The Girl Who...

Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is more than just a crime thriller. It is also a serious indictment of government corruption--in particular the kind of government corruption that takes place when an organization, or an organization within an organization, is allowed to act without oversight in the name of some abstract greater good. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and all that. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is about the collateral damage that is the inevitable result of this corruption.

Given our recent political history and our current administration's seeming refusal to hold its predecessor accountable for its illegal acts, we would do well to take home the lesson of the novel, which is that the best defense against such abuses of power is a strong and respected free press. Unfortunately, we're lacking in that department. In the novel Mikael Blomkvist is able to help Lisbeth Salander largely because he is an editor of a respected journal of culture and politics. I am hard pressed to think of a comparable publication in our society that could have similar import. It's kind of as if the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg published a lead article breaking new ground on the secret torture memos and wasn't treated as a member of the lunatic (left) fringe.

In some ways the book is groundbreaking--Lisbeth Salander hacking away at her prosecutors' computers from her locked hospital room and unearthing dirt on everyone involved is a revelation in crime-solving. One no longer needs to be a gloomy detective with a gun, kicking down doors and arresting suspects. A skinny girl with a smart phone will do just fine, thanks. On the other hand, the book also depends on the very old fashioned antics of the rebellious reporter, Mikael Blomkvist, who orchestrates Lisbeth's defense, including her very role in it. And that's where the book is a little weak: first, until Lisbeth becomes involved in her own defense (the first 300 pages or so) the book offers little of what the reader is coming for, and second, it defies plausibility that Blomkvist would be able to expose both the underlying political conspiracy and the particular wrongs done to Lisbeth (and write a book about both, and avoid being killed) in what little time he has.

It's an interesting book and it wraps up the trilogy nicely (maybe too nicely) and it speaks wonders of Larsson's faith in the press, more power to him. I only wish I were as confident in ours.