On my husband’s birthday this year, I bought him something to tuck into his kayak for a deserted beach: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. He’s a couple chapters in and so far, he’s not sure what all the fuss is about. But then, we’re not really a blockbuster-reading family. Still, Globe and Mail calls this book and its sisters—The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest—“this summer’s beach and cottage drug of choice,” and as a self-respecting book-addict I cannot resist. I will read The Girl when the book is free.
And once I’ve read the it, because of my book-to-film interests, I’ll probably rent the movie. Maybe I’ll watch the Hollywood remake of the Swedish one, too, when it’s out—apparently Daniel Craig (a.k.a. James Bond) will play the books’ hero, Blomkvist, which adds a sexy factor though I have to say I like the idea that in the book, Blomkvist is just a middle-aged, frumpy hack. Or so I hear.
But the really great story, the one that I’ve been bringing up at dinner parties and over coffee with friends, does not yet exist on page or screen—though no doubt some big publisher/studio is already working on it.
It’s a tragedy: Larsson died before any of the Millennium books were published. Not only did he suffer a fatal heart attack before he could take his bows, we have to wonder if his $30 million-and-climbing estate went where he would have wanted. Because he died intestate, his father and brother inherited his wealth and his long-time common-law wife, Eva Gabrielsson, got nothing.
But there are rumors she has a big chunk of a fourth book on a laptop. Further gossip suggests Gabrielsson wrote part (or even all) of the trilogy. Oh, it just gets better and better.
As the Globe article points out, reader fascination with the dead author is a huge part of the Millennium publishing phenomenon.
Which makes me wonder: Would the books be anywhere near this big if Larsson was still alive? I like to think so. I need to think so. Because, um, if the author has to die as part of his/her marketing campaign, is the writing life really worth it?
Meanwhile, I eagerly await the story of Stieg Larsson.
Further reading: The Globe on Larsson
{ 2 trackbacks }