Just checking in to see if anyone else has had a chance to start reading the book. I'm about 200 pages into it, but I'm going to hold off on comments until there are others on this journey as well.
Hope to hear from you soon.
-John
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ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteI have finished the book and am ready (and able) to comment.
This book was a bit slow to get going, but this is not uncommon in books with multiple viewpoints. I was amazed by the strength and complexity of the characters. There were several points at which I stayed up hours later than I should have because I needed to find out what happened to a certain character. I did guess a few things, but that did not detract from my enjoyment of the book because the author convinced me at several points that I was wrong! The best example of this is that I was correct in my guess of who had been sending the flowers, but I had given up and even forgotten about that theory by the time that it was revealed I was right.
I think this was a good first choice for a translation based book club. Although I do not have any professional interest in Sweden or the Swedish language, I enjoyed the feeling of being completely immersed in another culture. I have only two points at which I would question some of the translator's choices. The first was a place name of (going from memory) Tjahiji or somesuch which I assume from context was supposed to be Tahiti. I think this should have been translated into English as the other non-Swedish placenames were. I would also question the translator's use of the word "résumé" for summary. I would have used either "summary" or even "precis." My guess is that the word résumé might have actually been used in the original and the translator figured, hey, this word is used in English so I can leave it as-is. That, or the meaning is valid in U.K. English.
Enough from me though, what did everyone else think?
I am half-way in the book, and I find myself thinking about the characters all the time. I guess I am trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together in my head.
ReplyDeleteI am going on a cruise in a couple of weeks and have told my husband to watch out because I am taking another man with me... Michael Blomkvist!
I was also unsure what I thought of the book at first, but once I got past the first two or three chapters, I got more into it. I now find myself thinking about the characters randomly throughout the day.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the book is a good choice for a translation-oriented crowd. I enjoy feeling immersed in Swedish culture and I find myself critiquing word choices as well. Even though I don't know Swedish, I have enjoyed learning a couple of words such as "Herr" (meaning "mister", I'm assuming) and "Fröken" (Miss/Ms.) I gather from street names that the endings "splan" and "gatan" mean some classification of street like road, avenue, etc. (just a guess).