughout, which actually become a sub-plot. So we have a hero called Philumappa Ishtarjee shooting his potboiler in the middle of the investigations, near the scene of an actual crime. There is also an ashram with a nudist population brainwashed by a guru, and a non-violence class for the cops which teaches them Buddhist meditation as well.

The winters have actually turned warm and snow-less, due to global warming, and sand blows in to the town now and then. Autorickshaws are a common mode of public transport. The streets at night are full of violent teenagers, and streetwalkers and their customers, who include the police chief.

The scenario the Swedish author paints is like a black comedy, rather than a classical whodunit. Very interesting and satirical. The hero is Swedish and the heroine, Kumkum, an Indian, like the gori-mem and native Indian romances in British India- in reverse.